This is What’s Trending Today… World Animal Day has been celebrated on October 4 for many years. The World Animal Day website says it was first celebrated in 1925 in Berlin, Germany on a different date. It moved to October 4 in 1929. October 4 is the day Roman Catholics honor Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the patron saint of animals. What happens on World Animal Day? Aside from Twitter getting filled up with lots of cute photos of animals, the day is designed to promote the rights of animals. The group that organizes the day wants to make sure animals are treated well around the world. In honor of the day, many organizations held special events. For example, some shelters held adoption events. Other organizations held workshops to make sure owners learned the best way to take care of their animals. One Twitter account called TheDodo has almost 500,000 followers. The account owners made a video showing people treating animals "with love." The video showed a man taking a beached dolphin back to the water, a police officer helping free a deer from a backyard volleyball net and a driver stopping to move a kitten off a busy roadway. The television channel Nat Geo WILD posted a video of a baby elephant taking its first steps. The actor Ricky Gervais presented a photo of himself with his dog, writing: “Happy #WorldAnimalDay. We’re nothing without them.” Al Jazeera English made a video celebrating the work of a man in Kenya. He drives a truck over 70 kilometers more than once a week to transport water to thirsty animals. His truck holds 12,000 liters of water. He said some of the animals recognize him. While animal welfare is a serious issue, many people had fun with the day. One sports organization, the UEFA Champions League, wrote a story highlighting the soccer players with animal-oriented nicknames. Over the years, some players have been known as “The Eel,” “The Mosquito,” “Snake-man” and “The Trout.” And that’s What’s Trending Today. Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. What did you do to mark World Animal Day? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story patron saint – n. a saint who is believed to protect a particular place or type of person cute – adj. having a pleasing and usually youthful appearance promote – v. to make people aware of something workshop– n. a class or series of classes in which a small group of people learn the methods and skills used in doing something beached– v. when a large ocean animal has come out of the water onto land and is unable to return to the water.
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