Speech By Louis At ACRES Gala Dinner 2013
ACRES 
May 24, 2013 
ACRES, NGOs 
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ACRES turns 12 years old today! Here’s the speech by Louis at our Gala Dinner, in celebration of 12 years of advocating for an end to animal cruelty in Asia.
Ladies and gentleman, a very good evening. Thank you so much for joining us, in celebration of our 12th birthday and in celebration of 12 years of advocating for an end to animal cruelty in Asia.
Let me start by thanking our main sponsors Nutek Private Limited, Roxtec Singapore Pte. Ltd, UMW Equipment & Engineering Pte. Ltd, Aians Auto Engineering Pte. Ltd, Singapore Press Holdings, The Silent Foundation and Orchid Country Club.
A big thank you also to Integral Power Lift (M) Sdn Bhd, Toyota BT Raymond Sales Team from UMW Equipment and Engineering Pte Ltd, Hoong Soon Service, Advance MHE Services, Union Forklift Pte. Ltd, Ah San Motor Trading & Repairing, United Liftruck (S) Pte Ltd, Soh Kim Engineering & Trading Pte Ltd for their donations.
Their sponsorship and donations means that a 100% of the funds raised at this gala dinner will go directly to the animals.
I would also like to thank Daryl, Ervin and Zaini from Enmassive for the sound and lighting, Joel and Darius from Edge Media for contributing their time and design expertise, J & D Burleigh for the wine, BZBs Pub for the beer, NPE Print Communications Pte. Ltd for printing the Gala Dinner booklet, Brownice for subsidizing the mudpies, Loving Hut for subsidizing the food, Running Media Photography for the photo booth, Vanessa from Thunder Rock School and Hirfana, Melvin and Jason from LA Salle School of Arts for the performances this evening.
Special thank you to Alpana for creating her beautiful art pieces for the auction, Inessa for donating her wonderful art piece From the Land of the Owls, Rishik for donating his special painting Rhino on the alert, Cheun Ling for donating two fantastic art pieces for the auction, Betty, Kuan, George, Lisa, The Body Shop, Banyan Tree, Philips Singapore, VeganBurg, Pawsitive Sensations, Natures Gate, Forest Adventure, IEQ Global and Edible Gardens LLP for donating the auction and lucky draw items.
Our heartfelt thanks to our fantastic volunteers Kenny, Dawn, Sharon, Selina, Sean, Rushan, Natalie, Melvin, Claudia, Samantha, Kasmiira, Nicole, Yoke Ting and Roshini who made this event possible and to our amazing interns Lynn, Jing Yu and Yi Hui.
To Halimah, for donating her time and talents to make our amazing birthday cake. Sean, for designing the fabulous postcards in your goodie bags, Cyril, our fantastic photographer and last but certainly not least, to Daryl, our charming and extremely handsome emcee for this evening and the past 5 gala dinners, who is donating his time and services to the animals.
12 years ago, I made a promise to devote my life towards advocating for an end to animal cruelty in Asia. The past 12 years have taught me a lot and Ive learnt that the only real failure is the failure to try and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment.
ACRES has had our fair share of disappointments but increasingly we are celebrating more and more successes, many of which we have listed in the gala booklet and which has been made possible with your support and donations.
Our Outreach Department have done an amazing job, conducting over 170 roadshows and or talks over the past year, empowering children and adults with knowledge on animal protection issues and inspiring them to join us in this fight.
Like, Amy, Durga and Felicia, I truly enjoy giving talks, engaging and empowering students. Once in a while though, my tongue slips and my biggest blooper was when I was giving a talk to students from Raffles Institution about why whale sharks dont do well in captivity. I told them whale sharks clearly dont do well because it is hard to feed them as they survive on small orgasms.
I had one of those what did I just say moments but it was too late for me to correct myself and say that whale sharks survive on small organisms and the little boys laughing didnt hear me anyway. The good news is that RI still invites me back to give talks but I no longer talk about whale sharks.
Our Outreach Department has done a similarly incredible job inspiring people. Volunteers contributed over 5,400 volunteer hours to ACRES last year, thanks to the hard work of Gretchen, who attended last years gala dinner as our volunteer but who has now joined us full-time and heads our volunteer programme. And Kenneth our Communications Executive who recently joined us and is busy kick starting new fundraising initiatives to ensure that we are financially sustainable in our efforts.
This years gala dinner, it wont just be me speaking and I have decided to change the format. Let me know take this opportunity to now invite Megan, our 10 years old volunteer onto the stage. Megan has truly inspired us with her passion and let me be honest to say her courage to give a speech to all of you, bearing in mind she is only 10 years old. Megan please.
[Megans speech]
Thank you Megan. Megan is undoubtedly a shining example of someone determined to make a difference and make this world a better place for animals. She is what our Outreach Department hopes that all children will be like and her mum has confirmed that she will be joining ACRES as a full-time staff once she is old enough. Actually, Jo, her mum didnt say that but if I dont hear any violent objections in the next 2 seconds, it is confirmed.
Beyond our outreach efforts, we continue to take action, in the firm belief that ignoring a problem would not solve it, talking about the problem would not solve it either, it is only by taking action will we be able to solve the problems.
Kassandra, our Cruelty-free living executive has been fighting hard to end animal testing for cosmetic purposes in ASEAN
And we continue to fight for the freedom of the dolphins forcefully removed from the wild and confined by Resorts World. Many have asked if we have lost the battle, but let me assure you that the battle is very much alive and our commitment to the dolphins remains to our last breath.
Neil Humphreys is here this evening and he launched his new childrens book today I trapped a dolphin but it really wasnt my fault. This book will create the much needed awareness about protecting dolphins and with more and more support, I am confident that we will secure the freedom of the dolphins and they will be swimming freely in the Solomon Islands ocean again.
Im also pleased to inform you that the animals in Malaysian zoos have been given a new lease of life.
Following a decade long campaign, we finally succeeded in campaigning for Malaysias first legislation to safeguard the welfare of zoo animals and 6 of the worst zoos including the one in this video, have already been shut down on animal welfare grounds.
We have also put an end to barbaric animal shows like this in Malaysia and through our partnership and joint zoo inspections with the Malaysian government, we will make sure that captive animals in Malaysia will face a much brighter future and that their welfare will no longer be compromised.
Our Wildlife Team has also been tirelessly and relentlessly rescuing wild animals in Singapore and clamping down on the illegal wildlife trade. Last year, we received over 3,100 hotline calls and rescued over 1,600 wild animals. Anbu, Lester, Kalai, Angela, Hui Bin, Perry, Joseph and Aishah are a truly incredible team who work 36-hour shifts and are on the frontline is rescuing and protecting wild animals in Singapore.
But we can always do more and as Say Lin, our Director for our Lao office said, Im a boss who is fiercely optimistic, bordering unrealistic.
People have told me it would be impossible for us to establish ourselves in Lao, a foreign country where we dont even speak the language. People told me that we will never find similarly passionate Lao members of staff who are willing to sacrifice and devote their life towards this cause.
Let me now invite Kham Cheng, our Animal Care manager at our Sanctuary in Lao to share his personal journey. Kham Cheng has joined us for close to a year now and our first rescued Malayan sun bear Neung survived only because of his and Say Lins commitment which included waking up in the middle of the night, every 4 hours actually, to bottle feed this little bear who was captured from the wild for the illegal wildlife trade. Kham Cheng please.
[Kham Chengs speech]
Thank you Kham Cheng and thank you for the remarkable work you, Say Lin and Phattana do in Lao.
Its been 12 years but this journey has just started. Have we ended animal cruelty? We clearly have not but we continue to work on our promise to all the animals and deliver our promise to the individual ones.
I met this stump-tailed macaque who we have named Hope almost 2 years ago in Laos and I promised her a better life. It has taken years of work, tears, sweat and Kham Cheng will confirm this, blood, but we finally delivered on our promise. 2 weeks ago, for the first time, she felt what it was like to touch grass and see the sky. She, unfortunately cant be released into the wild yet but at least she and her 3 friends now have a much better life.
And on behalf of Hope and her friends, thank you to all the volunteers in Singapore who went up to Lao to build her this new home.
[Giving "Hope" to animals in Lao PDR - ACRES Lao Wildlife Sanctuary video]
And the 4 of them are getting along very well and from the photo on the right, the boy seems to be enjoying it slightly more. I think!
For those interested and forgive me for some shameless advertising, our next volunteer trip to our Lao Sanctuary will be from 21 to 30 June. Places are limited and while stocks last so book your tickets now.
In Singapore, our rescued star tortoises who have endured immense suffering, being poached from the wild, stuffed into suitcases, checked in as baggage on board flights from Chennai to Singapore and kept illegally as pets are finally getting a second chance at life.
This week, they finally felt grass again, trying out their brand new outdoor enclosures at the ACRES Wildlife Rescue Centre. Heres the video of Perumal checking out her new enclosure.
[Perumal video]
And the star tortoises have to thank all the volunteers who came to the rescue centre over the past few Sundays, often in the rain, to build this new home for them.
People stop me on the street and ask me why I bother, why Ive not left this country, how can I possibly have hope that things can and will change here and in ASEAN.
Everyday Im haunted by the images of animals Ive seen being abused, sometimes in the name of progress. Everyday Im haunted by the promises Ive made to these animals, haunted by the fact that despite giving a 110%, we may not be able to fulfil the promises weve made.
But every day I wake up knowing that this struggle and this fight is growing stronger and that with our limited resources we will fight people who exploit animals, with nothing but our passion and determination.
I am not a superhero the students painted me out to be in the cartoon. Although they did get the centre parting right.
This is far from a one man show. We now have a team of 16 passionate people in Singapore and 91 people in Lao dedicated towards ending animal cruelty in Asia.
And we will never be silent or silenced but we need your help. In the past 12 years, Ive learnt many things but most importantly Ive learnt to become a professional beggar. People constantly remind me that you have to ask before people will donate. So here goes. Please donate generously tonight. And remember, it really isnt us begging for your donation, it is the animals who so desperately need your help.
Ive also learnt to continue to expect the best while preparing for the worst. Tonight, I expect that all of you will drink loads, get drunk and bid for the auction items, donate generously and remember as always, that we accept cash, credit or cheques.
But I will also prepare for the worst and if we dont raise enough funds tonight, it means not letting those who didnt donate leave.
Ive held the hands of too many animals who have breathed their last breath looking at me. But at least they can never suffer, be hurt or exploited again. But please help us fulfil their wish of a better world, a wish that we should, we can and we must fulfil.
I cannot end this speech without thanking my parents Robert and Angela and my sister Lynette who have given me the support to pursue my dreams and to all of you, donors and supporters for empowering all of us at ACRES to end animal cruelty in Asia.
For those who still believe that change is not possible, I did finally change my hairstyle last year after more than 2 decades and a fair bit of persuasion. Even though it was only for an hour, change did happen.
Remember, nothing is impossible, miracles take time.
I wish you all a pleasant evening. Thank you.
Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151461044526523&set=a.10151461044381523.1073741841.22159071522&type=1&relevant_count=22
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