Breaking News English

One of world's top travel companies is ending its tours to many of planet's top animal attractions. STA Travel, which provides holidays, flights and accommodation for 2.5 million students year, has decided it will no longer organize tours to places where animals are not free. This means it will not arrange elephant rides or trips to Tiger Temple in Thailand, as well as tours to SeaWorld in Florida and California. company said it would only go to places it knew were good to animals. Many STA customers complained about tours to some places, so it started to review its animal tours. company spokeswoman said: "We take this seriously and listen carefully to feedback from animal welfare experts."

SeaWorld was disappointed with STA's decision. It wanted STA to see high standards of animal care at both SeaWorlds. It also said activities by animal rights groups may have made STA make this decision. SeaWorld spokesperson said: "There is no higher priority for SeaWorld than safety of our employees and guests and welfare of our animals." STA said it would look at more places that have animals. It said: "We are very much at beginning of this journey. It is really important we do it over time, understand what issues are and work with organisations that really understand those issues." animal rights group PETA says animals such as dolphins all suffer at theme parks.