USA Knock Out Belgium to Go Through to Quarter Finals (of the World Cup for Wildlife)

The USA have sensationally qualified for the quarter finals of the World Cup (for Wildlife) after beating Belgium 3-2 in a tense encounter. While favourites to win, the USA nearly blew it as key player SeaWorld had a nightmare, suffering criticism of its treatment of dolphins.

The World Cup for Wildlife is being run by Care for the Wild’s RIGHT-tourism.org campaign, which focusses on the highlights, and problems, of wildlife tourism in every country in the world. Featuring the same countries as the football World Cup, teams play matches which compare their wildlife tourism experiences.

RIGHT-tourism Campaign Manager Chris Pitt said that while the World Cup for Wildlife was a bit of fun, it also had a serious purpose.

“By the end of the tournament, we’ll have found out which country is the World Champion for Wildlife Tourism, which will be a proud moment for them! But the point of this is to help people understand the pros and cons of each country’s wildlife tourism. And if we end up provoking controversy, so be it!

“Our RIGHT-tourism website lists the wildlife highlights in every country in the world – but also points out the specific issues tourists might come across. Spain for example scores highly for its fabulous Cordillera Cantabri national park…but suffers because of bullfighting. That was a major red card which meant they didn’t make it through the Group stage!

“Animal tourism is a huge business, and impacts on millions of animals. It’s not just the obvious, like animals in zoos, it’s also elephant treks and whale watches, animals used for photos and ivory trinkets. RIGHT-tourism aims to help tourists understand the issues so they can at least make decisions based on the facts. You’d think most people now know that bullfighting is cruel, but elephant trekking?

“The World Cup for Wildlife is a fun way of, hopefully, getting people’s attention so that they take a look at the website when they next go on holiday. If by doing this we help a few people make decisions which will prevent animals being hurt, then the tournament has been a winner!”

To follow the World Cup for Wildlife, go to Right-tourism.tumblr.com/ and search for #Worldcup. To find out more about RIGHT-tourism, go to RIGHT-tourism.org.