World Animal Week

From 4th – 10th October every year, the World Animal Week (WAW) is celebrated all over the world. It is always an opportunity to reflect on the importance of animals to human existence.

The World Animal Day 2007 for the SWAP came as an avenue for continuing SWAP’s humane education initiative. SWAP organized a seminar which witnessed over 180 students at the Oxford International High School, Benin City, Nigeria. The seminar included events as; questions and answers section, lectures on animal welfare and the need for animal protection which was handled by the president – Goodluck Akenuwa. The students were also lectured on the need for the universal declaration and were encouraged to participate in it. We also featured signing the petition on Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare by over 170 students. This was coordinated by Cletus Imomion – SWAP’s campaigns director. Currently, SWAP has gotten over 1000 signatories for the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare

Among the events for the day was the display of the SWAP ‘Animals matter too!’ posters along the streets of Benin using a vehicle presented for the events by the President – Goodluck Akenuwa.

Although SWAP does not support the keeping of animals in captivity, the SWAP crew visited the animals in captivity at the Ogba zoological gardens/park in Benin City and held a meeting with the park director, Mr. Andy Ehanire to discuss on the maintenance culture being practiced at the zoo and we hope that his recent tour to some London zoos will boost his moral on zoo management standard. The crew visited the animals to ensure that their cages were clean and also enquired to know if the animals were properly fed.

We went an extra mile by noting the WAD celebration to some other animal welfare organizations like Animal Welfare Education Collaboration, Nigeria Animal Welfare Foundation, etc. The week was acknowledged on Punch Magazine (a national daily in Nigeria).

Finally, the day was interesting and full of tours around town with the main aim of passing information to the general public on animal welfare while encouraging friends and others to join us in signing the petition on the universal declaration on animal welfare.