WAD List of Events in 2001

Australia

WAD falls within Pet Week, an animal welfare initiative of the Australian Veterinary Association aimed primarily at schoolchildren. In Tasmania there is an annual schools poster competition for World Animal Day. More on Tasmania >>

In 2001 Clover Moore, the Independent MP for the district of Bligh in Sydney, New South Wales, addressed a rally for World Animal Day held in Sydney's Hyde Park. Ms Moore is a keen advocate of animal welfare. The text of the speech is reproduced on her website

Lithuania

The central office of the Lithuanian Society for the Protection of Animals was officially opened on World Animal Day 2001. One of the special guests invited to the opening was Sargis - the President of Lithuania's Dog! More on Lithuania >>

Tasmania

In Tasmania there is an annual schools poster competition for World Animal Day. This is the letter that was sent out to all schools in the region for the 2001 event.

The lucky winners received their prizes special school assemblies. However, there was a lot more going on around Tasmania. Dr Jennifer Cormack of the Australian Veterinary Association describes her involvement thus:

‘The earliest World Animal Day I can remember was actually a celebration of National Pet Week that took part in the first week of October. Each day there would be displays, and shopping centre interactive exhibitions ran for the entire week; these would involve Australian Veterinary Association representation, usually in the form of health advice and displays, animal breed displays, ‘Dogs’ Breakfasts’ at one of the fast food outlets, farm school displays, reptile displays, performing animals, celebrity interviews with their pets, radio interviews with an animal focus, and the poster competition. My chief involvement has been in the poster competition. We divided the state of Tasmania into three regions and held the competition in each of the areas. The schools loved being involved with the poster competitions and the award assemblies were always exciting occasions as prizes were awarded. Every one involved, vets included, got a real buzz out of it.’

Darry Welch was also on the organising committee:

‘I was the President of the Tasmanian Canine Defence League and became a member of the WAD committee for several years. The types of events that we held were picture competitions, displays in shopping centres that had many participants covering a wide variety of animals and birds, fish and other not so common pets, pet parades, church services, school visits to our dog shelter, school talks, TV and radio talks. We had a Pet Week on several occasions, but this then went to one special day. Many schools have Pet Week, and the children in the infant classes take pets to school and do projects all week. This, of course, was up to individual schools and whether teachers took WAD events as part of their curriculum.’

Lithuania

A very special visitor arrived in Kaunas for World Animal Day. Sargis, a five-month-old German shepherd dog, lives with a very important family. His master is the President of Lithuania! Sargis was one of the special guests who officially opened the new central office of the Lithuanian Society for the Protection of Animals (LGGD).

The new office will serve as the hub for animal welfare activities throughout Lithuania, supporting its 19 branches with advice and information.

Hundreds of people arrived for the official opening of the LGGD offices. Ben Noreikis, the secretary of LGGD, made the opening introductions and invited Professor Vidmantas Bizokas, Rector of the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy to cut the ribbon.

Guests from all over Lithuania attended, including the Director of the State Food and Veterinary Service, together with a number of his colleagues, Lithuanian television personality Henrikas Vaitiekunas,and Peter Jager (president of German welfare group Animals Angels). The RSPCA (who are conducting important humane education work in Lithuania) and WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) were also present to support LGGD.

In celebrating World Animal Day, it is important that the message highlighting the need for animals to be treated well gets across to the public. In this respect it was a tremendous success with television coverage on the main evening news on the three largest channels in Lithuania. The following day all the major newspapers covered the event in detail. Now everyone in Lithuania knows where to go if they have a question about animal welfare or to report animal cruelty.

Slovenia

Slovenia celebrated World Animal Day 2001 with the special issue of a postage stamp. The artwork was commissioned from Slovene artist Mojca Dolinar and featured a cartoon-style cat with a body made from a fingerprint.