English

The international exchange of experiences of civil societies involved in animal welfare and the working out of proposals concerning the protection of animals for sustainable European development.

Introduction, the summary and the description of the project.
The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of organisations involved in animal welfare in terms of providing voluntary help as well as the improvement of their ability to exercise their legal rights and their capability to form relationships with the local public, public authorities of local governments, also the international sharing of experiences as well as the searching for new ideas, solutions and good practices for the development of voluntariness and active European citizenship.The general purpose of our project is to open the eyes of people to the fact that VOULUNTARY ACTIVITES IMPROVE LIVING QUALITY AND DEVELOPE INDIVIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES AND ARE THE BASIC PROPERTIES OF ACTIVE CITIZENS.Our imagination about the project was inspired by the fact that the Europe for Citizens program provides a wide range of opportunities of exchanging experiences in terms of learning about the best practices/practical solutions of different countries. The program also provides insight into how different countries build relationships, how they cooperate and enhance the exchange of information/knowledge as well as the introduction of good examples.We expect civil organisations coming from other EU member states to present their experiences in terms of exercising their legal rights determined by EU regulations in the field of animal welfare as well as their methods for organising voluntary actions. We will learn about each other’s problems and successes in the framework of workshops where we can work out proposals for the development of directives related to the strengthening of animal welfare and voluntariness. We can develop the active environmental voluntary citizenship by the adoption of best practices throughout the meetings and conferences as well as the relationship between businesses and local governments and authorities. The invited parties may receive a realistic picture about the problem of the other and an opportunity to work out the means of maintaining stronger partnerships for the achievement of more effective animal welfare and voluntary work.We intend to provide for the professional progress of our volunteers by training and holding team building seminars and international conferences for the exchange of overall experiences. Working out proposals for animal welfare connected to the sustainable development of Europe and the dissemination of the results in the framework of our project is also part of our objectives.The targets of our project aside from the participants are the citizens of all member states. We intend to raise the attention of EU citizens not only to the connections between animal welfare and the environment but also to the importance of animal-human relationships as well as to the effects of voluntary work on individual personal development. Based on our experiences organisations involved in animal welfare are usually micro communities of democracy, which are very much underfinanced in Eastern European member states. They are extremely overwhelmed and their activities are based on voluntary work that demands great sacrifice from volunteers. These organisations currently work with a relatively small number of volunteers at the time being. The spreading of the practice of citizenship activities, solidarity and tolerance is slower among the citizens in post socialist member states (eastern European member states) than what the surfacing economic problems would demand. What we experience is that following the forced communities of the dictatorship exaggerated individualism, general refraining, the lack of cooperation and social confidence is what characterises the Eastern member statesThe role of partner organisations in the project is to help organize the one week German and Slovak exchange of experiences and to mobilise the stakeholders of local governments, authorities or other public bodies, civil organisations and businesses in the region involved in animal welfare. The purpose is to allow the stakeholders to share their experiences, to decide about the professional content, the speakers and the topics of the workshops of certain events.

The introduction of the organisation applying for tender

FOUNDATION FAUNA

Foundation Fauna was established in 1990 in Budapest. Its objective is to disseminate information about the culture of animal protection and animal welfare as well as to support researches and publications which substitute animal experimentations and so prevent animals from being experimented on. We conduct our activities with the help of scientific workshops at Universities (University St. Stephen Department of Veterinary and Ethologic, Professor Williams Csányi, with effected authorities, with Civil Organisations, Public Activists). We award the students at the faculty of veterinary for Scientific Essays written in the subject of animal welfare with different prizes.

The founder of our organisation was Agnes Széchy (deceased) who had been the front fighter and so had initialised the Hungarian law regulating animal welfare.

By the end of the nineties our foundation launched the training of teachers in the field of animal welfare organised by Ágnes Pethő. The scene for the trainings was provided by the Zoo and Botany of Budapest.

We have submitted a proposal to our government suggesting the integration of animal welfare (as a method for building tolerance towards beings of lower intelligence) into the national basic curriculum in the framework of a subject.

Cooperating with civil partners involved in adult education and environment as well as churches we propagate animal welfare meaning the basic principles of the maintaining of the wellbeing of animals connected to food safety and sustainable rural development all over the Carpathian Basin.

We have also prepared a footage of 70 minutes introducing the good relationship between Man and Dog with Etiologist Vilmos Csányi and Psychologist Peter Popper in 2003. The footage was broadcasted on the Duna Television as a reaction to the accumulating news in the media about dog attacks and conflicts between people and dogs. We disseminate the footage (called dog film) on DVD to schools and camps for children. The purpose of this film is to decrease the alienation of the technocrat people from nature and to improve the communication between people and animals.

The problems concerning animal welfare have been accumulating as an effect of the economic crisis in the form of neglect- including both pets and farm animals and the increasing aggression against animals- these phenomenon obviously push our scientific work into the background, since we must be constantly present at the solving of local conflicts related to the welfare of animals.

We provide help in terms of legal questions – in many cases to the puzzled public administrators of the local governments, in fact to county recorders as well.

We also provide financial aid to animal shelters in trouble for obtaining SOS medical treatment for the animals. We maintain daily contact with the domestic organisations in the field of animal welfare.

We included the training of specialists of animal welfare into our plans as a result of the encouragement by animal shelters and also as a result of the enquiries of animal husbandries/farms.

Being at the constant disposition of the public we participate in the search for adopters and are involved in providing advice to the public on a daily basis within the Central Hungarian Region.

With the help of our homepage (www.faunaalapitvany.hu) we transfer animal friendly volunteers longing for learning to animal shelters, to animal husbandries and farms intending to provide for the wellbeing of their animals as well as to bio farms and eco villages.

We enrich children’s’ programs at summer camps by teaching children about animal welfare and by organising activities of handcrafting for them. We actively participate in the process of national and EU legal harmonisation programs as well as in the civil programs concerning natural and environmental protection.