On this day in vegan history · December 10, 1998
Animal Rights Gets Its Own Day, on Human Rights' Fiftieth
A Sheffield campaign group picked the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to launch a day for animals, and the date stuck.
The facts
- First observed
- December 10, 1998
- Founded by
- Uncaged, an animal protection group based in Sheffield, England
- Shared anniversary
- The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted December 10, 1948
- Still observed
- Every December 10, alongside Human Rights Day
On December 10, 1998, the British group Uncaged held the first International Animal Rights Day. The date was not an accident. Fifty years earlier, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly had adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Uncaged, a Sheffield-based group that spent the 1990s fighting animal experiments and running a boycott of Procter & Gamble, wanted the two anniversaries to share a headline every year. The pairing held: campaigners around the world still mark the day every December 10, alongside Human Rights Day.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
International Animal Rights Day is an annual event honouring animals as sentient beings who deserve the same protections as people.
World Animal Protection, describing the day
Source: World Animal Protection -
The day was established through the efforts of a UK based group called Uncaged, which is now associated with the Centre for Animals & Social Justice.
Days of the Year, on the founding of International Animal Rights Day
Source: Days of the Year
Why it still matters
Anchoring the day to Human Rights Day gave animal advocates a recurring argument built into the calendar itself: that sentience, not species, should decide who gets legal protection. Almost thirty years later, that argument still gets its annual hearing on the same date.
Sources
This history is still being written.
Every morning the brief covers what moved veganism forward, and every day one more verified piece of that story joins this almanac. Free, and tomorrow’s lands in your inbox.
Free, every morning. No guilt. No preaching.