Location: MEXICO - Mexico City
Event: Festival
Hosted by: AnimaNaturalis International - Mexico

AnimaNaturalis celebrated World Animal Day with a festival, many organisations dedicated to promoting the rights of animals participated by holding stands and giving presentations. More information and images requested.

Location: GUATEMALA -
Event: Colourful Parade to raise awareness of animal welfare / Fun Day with entertainment pet grooming, face painting etc.
Hosted by: Animal Welfare Association: Rescue & Education (AWARE)

Here in Guatemala AWARE organised a day of activities in Antigua – Guatemala’s World Heritage Site and tourist centre. The day began with a parade through town featuring musicians, clowns, stilt-walkers, jugglers, dogs and the local voluntary Fire & Emergency Brigade – all of whom had  volunteered their skills for this occasion. Strollers and onlookers were pleasantly surprised and entertained by this colourful pageant in the middle of their normal sightseeing day, receiving handouts about animal care and the merits of spaying/neutering. The parade ended in the beautiful grounds of a lovely colonial house, whose special space had been donated for the day, and where visitors sampled a selection of traditional local dishes, enjoyed the services of a grooming parlour for pets, had their faces painted, kitted out their pet with a variety of costumes for photos, adorned themselves with the latest design of AWARE T-shirts, chatted, socialised, showed off their pets, networked, and generally enjoyed the relaxed and sunny atmosphere that always accompanies an AWARE event. Xenii Nielsen, Director AWARE.

Location: BAHAMAS
Event: Animal Blessing Service
Hosted by: Bahamas Humane Society

We at the Bahamas Humane Society decided this year that we would organise an Animal Blessing Service to commemorate World Animal Day. We decided against the usual fundraising
event with animals and, instead, encouraged various churches to conduct a special service for the animals in our lives. We also encouraged animal owners to take this day off from their usual
schedules and spend extra quality time with their pets.

The photos are of the service held at St Christopher’s Anglican Parish in Lyford Cay, the service was conducted by Archdeacon Cartwright. All sorts of animals arrived to receive a blessing including: birds; turtles; hamsters; cats and dogs - and most were well behaved!

This is the second time St Christopher’s Parish has held an Animal Blessing Service, and has served as an example to other churches throughout the Bahamas. The Bahamas Humane Society extends
a heartfelt thanks to all the churches throughout the Bahamas that took part and held an Animal Blessing Service to mark World Animal Day. Stephen Turnquest, Executive Director, The Bahamas Humane Society. Website: bhscruelty@gmail.com     

Location: MEXICO - San Luis Potosi
Event: Animal Blessing & Animal Awareness Educational
Hosted by: APDA (Association Potosina por la Dignidad Animal, A.C.)

Location: SOUTH PACIFIC - Samoa
Event: Children's Awareness Day
Hosted by: Animal Protection Society of Samoa

Thank you so much for keeping in touch with us the Animal Protection Society of Samoa.
We celebrated Animal Day in Samoa on the 3rd October 2008.  It was such a big success for us, we attracted media attention here in Samoa plus publicity in the newspaper. This is the first time we engaged ourselves in such an event. Schoolchildren were transported back and forth paid for by APS's funds. Unfortunately, our Humane Educator is currently conducting a school visit in the rural areas but she will send you a full report.

Location: BRAZIL
Event: Art Studio raises awareness of World Animal Day
Hosted by: Menote Cordeiro - Artes Visuais

Location: MEXICO - Mexico City
Event: Animal Rights Forum and Children's Workshops
Hosted by: AMEDEA & MEXICO ANTITAURINO

AMEDEA and MEXICO ANTITAURINO celebrated World Animal Day October 3rd with a forum called “JUSTICE FOR ALL ANIMAL SPECIES”. Our guests were: Doctor in Philosophy Oscar Horta from Spain who talked about the discrimination that humans show toward other animal species and the unfairness of valuing only the needs of the ones which are “inside our moral circle”. Mrs Emma Saldana spoke about the levels of cruelty in bullfighting, the circus and other “spectacles” with animals. Veterinary Doctor Pedro Cano talked about the farce, abuse and violence in bullfighting. Psychotherapist Nelly Glatt talked about the relation between violence and cruelty to animals, and Lawyer Gustavo Larios spoke about the ignorance and irresponsibility of the authorities when it comes to legislation and animal abuse. They offered a panoramic view about the dimension of the problem of cruelty to animals and proposed to the media and legislators better ways to work for social peace. Four young ladies in grade school read their messages to the legislators asking them to pay attention to the problem of animal abuse. A message from the Humane Society International supporting our anti-bullfighting work was read by Ara Ferris, Ambassador to World Animal Day Mexico.

We held a cinema club, puppet show and workshops for children which were received with much enthusiasm. We reinforced in them their natural empathy to animals. We inaugurated this show called: And you… What do you do with your hands? This show was intended to refer to the caresses that a child can give to animals instead of mistreating them.

We also showed for the first time a short video of the children’s book that Gaby, one of our members wrote, which is the story of Tiberio, a small calf who loses his father when he is taken to a bullfighting arena.

A pledge was signed with representatives of the Partido Verde belonging to the senate to document themselves about the abuse of animals and criminality and work in legislation and public politics.

WAD 2008 was well received by various welfare animal organizations in the country, which carried out several events to promote the rights of animals. Our event in the Coyoacan district placed a special emphasis in cruel spectacles because from all the forms of abuse that exists, the worst is the one where people enjoy the pain and suffering of other living beings.

Gustavo Larios, President of AMEDEA and Spokesman for MEXICO ANTITAURINO
Ara Ferris, Ambassador to WAD, Mexico

Location: PERU - Lima
Event: Animal Blessing Service
Hosted by: Grupo Caridad

This year Grupo Caridad held the most traditional and successful celebration of animals in our country.

This celebration took place at 12 noon on Sunday 5th October at the San Francisco de Asis Church. We organized this huge event which attracted more than a thousand participants who all took their pets to the church for the blessing service. Our event received a lot of press and media attention.

We were delighted to be interviewed by most of the television channels in Peru and the event was also covered by Reuters. Our World Animal Day celebration appeared on univision and probably on more international channels. We are absoluted delighted by how successful the event was. Fernando Moreno, Founder & Director, Grupo Caridad www.grupocaridad.com

Location: COSTA RICA - Santa Ana, San José
Event: Fundraising Concert
Hosted by: El Arca de Noe

On World Animal Day, El Arca de Noe organised two events in celebration of World Animal in Costa Rica. The first: a concert of music and dance in the Bar-Restaurant "Tequila Joes" at the Commercial Center Lindora in Santa Ana. We were delighted that the evening turned out to be very enjoyable with 200 people attending. The groups "Soltice", "Estevan Rojas y su Banda" and the disk jockey "Mouse" played from 9.30 pm to 1.30 pm. During two breaks, we offered two big raffle prizes, 2 days and 1 night for two people at the Hotel Ecolodge Arenal in Volcano Sareas and 3 days and 2 nights at the beach staying at Hotel Yare in Punta Cocles (both hotels accept pets and dogs). An additional 30 other raffle prizes were offered. The night was great fun and thoroughy enjoyed by everyone attending. During the night we also collected a further 132 signatures for the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare. The evening raised the magnifient sum of US$500 which will be spent on helping injured stray animals and help pay for our low-cost neutering campaign. Patricia Artimana, World Animal Day Ambassador, Costa Rica.

Location: COSTA RICA -
Event: Children's Animal Painting Competition and Exhibition
Hosted by: El Arca de Noe

The second World Animal Day event organised by El Arca de Noe was a Children's Animal Painting Competition and Exhibition in cooperation with the Elementary Country Day School. Twenty classes of children aged between 7 and 12 years of age participated in the competition which ran from 18th September and closed on 24th September. The best 20 entries were selected for the exhibition held at the Cafe Valandra in the San Jose Center throughout the month of October, with each of the artists receiving an Award Certificate and prizes for the top five. The paintings were offered for sale throughout the month for purchase at the end of the exhbition. All funds raised will be used to help fund our low cost neutering campaign for cats and dogs. Our objective was to raise awareness about animal welfare. Throughout the month, we also collected signatures in support of the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare. Patricia Artimana, World Animal Day Ambassador, Costa Rica.

Location: HONDURAS
Event: Animals Matter To Me
Hosted by: ASOCIACION HONDUREÑA PROTECTORA DE LOS ANIMALES Y SU AMBIENTE (AHPRA)

Our activities to celebrate World Animal Day: In the days leading up to 4th October, we gained support for the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare by the Public Prosecutor of Environment for the city of San Pedro Sula, Lawyer Juan Antonio Carballo; civil servants, employees of the Public Ministry; members of the Inter-institutional Atmosphere Commission of the Valley of Sula (Municipal Mayorship, National Police, Public Ministry, Body of Firemen) and Gillian Osorio, lawyer for the Bióloga of the Environmental Technical Unit of the Office of the public prosecutor, presented the Declaration and the project was supported by the assistants.

We also distributed educational material on animal welfare issues and collected further signatures on the Declaration via a stall held on 5th October in the Boulevard Kennedy, Tegucigalpa. We also gained the support of Ecology students at the Central American Technological University (UNITEC). During these activities we managed to collect a magnificent 1,620 signatures.
Karla Johanna Duarte Tercero, President and World Animal Day Ambassador, Honduras.

IMAGE GALLERY
Selected additional images of events that took place in Central & South America in 2008