WORLD ANIMAL DAY - 4th OCTOBER
World Animal Day is an annual event on the 4th of October, celebrating animal rights and welfare across the globe. It’s an important day and has been marked since 1925, with a growing international community striving to end the needless suffering of all animals. By increasing awareness and improving education worldwide, those involved are helping to create a space recognizing wild and farmed animals as sentient beings with thoughts, feelings, and individual personalities. Their welfare and treatment must reflect this.
On October 4, it’s our chance to mobilize into a global force, to take action against animal cruelty, neglect, and unfair treatment and make the world a better place for all animals. The idea for World Animal Day was originated by Heinrich Zimmermann, a writer and publisher of the German magazine Mensch und Hund (Man and Dog). He organized the first World Animal Day celebration on 24 March 1925; over 5,000 people attended the event! Since then, thousands of passionate animal advocates have taken part in a World Animal Day celebration. Today, there are over 90 Ambassadors who help to raise awareness in over 70 countries around the globe. In 2003, the UK-based animal welfare charity, Naturewatch Foundation, launched the World Animal Day website to help the event reach many more people. In 2007, they launched the Ambassador Programme to carry the message far and wide. Every year, participation in World Animal Day grows, with a huge variety of inspiring events being held in an increasing number of countries.
Annually, 80 billion land animals, including chickens, pigs, and cows, are used for farming. It is estimated that 56 billion are trapped in factory farming systems. This vast number does not even include the billions of aquatic animals who are locked in underwater factories, out of sight and very much out of mind. On factory farms animals live in unnatural environments and endure needless and extreme psychological and physical suffering. Wild animals’ habitats are also destroyed to grow crops to feed billions of farmed animals. Factory farming is a global issue and only with a global solution can animals be safeguarded, and their welfare improved.
Our vision is a world where respect for animals and nature sits at the heart of our food system, which is equitable, sustainable, resilient, and capable of feeding the world. We will move millions of people by raising awareness of the catastrophic impacts of factory farming on animals, the environment, and human health. Many consumers, governments, and corporations are already joining this movement, influenced by our campaigns to end the cruelty inherent in factory farming. The transformation of the planet by human activity has led scientists to the brink of declaring a new geological era – the Anthropocene. One suggested marker for this change is the bones of the domestic chicken, now ubiquitous across the globe. The new work reveals that farmed poultry today makes up 70% of all birds on the planet, with just 30% being wild. The picture is even more stark for mammals – 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock, mostly cattle and pigs, 36% are human and just 4% are wild animals.
The destruction of wild habitats for farming, logging, and development has resulted in the start of what many scientists consider the sixth mass extinction of life to occur in the Earth’s four billion-year history. About half the Earth’s animals are thought to have been lost in the last 50 years. However, the comparison of the new estimates with those for the time before humans became farmers and the Industrial Revolution began to reveal the full extent of the huge decline. Just one-sixth of wild mammals, from mice to elephants, remain, surprising even the scientists. Three centuries of whaling have left just a fifth of marine mammals in the ocean.
For everyone who cares about animals, October 4th is a time to celebrate and pay tribute. Acknowledge and be thankful for the many positive influences animals bring to our lives. They help us keep a natural balance, are our life companions, and help us in both work and play. Join the celebration of World Animal Day because, through increased awareness and education, we can improve the standards of animal welfare throughout the world!
