World Animal Day : October 4
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World Animal Day : October 4

World Animal Day : October 4

October | 04, 2017 :: World Animal Day is an international day of action for animal rights and welfarecelebrated annually on October 4, the feast day of Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.

World Animal Day was originated by Heinrich Zimmermann, the German writer and publisher of the magazine Mensch und Hund/Man and Dog. He organized the first World Animal Day on 24 March 1925 at the Sport Palace in Berlin, Germany. Over 5,000 people attended this first event. The event was originally scheduled for 4 October, to align with the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology, however the venue was not available on that day. The event was moved to 4 October for the first time in 1929. Initially he found a following only in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. Every year Zimmermann worked tirelessly on the promotion of World Animal Day. Finally, in May 1931 at a congress of the International Animal Protection Congress in Florence Italy, his proposal to make 4 October World Animal Day universal, was unanimously accepted and adopted as a resolution.

It is sometimes cited that World Animal Day started in 1931 at the convention of ecologists in Florence, Italy who wished to highlight the plight of endangered species.

Today, World Animal Day is a global event uniting the animal protection movement, led and sponsored by UK-based animal welfarecharity, Naturewatch Foundation since 2003.

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