searching for 2020’s inspirational animal heroes

Update: August 2020

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing pandemic, we have postponed the Animal Action Awards event until Spring 2021. We would like to thank everyone who made a nomination and we look forward to recognising the incredible dedication and achievements that have been made in the name of animal welfare. Please stay tuned for more details.

we are delighted to open up nominations for ifaw’s 2020 animal action awards.

These annual awards are presented during a ceremony at the House of Lords to honour the achievements of incredible people who have made a significant contribution to animal protection in the UK. The event is attended by Lords, Ladies, MPs and other VIP guests, as well as animal-loving friends and colleagues.

The awards give us an opportunity to highlight to the public the amazing efforts of some of the people who work tirelessly for animals, and will hopefully inspire others to do something extra in the name of animals too. We love reading through all the nominations that we receive, and it raises our spirits to find out how people across the UK are dedicating their time to helping animals every day.

The awards are all about celebrating the public’s commitment to animal welfare and showcasing the work of these often unsung animal heroes from all around the UK. This year we hope to make awards across a range of categories with new additions including a young person’s award and an innovation award, as well as an award for individual species protection.

But, we need your help to identify the most worthy winners!

Nominations are now closed.

In 2019, we honoured the achievements of nine award winners for their incredible work helping animals and people. Baroness Gale, a long-standing friend of IFAW, kindly hosts our awards each year. Naturalist and broadcasting legend Bill Oddie presented awards to the deserving winners who, between them, had strived to help hedgehogs, horses, rhinos, seals, dogs, pine martens and more.

We also have an award category every year for a special animal that helps people, because sometimes heroes have more than two feet. Last year, search and rescue dog Diesel received an award for searching for vulnerable missing people at home and overseas. So this year, once again, as well as human winners, we’re looking for one animal that has done, or frequently does, something extra special for their human friends – whether they’ve helped, supported or changed the lives of one person or many in the community, we want to find them!

Can you help? If you know someone whose work with animals deserves to be recognised, then we need you to tell us! We’d love to hear from you about any person or animal in the UK that you believe deserves one of our prestigious IFAW 2020 Animal Action Awards.

Perhaps the potential winner runs a rescue centre or wildlife sanctuary, or maybe they give up their precious free time to help animals or educate children about them; they might be a young fundraiser or campaigner who has made a difference to an organisation or their community. Maybe they’re a wonderful pet or working animal who has changed someone’s life for the better. Whoever they are, we need you to tell us about them!

The 2020 Animal Action Awards will be presented in October. Our closing date for nominations is June 30.

It won’t take long, but it could make all the difference as we work to highlight more unsung animal heroes and inspire the next generation of animal lovers to go the extra mile.

Thank you so much for helping us to recognise the achievements of these wonderful individuals.

Nominations are now closed.