Be Kind to Animals Week

Be Kind to Animals Week is celebrated each year during the first week in May. It is a great opportunity to celebrate our love of animals and remember the importance of kindness, compassion and empathy for our furry, feathered and finned friends. Being kind to animals includes taking good care of your own pets and also treating your neighbor’s pets and local wildlife humanely.

In 1915 the American Humane Association created Be Kind to Animals Week to encourage humanity towards animals. Be Kind to Animals Week has been deemed the compassion movement by animal enthusiasts globally. Each year since, animal shelters all over the country hold special events to raise awareness about animals in surrounding communities and to limelight.

Recall that American Humane Association’s animal rescue services program was created in May 1916 at the request of the U.S. Secretary of War to save war horses on the battlefields of World War I Europe. The organization rescued and cared for 68,000 wounded horses a month and since then has been involved in virtually every major disaster relief effort from Pearl Harbor to 9/11; Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina; the Mount St. Helen’s eruption; the Joplin, Missouri tornado; the Japanese and Haitian earthquakes; and Superstorm Sandy. Over just the past ten years American Humane Association has saved, helped and sheltered more than 80,000 animals.

Source: americanhumane.org | cthumane.org