World Animal Day – Date, History, Themes, and Celebration
Some days are indeed special for the entire world. Because they give the message about our ultimate existence – humanity. And a day like the “world animal day” creates a good reminder of our responsibility towards the animals around us.
Thus, in this article, we’ll explain the importance of observing this day. Further, you’ll know more about the date, history, themes, and how to celebrate it. So, let’s dig deeper.
Table of Contents
What is World Animal Day?
First, we have a basic question. What is world animal day? We can guess it’s a day for the animals, but there’s some motive behind observing a day worldwide. And what’s that?
Several animal welfare organizations, youth and children’s clubs, community groups, businesses, and individuals organize and celebrate this occasion every year; This international day will observe each year until it reaches its motto to create a fair place for all the living creatures in the world.
According to worldanimalday.org.uk, the mission to celebrate this day is “to raise the status of an animal to improve animal standards around the globe.”
With this awareness and education, we get to know the effects of individuals, businesses, and other human behaviors on these speechless organisms.
Through this celebration, all the human beings gather to provide the rights to our innocent animals and force the world to change.
The type of celebration might differ for separate countries, religions, political ideologies, and faith. But the inner feelings, why we’re trying to give them equal love and compassion, has never changed.
World Animal Day Date
For the first time, the authority group had an intention to observe this day on 4th October. But they observe it on the 24th march in the sports palace, Berlin, Germany.
The venue was not available on the intended date for the mass gathering of 5,000 people. Thus, they observe it on a separate date.
From 1929, it has been observing on 4th October.
Furthermore, there is a reason behind choosing 4th October as the date of world animal day. This date is the feast day of Francis of Assisi. He was a patron saint of ecology and well-known for his kindness to animals.
In his respect, 4th October was proposed as the international day for animals. Yet, it was accepted as a universal event in 1931.
With the rising population, it’s important to understand our limitations and their rights. It will help us to make the world a better place to live for everyone.
On this special date, several organizations worldwide honor the movement against cruelty. Further, they teach the children, youth, and elder people to treat animals more compassionately and humanely.
For supplying such education and awareness, people arrange several workshops, seminars, and conferences.
Brief History of International World Animal Day
In 1925, Heinrich Zimmermann – a German writer and publisher of the magazine Mensch und Hund/Man and Dog – first gave the proposal of observing the animal day as a special occasion for animals.
Thus, it was celebrated on 24th March in Berlin for the first time.
In 1929, the authority groups had observed this day on 4th October for the first time. Only a few countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia accepted this day.
In 1931, world animal day was globalized at a world animal protection organization conference, Florence, Italy. This resulted from Heinrich’s hard work and dedication to providing animals with the care and safety they deserve.
In 2002, an organization – The Finnish Association of Animal Protection Associations (SEY), celebrated this date by organizing events and distributing materials among school children.
In the year 2003, the Naturewatch Foundation raised its voice by developing a website and started fundraising to provide ultimate care and protection to all the wild and domestic animals. At that time, it was limited to the United Kingdom only.
In 2007, this organization launched the ambassadors’ program and started getting help from the global ambassadors to continue the movement for animal rights. And now it’s spread to more than 76 countries worldwide.
On 4th October 2019, #worldanimalday was on-trend in 56 countries globally.
In 2020, several countries from all the continents took part in this by organizing events such as taking shelter dogs out for a walk, creating awareness of the endangered species, organizing Facebook campaigns, creating different vaccination camps, providing support to several animal welfare organizations, cage-free campaigns, organizing several contests among kids, and much more.
World Animal Day Themes
Following are the themes of different years:
- World Animal Day 2023 theme will focus on “Great or small, love them all”.
- The theme of 2022 World Animal Day was “shared planet.”
- World Animal Day 2021’s theme was “Forest and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”
- The theme for world animal day 2020 was “man and dog.”
- The theme for world animal day 2019 was “Life below water bodies: for the people and the planet,” with a special focus on life below water.
- The world animal day 2018 theme was “Celebrating human relationship with the bigger and better animal kingdom” to protect animals and create a safe environment for them.
Even if there are different themes in different years, the main mission of world animal day remains the same.
World Animal Day 2021
World Animal Day 2021 was held on October 4th. But it wasn’t just about celebrating animal care and protection for one day; it was about making a lifelong promise to look after them and stop cruelty.
The theme for World Animal Day 2021 was “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet.” Many countries celebrated this day in their own way, by organizing contests, environmental campaigns, events, workshops, and more.
However, this was not just a day to celebrate all at once. Animal rescues, care, and support events happened every day. That was the true meaning of this international day for animals.
Some examples included:
- “I CARE” – a special project by an Italian school that aimed to make kids aware of endangered species.
- 72 animals were spayed by the ambassador of Costa Rica, thanks to the first spaying clinic set up after the pandemic.
- The care and rescue of street dogs were done by the ambassador organization and People for Animals (PFA) at Siliguri, India, during the lock-down.
Lots of other events happened, and will continue to happen. And that makes us feel proud as animal lovers.
World Animal Day 2022
On October 4, 2022, World Animal Day had a special focus called “shared planet.” In fact, this was the theme of the year 2022. The goal was to make Earth a good home for all, but especially for animals as they can’t speak for themselves and sometimes get treated badly because of it.
This means people were reminded that animals too live on the Earth, not just humans. It’s about making sure animals are safe and happy, the same way people should be. It’s important to look after animals because they can’t tell us when they’re in danger or need help, so we should pay attention to them.
It wasn’t just a 2022 theme; it was a heartfelt message that Earth is home to everyone, whether it’s animals, birds or even insects. The idea of a “shared planet” should make us feel good and remind us to be kind to everything.
World Animal Day 2023
“Great or small, love them all” is the theme for World Animal Day 2023. We’re celebrating World Animal Day this year by telling everyone that every animal is important, no matter how big or small they are.
The theme emphasizes that even little animals like lab mice need attention and care, just like big animals like elephants. Lab mice are used for medical testing and experiments, but we often forget that they are living beings and should be treated with care. Just like elephants need our attention if they are exploited in the tourism industry.
Besides elephants, other animals like horses, donkeys, camels, etc. are used extensively for work and tourism purposes. We should not let animals suffer, whether they’re used for research work or tourism.
Your voice can make a big difference on World Animal Day. No matter where you live, you can help animals and make their lives better. Start from your city. The more people who take part in World Animal Day, the bigger the positive impact we’ll have.
The World Animal Day 2023 gives us a chance to learn, help, and celebrate animals of all kinds. whether land animals (wild and domestic), sea creatures, birds, or even insects, everyone needs our attention of love and care.
How to Celebrate World Animal Day?
As this is a special day for animals, we need to explore creative ways to celebrate it with pride. Some of the cool and good celebration ideas include;
- Donating something for their welfare.
- Volunteering with community groups, youth groups, running clubs, animal welfare organizations, etc.
- Do something on purpose and spread the images with the hashtag #worldanimalday on social media. This helps to raise awareness among the population.
- Further, grooming and taking care of your pets.
- Educating the world through online or offline workshops, seminars, or campaigns.
- Also, try to replace products that need animals with products that don’t harm them.
- Enjoy and spend time with your pets daily, go to the vet for their regular check-up at least twice a year.
- Adopt pets, or feed stray animals near you daily.
- Plant Trees: Animals need homes too! You can give them a home by planting trees.
- Animal Art: Make pictures of animals. You could sell them and donate that money to an animal charity.
- Watch Animal Movies: Get some nature and animal knowledge by watching movies.
- Say No to Plastic: Don’t use plastic anymore. This helps sea animals.
- Make a Video: Make an animal care video with your phone. Put it on social media to inspire other people.
Well, there are lots of other ways through which you can respect this day. However, the simplest way is to take a pledge to care for and protect animals. This can help others to understand their responsibilities.