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news release

WORLDWIDE VIGILS SET TO LIGHT UP INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL RIGHTS DAY

From dusk on Wednesday 10 December there will be dozens of candle-lit vigils across the UK, Europe, the Americas and Australasia, at a sites where the rights of animals are abused - in support of the 6th annual International Animal Rights Day.

This year there are over 24 vigils confirmed across the UK, and further vigils in Ireland, The Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina, The USA, Spain, France, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.

The candle-lit vigils will take place at sites as diverse as: vivisection facilities, abbatoirs, greyhound stadia, bull-rings, shops selling fur, battery farms, the shops of vivisection-funding charities, and the embassies of nations engaging in commercial whaling (eg. the Icelandic Embassy in London).

However, all have one thing in common - the sites represent organisations that abuse the fundamental rights of animals to life.

The vigils are a powerful and dignified demand for the natural and fundamental rights of all animals not to be deliberately exploited, harmed and killed.

These rights are laid out in the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, which is the philosophy that fundamentally underpins every campaign against animal abuse in every country in the world. International Animal Rights Day - on the 56th anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - is when we demonstrate this to the public.

Max Newton, Campaigns Co-ordinator of Uncaged Campaigns comments:

"All over the world people will gather and stage candlelit vigils at sites where the rights of animals are abused. Many different campaigns are united under the banner of the annual International Animal Rights Day and the Universal Declaration of Animals' Rights.

"Human rights are essential in order to protect us from deliberate torture, false imprisonment and killing. But these abuses still cause horrific suffering to millions of other animals as well – and they have no rights, not even in principle. If we believe in human dignity and rights, we can't reasonably deny them to other animals - it is deeply hypocritical, unfair and wrong.

"This is the philosphy, not just of the of the animal rights movement, but of all right-thinking people."

Related links:

• The International Animal Rights Day (IARD)
• The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UDAR)

Uncaged Campaigns 05.12.03