Chile and Peru have officially declared their government’s support for the campaign to achieve a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW). Both countries have decided to recognize the importance of animal welfare ; not only for animals, but for people and the environment.
This means there are now 40 international governments that have recognized the enormous impact a UDAW will have globally.
An issue of great regional importance
At the beginning of the year Bolivia and Nicaragua announced a powerful message about the responsibility of Latin American governments - and the world - to end cruelty towards animals, clearly supporting the process of achieve a UDAW. With the addition of Chile and Perú, the region’s steady move towards achieving a UDAW is further strengthened. Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica have also moved significant further on towards total government support of this WSPA-promoted animal welfare initiative.
As well as joining the biggest ever animal welfare initiative, which exists to achieve effective animal protection worldwide, these South American countries have been working on their own to improve the quality of life of their animals.
Currently, Peru is working on new legislative initiatives for animal protection and welfare. The Republic’s Congress is discussing a draft law created with contributions from animal welfare organizations, including WSPA member societies. It is also running a legislative initiative to prohibit the use of animals in countryside circuses. This is being promoted by Congressman José Urquizo, who pioneered the process to support a UDAW in Peru.
In Chile, animal welfare has begun to be discussed actively in the national agenda. It has been a flourishing area of research in recent years, in particular, issues relating to livestock and wildlife. In addition, they now have one of the biggest national whale sanctuaries in the world.
“The campaign to achieve a UDAW has had strong support in South America this year. This pleased us a lot, because we not only see a recognition of animals as beings that deserve protection, but also government willingness to incorporate, at their own pace, animal welfare in their development policies”, said Luis Carlos Sarmiento, Regional WSPA Director, South America.
Governments and citizens of the world agree that animals matter. Wider government support will help convince the United Nations to highlight the importance of animals to the international community. In addition, more than 2 million citizens, representing every country of the world, agree that animals deserve to be treated fairly and that their needs must be respected.
