Born Free launches hard-hitting homeless animal campaign
A new advertising campaign highlighting homeless wild animal outcasts ‘inhabiting’ the streets of a littered and graffiti-strewn city has been launched.
Using animal images from top international photographer George Logan, Steve Hawthorne and Katy Hopkins at WCRS have created a series of thought-provoking scenes to illustrate the plight of hundreds of thousands of endangered animals, forced out of their homes by human activities such as deforestation, war, climate-change and unrestrained agriculture.
Will Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation, said: “These are quite amazing and hard-hitting images that confront people with the reality of what we are collectively doing to the natural world. They force each and every one of us to re-assess our personal impact on the future of threatened animal species.”
Logan and WCRS have donated their time and, through their contacts, secured free print and media space in support of Born Free’s efforts to prevent habitat loss and ‘keep wildlife in the wild’’.
When animal species lose their natural homes, they are forced to eke out their lives in smaller and smaller, fragmented habitats. This puts increasing pressure on the natural resources, such as food and water, that they need for their survival. In addition, decreasing availability of natural habitats mean that animals and humans often come into conflict, which can result in damage to crops, predation on livestock, persecution, injury and death.
Anne Tudor, the charity’s marketing director stated: “It’s hard for people who live in our towns and cities to imagine what life is like for ‘homeless’ wild animals. The six images in Born Free’s new ‘Homeless’ campaign which juxtapose wild animals with the urban landscape, put their plight into a context we are more familiar with. Our hope is that when people see a bear sheltering in a run-down doorway or a lone collapsed elephant surrounded by building debris, they will be able to resonate with the critical issue behind the images and be encouraged to take action.”
The campaign will feature on bus stops and billboards in and around London in the coming weeks.
For more information visit the Born Free Foundation website www.bornfree.org.uk