Animals are equally important to maintain the ecological balance but mostly we forget their contribution. To encourage their contribution and to make a better place for the animals, World Animal Day is celebrated annually.
World Animal Day is celebrated to mobilize people for action now for a better future for animals. World Animal Day embraces all animals and the unique concerns of each, in every country, and makes animals front-page news.
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World Animal Day 2021: Date
Every year, the World Animal Day is celebrated on October 4, at the international level. The aim behind celebrating the day is to highlight the importance of the animals to maintain ecological balance.
The day is a special opportunity to commemorate our love and respect for animals by doing something special to highlight their importance in the world. It unites the animal welfare movement, mobilizing it into a global force for change.
World Animal Day 2021: Theme
Every year, the day is celebrated under a theme. The theme for 96th world animal day is – “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet.”
The theme is selected as a way to highlight the central role of forests, forest species and ecosystems services in sustaining the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally, and particularly of Indigenous and local communities with historic ties to forested and forest-adjacent areas, as per the UN.
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World Animal Day 2021: History
For the first time, the world animal day was celebrated on March 24, 1925, by cynologist Heinrich Zimmermann at the Sports Palace in Berlin, Germany.
In 2003, Naturewatch Foundation, a UK-based animal welfare charity also launched the first World Animal Day website.
Ironically, the day is celebrated on the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.