Minister of Agriculture is presented with an Animal Welfare Leadership Award and is requested to take the voices of the people to the powers that be...

South Africans have become one of the leading nations in the world to call upon the United Nations to make a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare that would be binding on all its member states.

With 107 993 signatures to the Animals Matter to Me petition, South Africans have effectively requested the UN to officially acknowledge that animals are sentient beings whose well-being matters. 

SA is one of only 3 nations to have reached, or exceeded the 100 000 signature threshhold. To mark this achievement, Dr Nick de Souza, head of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) in Africa, flew into Johannesburg to present Minister of Agriculture, Lulama Xingwana, with an Animal Welfare Public Leadership Award.

The Minister was requested to receive the Award as governmental leader in South Africa for Animal Welfare and to pledge South Africa's vote for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare at the UN. The Award was received on her behalf by Dr Siegfried Meyer, Deputy Director: Animal Health, at the Department of Agriculture. Dr Meyer said the Minister would be proud that so many South Africans had pledged their support for the petition and that she would take this fact further to the powers that be. 

Only two other countries have reached the 100 000 signature mark – the USA and Brazil.

In presenting the award, Dr de Souza complimented the role played by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (South Africa) and The Humane Education Trust (HET) in collecting the signatures. He also presented an Animal Welfare Leadership Award to staunch CIWF(SA) supporter, Corrien Baumgardt, Principal of the Johannesburg Academy for Finishing and Etiquette (JAFFAE) in acknowledgement of the role played by the young women at her academy in collecting more than half of the 107 992 signatures. The presentation took place at JAFFAE's gala passing-out event at the Linder Auditorium, WITS Education Campus, in Parktown, Johannesburg on 3 November.

WSPA, which is acting as the secretariat for the coalition of animal organizations that are collecting signatures for the Animals Matter petition, says it is on target for 1 million signatures by the end of 2007. Dr de Souza said he encouraged all societies to become involved in this petition which can be downloaded online at http://www.animalsmatter.org/    

The aim is that the petition will become the biggest animal welfare petition the world has ever seen with 10 million signatures to present to the UN, gaining for itself a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

As the third country in the world to achieve 100 000 signatures for the Animals Matter to Me petition, South Africans received leadership awards for animal welfare.