Worldlog week 46 - 2014 - Main contents

Yes! In March 2015, we will participate in the provincial council elections in 10 provinces. The Netherlands has 12 provinces in total and I am proud that we have found good candidates in 10 of them, who dare to take up the challenge to stand up for animals, nature and the environment. And we have also drawn up lists of candidates for eight Water Authorities (Dutch administrative body for water management). Both elections take place on the same day.

Since the elections of 2011, our Party has had a seat in seven provincial councils. And of course, we are now going for ten of them! Obviously we also hope to increase our number of representatives per province. Looking at the polls, there’s a good chance that we will.

It’s very important to us to participate in these elections because much decision-making in the provinces immediately affects animals, nature and the environment. For example, pleasure hunting, nature conservation and mega-stalls are important regional topics to us.

Stop the hunt!

Furthermore, there will be an amendment to the law in the Netherlands, which will put the fate of two million animals that are annually threatened by amateur hunters, into the hands of the provinces. The fauna policy of provinces has been far from animal-friendly until now. A powerful Party for the Animals can put a stop to that!

The lists of candidates and the election programme are at the approval of the Congress on 30 November next.

Finally a stop to the docking of piglets’ tails! 😉 A majority of the House of Representatives has seconded our motion on this. We want the government to set a final date to stop the docking of piglets’ tails for good. Pigs will fortunately then be allowed to keep their crumpled tail and are saved from painful tail docking.

The docking of pigs’ tail has been banned in the Netherlands since 1996, but this prohibition may be deviated from when pigs bite off each other’s tails. Currently, this prohibition is massively deviated from on the basis of a “general release”. Piglets have to live in overcrowded pens, in a bad climate and without distraction. This causes distress to them and makes them bored, which results in biting off each other’s tails.

This Parliament wanted to leave it up to the livestock industry to decide when to start respecting the prohibition on the docking of tails. Fortunately there now is a big stick, which is certainly needed right now.

And more successes this week; our motion has been adopted to regulate pasturing for all cows in the Netherlands.

Also our motion for sustainable education was seconded. A large majority of the House of Representatives finds it necessary that attention is paid to animals, nature and the environment to reach a habitable planet and a green economy! Research is now conducted into how sustainability can become an integral part of education.

Last week, the Animals Politics Foundation (the international foundation of our Party) held a gathering in Belgrade (Serbia) for all parties for the animals worldwide so that they could exchange best practices in order to become successful animal rights parties. I will tell you more about this in next week’s Worldlog!

Greetings, Marianne