Company Policies

Sustainability Policy

Adams & Butler designs itineraries for our clients that others simply cannot, whether around a theme, a private experience or meeting people who are not normally accessible to the public such as local heroes, farmers, sole traders, tribesmen, sports people, politicians, the aristocracy, authors and specialists in their field.  We do stuff that is unique and not the usual, taking footfall away from over-visited sites to lesser-known gems, enabling smaller local communities and businesses to survive and thrive.  In Ireland alone, we have over 500 one-man and one-woman micro companies as suppliers.  By doing business with these micro-entrepreneurs, they can continue to live in their rural communities, their children can attend schools there, and the schools can stay open.  We also always use independent driver guides and guides based locally as much as possible.

For example – We were delighted to host the Choctaw Nation when they consecrated the famine monument in Midleton.  As part of their itinerary we arranged for them to meet and break bread with the local traveller (Irish native gypsy romany) community at Pavee Point.

Our access to local experts worldwide, knowledge and our commitment to supporting local, ensures an authentic culture, travel and people experience where clients not only see and do, but also feel and engage.  Our clients engaging with real people is paramount for us.

Our mission is to offer a seamless travel experience to our clients based on our values of integrity, trust, creativity and value for money.  Underpinning this, is a commitment to safeguarding our planet for future generations.

Whether it is sharing a ride on the back of a tractor to a traditional oyster farm, climbing to the top of Slieve League, knitting with the local women in the Scottish isle of Harris, or spending the night with a nomadic tribe in Africa, we believe that Adams & Butler opens up a realm of interesting dispersed cultural and natural heritage options for our clients.  A lot of what we do is unique and it is our particular patronage and support which allows many of these micro-endeavors and thus communities to survive and flourish.

Our greatest joy is that our partners are now as enthusiastic as we are, in creating novel and appealing opportunities for our clients to share the joys of our culture and heritage, so that when they return home they believe that they have truly travelled within Ireland, Britain and Africa and not just visited.  Perhaps the best compliment we were paid by a client was ‘I arrived a tourist and I returned a traveller’.

 

Adams & Butler’s Animal Welfare Policy

 

Adams & Butler is committed to responsible tourism and protecting animals who are impacted by the travel industry. We have developed this animal welfare policy as animal encounters have become increasingly popular as part of people’s holiday experiences. However, some animal related activities, such as elephant washing and rides, photo opportunities with tigers or watching dolphins perform, lead to suffering through cruel treatment and inhumane conditions.

Adams & Butler believes that all animals should be respected for their intrinsic value and that the best way to experience animals whilst on holiday is by seeing them in the wild. When under human care, both domesticated and wild animals, must have ‘a good life’ by enjoying good physical and mental health. The conditions they are provided must favour positive experiences over negative ones within an environment that encourages making choices and enables them to express the widest possible range of natural behaviours.

Adams & Butler only works with suppliers if the animals under their care are provided with the highest possible welfare in line with the Five Domains of Animal Welfare:

1. Nutrition – factors that involve the animal’s access to sufficient, balanced, varied and clean food and water.
2. Environment – factors that enable comfort through temperature, substrate, space, air, odour, noise and predictability.
3. Health – factors that enable good health through absence of disease, injury, impairment and good fitness level.
4. Behaviour – factors that provide varied, novel and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing, retreating and others.
5. Mental State – by presenting positive situations in the previous four functional domains, the mental state of the animal should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort or vitality, while reducing negative states such as fear, frustration, hunger, pain or boredom.

Adams & Butler also recognises that the needs of wild animals in particular, can never be fully met in captivity.  Where wild animals are kept in captivity the facility must not only provide them with best possible welfare conditions, it must also contribute towards a shift away from exploitative practices and be supportive of phasing out keeping wild animals for commercial purposes.

 

Our Guidelines

At Adams & Butler, we do not sell or promote venues and/or activities that offer tourists any of the following experiences:

• Close interaction with wild animals, such as, touching or riding, including but not limited to elephant riding and bathing, swimming with dolphins or walking with lions;
• Watching wild animal performances, including but not limited to dolphin shows, circuses, orangutan boxing;
• Photo opportunities with wild animals, including, but not limited to big cats, sloths, or primates, tiger selfies, dolphin kissing, or selfies with orangutans;
• Watching animals fight or race, or being used in other sport or cultural events that cause animals to suffer or die, including but not limited to bullfighting and running, crocodile wrestling, dog fighting, rodeo, and elephant polo.
• Visiting facilities where captive wild animals are bred and kept for commercial products, including but not limited to crocodile farms, civet coffee farms, bear bile farms, turtle farms;
• Engaging in trophy, or canned hunting.

 

When not in conflict with any of the above guidelines Adams & Butler does offer the following venues and activities were tourist can experience animals:

• Genuine animal sanctuaries, rehabilitation facilities and rescue centres that have the highest possible standards of animal care. E.g. sanctuaries certified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) or elephant venues following World Animal Protection’s Elephant-Friendly venue guidelines. For further guidance on how to recognise a genuine wildlife sanctuary, see World Animal Protection’s checklist.
• Responsible, wildlife watching where a visitor can observe animals in their natural environment from a suitable distance without interrupting their natural behaviours or disturbing their routines. E.g. whale watching experiences certified by the Whale Cetacean Alliance (WCA).
• Zoos and aquariums that are accredited by members of World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and national zoo and aquarium accrediting bodies which do not hold cetaceans in captivity and do not use wild animals for direct contact activities with visitors or have them perform in shows. (Keep in mind that these accreditation/affiliations alone can’t be relied on as a measure of good welfare.)