Case Study: the “Freedom of Animals“ association
I. Origin and objectives
The Sloboda zvierat (Freedom of Animals) association is a non-governmental ecological
organization that focuses on animal rights protection. It was established in 1992 in the east
Slovak city of Košice and its headquarters is currently based in Bratislava. The Sloboda zvierat
association has more than 30,000 members and over 30 regional centres.
The essence of association’s activity is to protect particular animal species through providing
optimum living conditions for each individual animal. The organization condemns harming any
living creatures, causing them to suffer, and suppressing their behavioural and other needs that
are necessary preconditions for their harmonious life. The main objective of the organization is to
protect animals from suffering, stress, pain, as well as from being abused by men. The
organization strives to accomplish its goals mostly by pursuing educational and enlightening
activities directed at the broadest masses possible, by printing leaflets, brochures and other
printed matters, but also by direct protest actions, assisting in rescuing animals, and trying to
influence the legislation that concerns animals.
At the time the Sloboda zvierat association began its operation, the animal protection in Slovakia
was at a relatively low level. The legislation that would govern this issue was inadequate (there
was no law on animal protection and no other legal regulations dealing in these problems),
shelters for abandoned animals did not exist, and perception by the population of the entire issue
of animal protection was generally very poor. The Sloboda zvierat association vowed to begin
changing this system gradually. In the early stage of its existence, its members used sometimes
very radical means to achieve their goals (e.g. damaging fur coats, shop-windows, etc.). But these
means provoked opposition on the part of the population. Consequently, the Sloboda zvierat
association gradually shifted its emphasis to employing less radical means and activities, mostly
the following:
 campaigning – education of the population, enlightening activities, co-operating with massmedia and advertising agencies;
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 offering direct assistance in rescuing animals, providing first aid, intervening against animal
maltreatment, organizing rescue missions, operating animal shelters and subsequently placing
abandoned animals with new owners;
 expert work in the field of creating new legislation and amending the existing one, annotating
regulations and by-laws, contacting foreign partnership organizations, co-operating with
scientists and experts, collecting information and documentation.
2. Organizational structure
The Sloboda zvierat association employs 11 professional activists at the organization’s
headquarters, which is structured as follows:
 department of co-ordination and communication (chairman of the association, organization’s
secretariat, human resources management, maintaining official relations, keeping membership
files, distributing printed matters, working with volunteers, etc.);
 economic department (obtaining financial funding, organizing beneficial events, obtaining
material gifts, receiving visits of sponsors, managing distribution, working with media, etc.);
 department of animal protection (conducting surveys on animal maltreatment, keeping
documentation, preparing rescue missions, managing campaign, working with experts,
implementing projects and any other activities related to animal protection, etc.);
 department of external relations (co-operating with foreign partnership organizations,
translating services, etc.);
 operating an animal shelter (locating and seizing stray animals, rescuing and taking care of
stray animals, operating a hot line for receiving information from people about suspected
cruelty to animals, etc.).
The main organs of the organization are the committee and the executive board. The committee
has seven members who manage all activities of the Sloboda zvierat association and elect its
chairman and deputy chairman.
The Sloboda zvierat association has 12 regional centres that enable volunteering activists to
participate in protection and rescue of animals.
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3. Activities of the Sloboda zvierat association
3.1. Protection of animals
The Sloboda zvierat association accepts information from citizens about suspected cruelty to
animals and subsequently tries to remedy these cases by employing due legal procedures.
The Sloboda zvierat association pursues the goal of protecting all animals in the following
categories:
 wildlife animals (issues of hunting, fishing, ZOO, circuses, wild nature, endangered species,
rescue missions);
 agronomic animals (issues of animal transports, large-scale breeding granges, slaughterhouses,
battery breeding, vegetarianism);
 animals for experimenting and testing (issues of cosmetic industry, laboratory research
alternatives, education, pharmacy, vivisection);
 domestic animals (issues of shelters, locating and seizing stray animals, registration,
sterilization, urban animals, sale of animals, responsible breeding).
3.2. Animal shelter in Bratislava
The Sloboda zvierat association operates in Bratislava a shelter for abandoned and maltreated
animals. There are 12 additional people employed at the shelter, including operators, animal
locators, animal tenders, a veterinary surgeon, and a veterinary technician. Since 1995, the
organization performs the task of locating and seizing stray animals according to an agreement
with the Bratislava City Council. By concluding the agreement, the Sloboda zvierat association
replaced a knacker service that had in the past removed animals from the streets of Bratislava by
shooting them. Each year, the Sloboda zvierat association rescues approximately 2,000 animals
in Bratislava alone. Hundreds more animals are placed in organization’s self-help branches
scattered all around Slovakia.
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3.3. Campaigns
In the framework of its activity, the Sloboda zvierat association prepares and organizes a number
of campaigns, both short-term and long-term. The goal of these campaigns is to decrease or
totally eliminate suffering of animals and their unnecessary slaughtering in the following four
basic categories:
 animals for experimenting and testing
 domestic animals
 wildlife animals
 agronomic animals
Successful campaigns organized so far by the Sloboda zvierat association:
Campaign against using animals for the purposes of entertainment and sports
In 1993, the Sloboda zvierat was successful in foiling an attempt by Spanish entrepreneurs to
organize bullfighting events on the territory of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The objective
of the campaign headlined “Help Stop Bullfighting“ and complemented by a petition, was to
declare that the citizens of Slovakia did not wish to see such “bloody entertainment.“ The goal
of the Sloboda zvierat association is to influence public opinion in order to accomplish that
“blood sports become a thing of the past as soon as possible, following the example of
gladiators’ fights.“ The Sloboda zvierat association actively participated in the first wave of
protests against the Velká Pardubická steeplechase, a dangerous horse-racing event held annually
in the east-Czech town of Pardubice, the result of which was changing the too-demanding profile
of the race course. The organization also endorsed the follow-up campaign that called for
abolishing the steeplechase.
Among other similar activities of the organization are actions against sports fishing and cooperation with organizations that monitor hunting; it also participated in passing stringent
legislation that limited powers of hunters’ associations. Association’s survey monitoring illegal
animal fights is currently under way.
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“Teach to Compassion“ educational campaign
This campaign was launched in 1994 and its main objective was that using animals for
educational purposes at primary and secondary schools be brought to a halt. Part of the campaign
was distributing leaflets, posters and brochures. Also, a petition drive was organized, collecting
over 75,000 signatures. The campaign was supported by Michal Kováč, then-President of
Slovakia, as well as several prominent actors and singers. A so-called telephoning day was held
in many Slovak towns and cities, giving an opportunity to citizens to give responsible officials a
call and convey to them their request to stop dissection at schools. The association organized a
protest rally in front of the ministry of education, attracting about 500 supporters. The campaign
was successfully concluded by the decision adopted by the minister of education to forbid
dissection at all primary and secondary schools.
“Stop Testing Cosmetic Products on Animals“ educational campaign
In 1995, the Sloboda zvierat association launched a campaign for abolishing cosmetic products’
testing on animals. In the framework of the campaign, it called directly on the minister of health
care to cease the testing. The number of animals used for these experiments was alarming. Still in
xxx1996, a total of 69,000 animals were used for testing.
The Sloboda zvierat association sent an official letter to all political parties represented in Slovak
Parliament, calling on them to appeal to the minister of health care and request him to stop
testing cosmetic products on animals.
Organization’s activists placed a petition stand directly in front of the Parliament in order to
inform the deputies about their objectives and enable them to sign the petition. The Sloboda
zvierat association decided to organize a petition drive because of its positive experience with the
preceding petition. This one was signed by over 97,000 citizens. Campaign documentation was
distributed to the media and other NGOs. In Bratislava, a demonstration headlined “Humanity
Against Cruelty“ and a protest rally in front of the ministry of health care took place. Both events
were boosted by participation of prominent personalities. Within the campaign’s framework, a
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special Internet web site was created. In May 1998, this concentrated pressure brought partial
success, when Jaroslav Volf, a parliamentary deputy, publicly appealed to the minister of health
care to outlaw testing of cosmetic products on animals. After four years of intensive
campaigning, in April 1999, the ministry of health care finally came to accord with campaigners’
requests and officially banned using animals for testing both domestic and foreign cosmetic
products. Thanks to the endeavour by the Sloboda zvierat association, the Slovak Republic was
the first Central European country to adopt such legislation.
Campaign promoting compassion in dressing
The Sloboda zvierat association organized a nation-wide campaign that promoted compassion in
dressing. According to its representatives, this campaign contributed to the decline in sale of fur
coats in Slovakia. However, they failed to corroborate this information by concrete figures. The
Sloboda zvierat association also joined an international campaign drive for adopting an
international ban on catching animals into jaw traps. Its campaign in Slovakia was supported by a
number of Slovak celebrities.
Campaign promoting vegetarianism
Since the beginning of its existence, the Sloboda zvierat association has been placing emphasis
on changing the menu of the modern population. It organizes various events at which
vegetarianism is promoted and vegetarian meals are tasted; it holds enlightening activities in
towns, publishes brochures promoting benefits of meatless diet. Besides advancing the change in
a lifestyle of each individual through the shift toward vegetarianism, the association’s members
strive to promote a gradual improvement in conditions of agronomic animals that are bred for
meat; they require abolishing animal transports, banning battery breeding of chicken and
introducing free breeding. Several times they successfully intervened in cases of maltreating
animals at large-scale breeding granges, and they also monitor killing animals in slaughterhouses.
“Time for Change, Time for Compassion“ educational campaign
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In 1999, the Sloboda zvierat association launched a campaign headlined “Time for Change, Time
for Compassion,“ which pursued the following objectives:
1) To lobby representatives of municipal governments in order to build shelters for
abandoned and maltreated animals in a number of Slovak towns;
2) To mount political pressure on deputies of the Slovak Parliament in order to make
them amend and update the law on protection of animals and outlaw euthanasia of healthy
domestic animals.
Not even the largest cities in Slovakia have any homes for stray animals and most of them
neglect and overlook this problem. About a half of them spend money every year to pay knacker
companies that kill stray animals. They do not even consider sterilization as a possible solution.
The campaign was launched by organizing a petition drive, which scored such a success with the
population that eventually it became the largest and most successful environmental campaign
ever to be organized in Slovakia. The main goal of the campaign was to put an end to killing
stray animals in the streets and promote the idea of building shelters for them. On June 6, 1999,
representatives of the Sloboda zvierat association submitted to representatives of the Slovak
Parliament petition sheets containing signatures of 196,150 citizens. According to the law on
petitions, Parliament has to deal with any petition that has been signed by at least 100,000
citizens. One of the first tangible results of this campaign was establishing an information hotline designed to prevent cruelty to animals and opening four shelters for abandoned animals. But
even these partial achievements enabled employees and volunteers of the Sloboda zvierat
association to place a total of 1,444 animals into shelters and solve 167 cases of animal
maltreatment in 1999 alone. Last year, the Sloboda zvierat association began publishing its
magazine called PRECIT, in which it informs citizens about its activities and improves their
awareness of animals’ rights.
Campaigns that are currently under way:
Currently, the Sloboda zvierat association is devoting its capacities to the following campaigns:
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 campaign to stop abusing, keeping, and taming animals in circuses;
 campaign to improve living conditions of animals kept in ZOOs; the association advocates the
principle that Slovak ZOOs should keep only fauna that belongs to Central European climate
and demands that all animal breeding in ZOOs for commercial purposes be stopped;
 campaign to abolish ostrich farms;
 campaign to cease breeding fur species on farms;
 campaign to outlaw knacker services, promote building animal shelters, increase the practice
of sterilizing domestic animals, their micro-chip “branding“, and marking with tags;
 campaign to build a new animal shelter in Bratislava;
 campaign against buying out puppies;
 campaign to bring to a halt suffering and killing of animals in experimental laboratories;
 campaign to promote alternative methods of experimenting;
 campaign to improve living conditions of agronomic animals – mostly issues of animal
transports and large-scale breeding granges;
 campaign to abolish brutal methods of testing the quality of meat (biopsy);
 campaign to introduce and enforce more humane methods of slaughtering agronomic animals;
relentlessly promote vegetarianism;
 campaign to promote employing volunteer inspectors;
 campaign to promote healthy lifestyle;
 campaign to outlaw using animals in advertisements and commercials.
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4. Other achievements of the Sloboda zvierat association
Among other significant achievements of the Sloboda zvierat association certainly belongs
mounting an enormous pressure on responsible authorities to adopt in June 1995 the Act on
Animal Protection. This law stipulated that maltreating animals was a criminal offence and
established a system of state inspectors; these inspectors are bound by law to investigate cases of
animal maltreatment. This law and following regulations and by-laws have significantly changed
the situation in the field of animal protection in Slovakia. Following is a glimpse at law’s
provisions:
As far as domestic animals are concerned, a lot has been changed – for instance, all animals now
have to be marked by tags or micro-chips...
As far as agronomic animals are concerned, slaughtering animals by a xxxpiker was outlawed
and now it is legal only after the animal has been dazed.
In the field of animals for experimenting and testing, all existing laboratories must go through a
brand new accreditation process and the ones that fail to fulfil all requirements will be closed
down.
As far as wildlife animals are concerned, a minimum size of game preserves was stipulated and
breeding animals in mobile menageries was outlawed.
Apart from the mentioned campaigns, the Sloboda zvierat association recorded other significant
achievements, such as rescuing and placing with new owners more than 7,000 animals or
organizing an exhibition headlined “Days of the Opened Eyes“ that was visited by over 55,000
people. Since it was established, the association has organized more than 20 beneficial concerts
and has published more than 100 publications of high edition outputs.
The realization of an advertising campaign headlined “You Need a Friend“ also scored a great
success and was awarded a Bronze Nail, a prestigious prize presented by the Slovak Association
of Advertising Agencies.
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In 1997, the Sloboda zvierat association established a co-operation with Radio Twist, one of the
most influential private radio stations in the country. Nowadays, Radio Twist helps promote the
Sloboda zvierat association’s activities, free of charge. Moreover, the radio station prepares
advertising spots for the Sloboda zvierat association that are subsequently broadcast by other
radio stations. Beginning in September 2000, the association will have its own program on this
radio station, broadcast once a month.
Successful campaigns organized by the Sloboda zvierat association, together with effective
media promotion of its particular actions made the association one of the most prominent
ecological organizations in the country. Sociological surveys suggest that it ranks among the five
most recognized Slovak non-governmental organizations. It has managed to draw attention of a
significant part of the population, especially young people, to the most pressing problems of
animal protection. The Sloboda zvierat always tries to involve prominent figures in its activities.
It is traditionally supported by renowned Slovak actresses Kamila Magálová and Zdena
Studénková, Czech singer Marta Kubišová, and former Slovak President Michal Kováč.
The Sloboda zvierat association has proven its ability to influence public opinion as well as
politicians’ decision-making, which has eventually led to real changes in legislation that concerns
animals. The most tangible result of the Sloboda zvierat association’s activity is that Slovakia
currently has very progressive legislation regarding animal protection, legislation comparable
with that of Scandinavian countries, for instance. This achievement is even more groundbreaking
given the fact that the Sloboda zvierat association managed to advance these legislative changes
during the period when administration of Premier Vladimír Mečiar was not quite well-disposed
towards initiatives originating in the NGO environment.
In June 1997, the Sloboda zvierat association was evaluated as the most progressive organization
of its kind in the entire region of Eastern Europe. The Sloboda zvierat association is a member of
the World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Royal Society for Preventing
Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the oldest and largest animal protection organization in the world.
The association closely co-operates with a number of foreign organizations of similar kind,
which is very inspiring to its own business and organization of its own activities.
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5. Future plans of the Sloboda zvierat association
In the future, the Sloboda zvierat association intends to focus its activity on improving conditions
of domestic, wildlife, laboratory and agronomic animals, as well as on developing effective cooperation with the State Veterinary Service and establishing a network of voluntary inspectors.
In the field of domestic animal protection, the Sloboda zvierat association will try to put through
the project of building animal shelters in all major Slovak towns; help implement preventive
measures; further influence the legislative process; control population of various animal species;
and manage locating and seizing stray animals. In order to increase the number of animals from
its shelters that are adopted by new owners, the Sloboda zvierat association prepares to launch a
program called Adopthaton. Program’s objectives include supporting animal adoption, creating a
network of shelters, and improving co-operation with the population. Another goal in the field of
domestic animal protection is to make the work of the national animal micro-chipping centre
more effective. This project will include a promotional campaign advertising the benefits of
animal micro-chipping. Simultaneously, the campaign will promote the idea of animal
sterilization. The Sloboda zvierat association will also make an effort to catalyze the adoption of
a legal regulation stipulating that all funds generated by collecting dog ownership fees must be
allocated to solving problems of animal population in towns.
In the field of wildlife animal protection, the Sloboda zvierat association will focus on enforcing
the legislation that stipulates optimum living conditions of wild animals kept in circuses.
Besides, the association will continue to monitor zoological gardens, co-operate with directors of
particular ZOOs, and enforce the amendments adopted to the Regulation No. 231/98 that governs
the operation of ZOOs. At the same time, the association will stand up for outlawing the breeding
of wildlife animals by private breeders. As far as fur farms are concerned, the Sloboda zvierat
association will attempt to achieve the legal re-grading of fur animals into the category of
wildlife animals, which would bring stricter conditions to be applied to breeding fur animals on
farms. As far as ostrich breeding is concerned, the association will stand up for abolishing their
breeding for economic purposes.
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In the field of laboratory animal protection, the Sloboda zvierat association advocates reaccreditation of laboratories and their permanent supervision, which includes precise filing of all
experiments and setting up an ethical commission that would monitor the situation at practical
laboratories. The association’s participation in the EURONICHE international project envisages
creation of a team of students who would promote using alternative methods of laboratory
experiments at universities. The project’s main emphasis is on educational activity in the field of
using alternative methods that should in future replace using live experimental animals.
In the field of agronomic animal protection, the Sloboda zvierat association is planning to launch
a campaign that will aim to outlaw battery breeding, encourage free breeding and familiarize the
population with the problem of large-scale breeding granges. The association also intends to help
promote products made at ecological farms. One of the main objectives of the Sloboda zvierat
association in this field is to introduce strict norms applied to transporting, loading and
slaughtering animals. This should be accompanied by education about humane treatment of
animals and animal welfare that would focus mainly on universities, secondary schools and
breeders.
The Sloboda zvierat association intends to continue educating the population by organizing
public events, publishing educational publications and leaflets, opening a library specialized in
animals’ rights and promoting humane education at primary and secondary schools.
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