International Animal Rights day was established in 1998 at the 50th anniversary of signing The Universal Declaration of Human Rights to highlight that all living beings of the Earth have a right to respect, life and protection from exploitation and suffering.
According to the statistics of the international Food and Agricultural Organization, 70 billion animals are killed every year just for meat and leather production only, which means two thousand animals are being slaughtered every second! And this is only by the official data on land “farm” animals, which in reality means things are much worse!
To draw the attention of the public and to solve the problem, the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare was established in 1978, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with its aim to stop the exploitation and murder of all living beings.
The Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare claims a right to life with no intentionally caused pain, suffering, exploitation and death, as well as a human responsibility to take care of recovering the population of different species of the planet. It also mentions that animals have the same rights and freedoms as humans, and all the actions leading to unjustified death are subject to crime against life. The Declaration was signed by environmental organizations worldwide.
Today International Animal Rights Day unites all those partial, all those fighting against animal cruelty. In many countries around the world there are different actions and events: pickets and rallies, media publications and programs, concerts, exhibitions, competitions and much more. Since 2004 Russia has also started holding events in the Day honour.