4 October 2008 – Where Will You Be?
World Animal Day began in 1931 when ecologists at a conference in Florence nominated 4 October (the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals) as an ideal way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. Since then World Animal Day has evolved to encompass all animals and is celebrated in many countries.
World Animal Day is not linked to any one individual, organisation or campaign, it belongs to everyone!
Since the official World Animal Day website was launched in 2003, the number of events taking place throughout the world to heighten public awareness of animal issues has increased year upon year. This year, with the aid of our newly appointed World Animal Day Ambassadors, they are aiming to ensure this trend continues. Their Ambassadors are all highly motivated individuals who are passionate about animals and their welfare and are committed to encouraging support for World Animal Day in their own countries. Currently they have 29 Ambassadors and they aim to place one in each country, helping them connect literally millions of people and achieve our goal for the animals: to be successful in uniting the animal welfare movement all over the world.
They are asking for your support and for you to get involved to find out how please visit www.worldanimalday.org.uk where you will find plenty of ideas to inspire you, as well as everything you need to help you organise a successful World Animal Day event. “Please take some time to browse the different sections of the website.” they say, “Many of the ideas are easy to organise, however, if you feel like being a bit more adventurous, there are also some that require a little more time and effort – but with a few helpers on board anything is possible!”
There is an event listing facility on the website, which provides free publicity to any group or individual who is doing something special connected with animals on or around 4th October, and we also invite all visitors to the site to sign the pledge board to show they care and to inspire others.
Please help to spread the word and pass on the website address to anyone you know who might be interested in getting involved. You don’t have to be an animal welfare campaigner or even a pet-owner to get involved – you just have to care about animals.
