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Animal Friends Croatia

By Croatian News Group (Originally in Croatian)

In the beautiful, Central European nation of Croatia, located near the Mediterranean Sea, the compassionate, non-profit organization Animal Friends Croatia (AFC) has been promoting animal rights and the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle for over a decade. AFC’s aim is to end all forms of animal abuse, torture and exploitation.

Since 2001 AFC staff and volunteers have been using a wide range of methods to inform the public about the cruelty involved in animal farming and the fur industry, and the importance of adopting a healthy, plant-based diet. To convey its message, the group has conducted more than 300 public events, such as demonstrations and performances, and placed billboards and posters all over Croatia. Many celebrities have joined in the group’s campaigns by posing for AFC posters to send a message to the country’s citizens, often resulting in media exposure and interviews. In addition, the organization publishes books, produces films and distributes flyers to reach the public. AFC also gives public lectures and visits schools and kindergartens to teach children that animals are living beings that deserve respect and should not be abused to suit human needs.

One of AFC’s new campaigns is Green Monday, known worldwide as “Meatless Monday,” during which people in Croatia are invited to follow a vegan diet for one day a week. The campaign is proceeding well and helping to bring awareness to the health benefits and ease of being vegan. AFC also encourages citizens to show compassion for animals who are victims of hunting, and in Golden Year 8 (2011) launched a poster campaign with Croatia’s Miss Sport, Kristina Vilk, asking citizens to avoid and condemn hunting both as a sport and a form of entertainment. To promote plant-based cooking, AFC organizes workshops and holds the annual ZeGeVege Festival of Sustainable Living in the capital city Zagreb’s main square. In Golden Year 9 (2012), the Festival’s fifth year, ZeGeVege attracted over 60,000 attendees and 40 local vendors.

AFC also conducts regular anti-fur and anti-live-animal-transport campaigns, presenting film footage of the breeding of chinchillas and other animals. Many viewers are appalled by the films’ gruesome images of stressed, frustrated animals living in dirty cages, without adequate food or water. It is AFC’s belief that in time people will reject the fur industry and stop wearing fur altogether. In January Golden Year 4 (2007), Croatia introduced one of the most progressive laws in Europe prohibiting the breeding of animals for fur, and banned animal testing for cosmetics and cleaning products. Thus, Croatia is no longer one of the world’s main cultivators of chinchillas for fur.

Expressing the group’s vision for the future, AFC coordinator Alen Crnčan says, “Our vision is a vegan world, a world where all animals, including humans, live freely, without exploitation for any reason, and live according to their natural instincts and needs, complying with what nature gives them including their freedom and family. This is the vision of the Association. It is what we want to achieve through our actions.” We wish AFC great success in all its endeavors and may God continue to bless its staff and volunteers.

 

For more information on Animal Friends Croatia, please visit
http://www.animal-friends-croatia.org/index.en.php

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