“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” –
Mahatma Gandhi
Care for Paws is the only service group in OSC that is actively involved with animal welfare. As the service leader of this group, it truy broke my heart to watch the brutal slaying of a leopard by a mob in Kilinochchi, to see the continuous exploitation of elephants for traditional religious purposes and the neglect and suffering of street dogs across the country. Reciprocating my feelings, my service group and I took it upon ourselves to encourage the OSC community to refrain from being a part of such harmful activities.
On the 4th of October, to celebrate World Animal Day, we released an OSC Anti-Animal Tourism Pledge which would ideally act as a moral contract for those who wish to boycott activities that affect Sri Lanka’s wildlife negatively. The Pledge was sent via Email starting from the 27th of September, and by agreeing to the terms and conditions of the pledge, students, teachers and parents alike were agreeing to voluntarily follow those said terms and change their actions that involve exploitation of animals.
We stressed on 3 main points:
- Refrain from Going on Animal Back Safaris
2. Avoid Visiting Animal Tourist Destinations
- Refrain from Taking Pictures and Paying to See Poorly Treated Captive Animals
We encouraged signees to wear purple for the 4th, given that animal abuse awareness is represented by the color purple. Going to school to find so many people wearing purple filled me with joy and when checking the number of signees, we found nearly 80 OSC members had signed the pledge.
I do, however, acknowledge that this pledge has no legal significance nor can we ensure that it is indeed enforced, however, it should encourage people, not simply as signees but as concerned individuals for our country’s wildlife, to not violate it.