World Animal Day is celebrated around the globe annually on Oct.4 to create awareness regarding animal rights and welfare.

According to the official website of the celebration, the day is observed in order to improve animal welfare standards and make the world a better place for them to live.

On this day, here are a few inspirational quotes to promote animal rights and welfare, courtesy Good Reads –

  • "If you really care about animals, then stop trying to figure out how to exploit them 'compassionately'. Just stop exploiting them." ― Gary L Francione
  • "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 it's happening, not that you saw it." ― Marie Sarantakis
  • "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
  • "The animals of the planet are in desperate peril... Without free animal life, I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen." ― Alice Walker
  • "The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality." ― Arthur Schopenhauer
  • "He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ― Emmanuel Kant
  • "I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being." ― Abraham Lincoln
  • "We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace." ― Albert Schweitzer
A lion looks towards the Nairobi skyline - the Living Planet Index warns that continued natural habitat loss increased the risk of future pandemics as humans expand their presence into ever closer contact with wild animals
A lion looks towards the Nairobi skyline. AFP / TONY KARUMBA
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