Pictures of people and their beloved pets streaming in from all over the country, Beirut Souks filled with dogs, celebrities, speeches, and a Photo Booth that rocked the evening - all this for World Animal Day!
Animals Lebanon is thrilled to announce that World Animal Day 2013 was, paws up, a great success!
The story begins two weeks ago when Animals Lebanon announced it would be celebrating World Animal Day at Beirut Souks, and invited people to come with their pets. Simultaneously, a buzzing Facebook campaign was launched where animal lovers and supporters could send us pictures of themselves with their cats or dogs in order to ensure that even those who could not be present would be represented. A beautiful Animal Welfare Wall was constructed where these pictures would be mounted during the event.
The event kicked off with a loud mix of wild animal sounds, drawing the attention of the crowd, and bringing even the casual shoppers to our area. President of Animals Lebanon and Lebanon's Ambassador to World Animal Day, Lana El-Khalil Bacha, welcomed the guests (and their dogs!) with an uplifting speech honoring the bond between people and animals and stressing on the importance of animal welfare laws in Lebanon. Also present were Lebanese celebrities Nicolas Mouawad, Maxime Chaya, Mazen Kiwan, and Mirva Kadi, all there to give their support to the call for animal welfare laws and send out a message of kindness and compassion.
After the inspiring speeches, the floor was open for people to take photos with their pets at the Laugh-A-Minute photo booth which provided all sorts of fun accessories and props. As the photos came out, people were invited to stick their funky shots on the Animal welfare Wall. The lines to the photo booth were bustling with dogs, children, supporters, and casual shoppers from all around the Souks. In no time, the entire wall was covered with photos! Media from television, magazines, newspapers, and on-line blogs joined in the fun covering the entire event form start to finish.
Hours passed without anyone feeling the time, as Mix FM DJ Marc Basili kept the music flowing, dogs played and interacted with each other, fans surrounded their favorite celebrities, and picture after picture was taken and mounted on the Animal Welfare Wall. World Animal Day 2013 did not only act as an event for animal lovers and their pets, it was more importantly, an event which spread awareness of the necessity of animal welfare and inspired people who would not usually think of such issues to begin considering being a part of Animals Lebanon and its mission.
A big thank you to Solidere and Beirut Souks, Fluid Design, Future Graphics, Maxime Chaya, Nicolas Mouawad, Mirva Kadi, Mazen Kiwan, Nemr Abu-Nassar, Mix FM, Laugh-A-Minute, Adham Temsah, Zeinoun El-Naboulsi, the Animals Lebanon volunteers, and all who were present with their dogs. You made this event the breakthrough of the year - step by step, we will create the change for animals and people that the entire nation can be proud of. Happy World Animal Day!
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