Ricky Gervais and Leonardo DiCaprio receive humanitarian awards
Ricky Gervais and Leonardo DiCaprio have been given awards for their humanitarian work.
The 'Office' star was honoured with the Genesis Award for Social Media by The Humane Society of the United States in aid of his tireless promotion of animal rights campaigns across his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Writing on Twitter, Ricky said:
I am touched and honoured to have won a 2015 #GenesisAward for my online animal campaigning http://t.co/yASqzUG6Ap … Thanks @HumaneSociety
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) March 10, 2015
The 'Wolf of Wall Street' actor also received recognition from the society as executive producer of 'Virunga', a documentary which raises awareness of the threat to mountain gorillas in the Congo.
'The Daily Show's departing host Jon Stewart was handed The Sid Caesar Comedy Award and commended for addressing issues including elephant slaughter on his show whilst director Morgan Spurlock was awarded with the Reality Series gong for the investigation he did into why so many pets are made homeless.
Leonardo, 40, is a tireless campaigner for animal rights and last year, he raised $25 million for the cause at a gala event.
Speaking to the guests, he said: "The wild species that depend on us to protect their habitat, like tigers whose numbers have plummeted to under 3,200 left in the wild, or African elephants, who are being slaughtered at a rate of over 30,000 a year for their ivory tusks - they have no voice.
"We must be their ambassadors. We must be their protectors. We must stop their slaughter. We must now make an effort to protect the rich biodiversity that could allow nature to eventually recover. The good news is there are solutions to these massive problems. Efforts like tonight will start addressing them."
