On October 4th 2018, my service group and I organized a spirit day for animal awareness day. Our interest to pursue such a large scale of species, goes beyond our target group of street dogs and cats. This stemmed from the recent, ethical violations of animal rights here in Sri Lanka. There have been many gruesome incidences where animals are constantly being abused and mistreated. A great example was the killing of the leopard in Killionchi Sri Lanka. The leopard was beaten to death and then later slung around the man’s neck to show his pride. The fact that our nation provides room for such unethical actions is highly questionable. I was personally offended and moved by these continuous issues, that I would constantly read in the newspaper.

To show that as a service group we are active in these social issues, we formed a pledge. This pledge is to protect animals in Sri Lanka, and to allow them to live better life. We focused it on animal tourism, as we felt that the members of our community could take actions within their decisions. The pledge was mainly focused on not promoting captivated animals that are in terrible conditions. There were three terms to the pledge, we felt these were important:

1. Refrain From Participating in Activities That Abuse or Negatively Impact Animals 
2. Avoid Visiting Animal Tourist Destinations, That Are Not In Their Natural Environment
3. Refrain From Taking Pictures And Paying to See Poorly Treated Captive Animals

We received over 75 signatures from our OSC community. It was great to see such support from the community as it is a step forward to protecting them. They deserve to have rights that protect them, like the human rights as they are living beings. There is a principle that informs us of what is morally wrong, this is missing form the Sri Lankan society. As animals do have a conscious mind with feelings, so why put them in misery. It is a stigma in society that we wanted to help break as a service group. It is important to talk about these sorts of issues within our community and beyond as it is not only an urgent issue in Sri Lanka but also globally.

To promote the pledge and to demonstrate our support of animal rights, OSC students and teachers wore purple on October 4th. It was held on animal awareness day as we all needed to take a moment to realize the ethical issue with the animal treatment here in Sri Lanka. It was a success, as everyone undoubtably showed their support and wanted to do their best to protect these animals.