If you care about animals, then RSPCA Awareness Week is a date to be marked in your diary.

With more activities than ever taking place this year, the theme of ‘It’s up to you!’ means it’s the perfect time to get involved. You just have to work out what you want to do!

RSPCA Awareness Week takes place each year from 1-8 October: these dates were chosen to incorporate World Animal Day on 4 October and World Farm Animals Day on 2 October.

RSPCA Awareness Week is a chance to celebrate the joy, compassion and understanding that animals bring to our world. The Week also has a serious purpose, in raising awareness of the many valuable services the RSPCA provides to the community.

Most Australians are familiar with the RSPCA shelters - which accept more than 133,000 animals from the community each year – as well as the RSPCA Inspectors, who investigate around 46,000 cruelty complaints per annum.

Nationally, the RSPCA also campaigns vigorously against cruel farming practices such as battery hen farming and the export of live animals for slaughter; as well as coordinating major fundraising events such as the annual Million Paws Walk.

However, the RSPCA does so much more - from the Education Mobile Unit (EMU) in Queensland to the Marine Rescue Centre in South Australia, wildlife rehabilitation facility in the Australian Capital Territory to the Animal Emergency Group in Western Australia, the Safe Beds for Pets programme in New South Wales to Kitten Kindy and Puppy Preschool in Victoria.

These are just a few examples of the many ways in which thousands of RSPCA staff and volunteers across the country are working to improve the welfare of domestic, native, exotic and farm animals throughout Australia.

RSPCA Awareness Week is your chance to say thank you and to learn more about the RSPCA and the enormous job it does. You can visit a shelter, talk with an inspector, participate in a fun event or organise your own activity!

The theme for RSPCA Awareness Week 2006 is “It’s up to you!”.

This theme is about recognising that caring for and protecting animals in our community is everyone’s responsibility.

Reporting animal cruelty or neglect when we see it is not someone else’s job.

Fighting cruelty in the live export trade mustn’t be left to those protesting on the docks.

Being able to see wild or exotic animals up close should not be at the expense of their wellbeing or the survival of the species.

Every one of us makes choices everyday that affect the welfare of animals around us – from stopping to check the pouch of a native animal killed on the road, to choosing not to buy cage eggs in the supermarket, to making sure the family dog still gets his daily walk (even on cold mornings when we’d rather stay in bed!).

Creating a world where animals are appreciated and kept safe means thinking about the choices we make, and the consequences of those choices.

Did you know eating foie gras may mean condemning a goose to a life of misery, caged and force fed to grotesque proportions?

Did you know that bringing home an exotic souvenir or paying to have your photo taken with a ‘wild’ animal on an overseas trip may be contributing to a cruel wildlife trade in that country?

Did you know most pets come to the RSPCA not because they have ‘something wrong’ with them, but because they are not properly identified and have become lost, or because poor choice of pet by the owner and lack of attention to training and socialisation have caused problems at home?

Remember - little things can make the biggest difference. It’s up to you!

This RSPCA Awareness Week you can put up a poster, send an e-card, enter a competition, attend an event or buy fun merchandise!

To get involved, visit www.rspca.org.au or contact your nearest RSPCA.

www.rspca.org.au