British comedy legend and the man behind TV shows The Office, Derek and Extras, Ricky Gervais has been presented with the Arthur Broome Bronze Award for speaking out against animal cruelty and championing the work of animal charities to his eight million Twitter followers.
Ricky recently shared this photo on his Facebook page with the caption ‘If you don’t have empathy with animals, you don’t have empathy.’
Gervais, owner of Ollie the cat, was filming in LA at the time of the awards ceremony but was sent his award, which recognises an important contribution in the field of animal welfare.
Ricky and Ollie, his furry bagpipes, shared on Twitter
The campaigning group behind what became known as Harvey’s Law also received the Arthur Broome Bronze Award, during the fifth annual RSPCA Honours. Pets killed on Britain’s highways will now be collected, identified and their owners notified, thanks largely to the petition launched by the group, which was signed by more than 100,000 people.
The campaign was launched by Nina Blackburn after her friend Jude Devine’s dog Harvey was killed on the M62 minutes after he went missing in 2013 – only for Jude to find out months later, after spending thousands of pounds searching for her beloved poodle.
A volunteer RNLI crew from Merseyside were also recognised for their brave rescue of a dog in treacherous conditions at New Brighton in February.
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