World Animal Day 2018: 10 Quotes Promoting Their Welfare, Rights

World Animal Day is celebrated on Oct. 4 every year with a mission to improve their welfare standards around the globe. The idea was first propagated by German author and animal protection activist Heinrich Zimmermann who wanted to celebrate it on the day to align it with the feast of St Francis of Assisi, considered the patron saint of ecology and animals.

According to the official website of World Animal Day, the aim of the day is:

To raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe. Building the celebration of World Animal Day unites the animal welfare movement, mobilising it into a global force to make the world a better place for all animals. It's celebrated in different ways in every country, irrespective of nationality, religion, faith or political ideology. Through increased awareness and education we can create a world where animals are always recognised as sentient beings and full regard is always paid to their welfare.

Here at 10 inspirational quotes on the importance of animal welfare and animal rights, courtesy Quote Garden and Good Reads.

1. “If you want to test cosmetics, why do it on some poor animal who hasn't done anything? They should use prisoners who have been convicted of murder or rape instead. So, rather than seeing if perfume irritates a bunny rabbit's eyes, they should throw it in Charles Manson's eyes and ask him if it hurts.” — Ellen DeGeneres

2. “Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission — to be of service to them whenever they require it... If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” — Saint Francis of Assisi

3. “If you don't like pictures of animal cruelty being posted on social media, you need to help stop the cruelty, not the pictures. You should be bothered that its happening, not that you saw it.” — Marie Sarantakis

4. “ It may be suggested by some books that it is not a sin to kill an animal, but it is written in our own hearts — more clearly than in any book — that we should take pity on animals in the same way as we do on humans." — Leo Tolstoy

5. “Animals give me more pleasure through the viewfinder of a camera than they ever did in the crosshairs of a gunsight. And after I've finished 'shooting,' my unharmed victims are still around for others to enjoy. I have developed a deep respect for animals. I consider them fellow living creatures with certain rights that should not be violated any more than those of humans.” — Jimmy Stewart

6. “The fact that rescue animals exist is a blaring siren signal that all pet adoptions should be of rescue animals. Until that moniker no longer exists, there is no reason whatsoever to get any other kind of animal.” —Shenita Etwaroo

7. “If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution - and realize, at last, our most unique quality: humanity."— British anthropologist Jane Goodall

8. “Life is life — whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.” — Sri Aurobindo

9. “To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature, the more that it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”— Mahatma Gandhi

10. “We should not need to have a ‘Save an Animal Day’, Save from what?, It is in fact ‘Save from who’. It is Human Kindness, Compassion and Caring that so desperately needs to be saved.” ― Paul Oxton