It’s World Animal Day!
Like we needed an excuse to celebrate the amazing creatures that walk the earth.
But what exactly is World Animal Day about?
Put simply, it’s ‘to raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe.’
Wonderful.
Here are 9 things you might not have known.
1. In Mpwapwa, Tanzania, Donkeys are used for farming and transportation, but they are overworked and mistreated. As well as this, there are thousands of dogs and cats that get killed due to a fear of rabies. This year the Tanzania Animal Welfare Society won the World Animal Day grant which is going to help thousands of animals live a better life. Yay.
2. Melanie C is a celebrity supporter of World Animal Day.
3. You can donate money to World Animal day here
4. The Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt has used World Animal Day as an opportunity to strike up dialogue with Cairo University with the aim of improving animal welfare standards within the Faculty for Veterinary Medicine.
5. Animals Lebanon has encouraged the country’s Ministry of the Environment to get involved with World Animal Day celebrations each year.
6. The Sudanese Animal Care and Environmental Organisation’s greatest achievement is the introduction of animal protection legislation by the Sudanese parliament as a result of increased awareness due to World Animal Day.
7. Amina Abaza, who heads the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt, has used World Animal Day to successfully lobby for the addition of a clause about animal welfare in the new Egyptian Constitution.
8. In Colombia, Paulina Pulgarin of AnimaNaturalis has achieved a Municipal Resolution that requires the Secretariat of the Environment and the Secretariat of Civic Culture to commemorate World Animal Day each year which is raising awareness about the ethical treatment of animals.
9. You can get involved! Get involved in the Global Wave and upload a picture of yourself to social media, hold up a sign that you can print here. Or alternatively just write #worldanimalday on a piece of paper and take a selfie – and try and get your pets involved too!
We all want to make the world a better place for animals, because they are just like us, but cuter.