I would say that 99% of people in the world are opposed to animal cruelty. Most of us would lend our support to a cause as great as this, but many of us aren't really sure how we can help out. I was fortunate enough to interview Elizabeth Anile, a co founder of ATAAC ("Australian Teens Against Animal Cruelty".. I know the majority of you readers aren't teenagers so for the purpose of this article, you can pretend it's "Australian Twentysomethings Against Animal Cruelty"). 

As a youngin' Elizabeth grew up having compassion and respect for all animals. It wasn't until she was 16 years old that she realised that "there was no difference between the lamb on my plate and my beautiful Labrador dog sitting at my feet." After realising this, it prompted Elizabeth to become a vegetarian and inspired her to do more to help and care for all animals.

After volunteering for a number of animal groups in Victoria, she realised that there wasn't one single youth group against animal cruelty run by youths. Elizabeth spoke out to other teenagers and discovered that many of them were too intimidated to ask for advice about vegetarianism or weren't 100% sure of how they can actively be involved with helping to eradicate "horrific issues such as whaling". 

Elizabeth got together with buddy Andrew Glover and decided to combine everything they knew about animal rights and vegetarianism and created ATAAC. Elizabeth describes ATAAC as "an educational group that is dedicated to providing the youth of Australia with the facts of a range of animal issues; from factory farming to the dancing bears in India to the street dogs of Bulgaria."

"ATAAC believes that education is the key to prevention" Elizabeth says, "We research and gather information and project it to our readers so that they in turn can make an informed and educated decision." 

Elizabeth and Andrew have had many people contact them saying that they weren't aware of the treatment of farm animals and once being educated on these subjects they've made the decision to ditch the meat and go vego. 

You too can help end the horrid treatment of so many animals today. Even if you feel like you're not doing much, every little bit counts! 

Here's a few quick tips from Elizabeth:

1) Become a vegetarian. The average vegetarian saves the lives of 95 animals per year. By making the decision of cutting meat out of your diet, you are responsible for saving the lives of so many animals that otherwise would be subjected to mistreatment in factory farms and slaughter houses.

 

2) Get involved! Contact an animal organisation that you are most interested in and start volunteering your time. There are so many amazing organisations out there that need all the support they can get. 

 

3) Donate money. ATAAC donates money to many charities and organisations all over the world. ATAAC's fundraising efforts alone have helped street dogs and cats in India, Egypt, Bulgaria and Spain from abuse and mistreatment and assisted with vaccination and desexing campaigns. The list of charities we have donated to can be found on our website, if anyone else wants to get involved, has any ideas or can help us fundraise please contact us!

Visit the ATAAC website

Become a fan on Facebook

Elizabeth and Andrew have also just returned from a trip to India where they filmed a feature length documentary about animal welfare. To read all about their trip & see some amazing photos, visit their blog.