Eaten, worn, exploited for scientific experimentation and for our entertainment, the number of animals killed by humans every day is incalculable (for food purposes alone, approximately 150 billion are slaughtered every year worldwide).

What World Animal Rights Day is for

Talking about animal rights in a society that does not even recognise the rights of human beings may seem odd, yet one thing does not exclude the other and, as the well-known French writer Marguerite Yourcenar maintained, "animals have their own rights and dignity just as you do. It is a warning that sounds almost subversive. Let us then be subversive: against ignorance, indifference, cruelty."

Why this date

On 10 December, coinciding with World Human Rights Day, World Animal Rights Day is celebrated — established specifically to extend those inalienable rights to all creatures that inhabit the planet, even if they belong to a species other than our own. The occasion was established in 1998 by the British animal rights organisation Uncaged Campaigns (now transformed into the Centre for Animals & Social Justice) to highlight the abuses perpetrated against animals, who cannot vote, protest or secure political support.

The Centre for Animals & Social Justice has drawn up a Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, according to which "all creatures have the right to life and freedom." The campaign's aim is to persuade humanity that kindness and respect are owed to all sentient creatures.

What happens on World Animal Rights Day

On the occasion of the day, demonstrations, events and screenings are held around the world to show the public the reality of animal exploitation and suffering, habitually disguised and sanitised by the mainstream media.

The demonstrations are characterised by the presence of candles, torches and lamps — light is indeed the symbol of the day — to represent the need to "shed light" on the torture inflicted on billions of animals across the planet.