Australia's inaugural Meat Free Week, 18th - 24th of March 2013, campaign has already raised more than $60,000 in pledges through animal-loving Aussies who have signed up to take the seven-day challenge.

Anyone can get involved by signing up for the challenge of giving up meat for a week or sponsoring someone they know to take part, helping to raise funds for Voiceless, the animal protection institute.

Meat Free Week aims to raise awareness of factory farming and to reduce meat consumption (of all meat, including fish). Factory farming is a large-scale industrial operation that raises animals for meat (and other animal products such as eggs and milk) as if they're machinery. Their pain and distress is disregarded in the pursuit of profit. It is the number one cause of animal cruelty today and causes the most suffering to the largest number of animals in Australia – more than 500 million every year. The animals most impacted are chickens and pigs.