Help the Finnish Animal Justice Party back into the Party Register
The EOP (Eläinoikeuspuolue or Animal Justice Party for full) was founded in 2015 in response to the human-centered politics of other parties. Even though these parties claim to care about animals, when it comes down to it, short-term human interests prevail at the cost of other animals and nature. EOP’s aim is to create a society that respects the rights and needs of all animals, humans and the rest of nature.
After the elections of 2023 - unfortunately not getting a seat - the EOP was automatically removed from the party register. To participate in elections again, they need to collect 5000 signatures.
Anyone who has the right to vote in at least one election in Finland can sign until 12 October 2024. Does that include you? Please consider signing through this link: puoluerekisteri.fi/#/puolue/54. And share it with your friends!
Worldwide movement
Last December EOP chairman Tatu Chanth and board member Jaakko Perttunen visited our Animal Politics World Conference in the Netherlands. Animal parties, organizations and activists from 28 countries came together to learn from each other and to build a compassionate political movement.
EOP’s Jaakko Perttunen (left) and Tatu Chanth (right) at the Animal Politics World Conference 2023.
Like their sister parties, EOP's ultimate goal is to end all animal exploitation. They want to achieve this by 1) improving the conditions of animals, and 2) promoting the abandonment and replacement of animal products. To understand (animal) politics in Finland a bit better, we spoke to EOP’s Kapa Monola-Lemière. One thing is for sure: the animals need a voice!
Elections and empty shells
Like many countries recently, Finland has made a swing to the right. The winner of the 2023 elections, ‘liberal’-conservative National Coalition Party, wrote in their principle program that nature and animals “have a value of their own”, “independent of human needs”. Sounds promising. However, Kapa Monola-Lemière notes that this is an empty shell: animal and nature protection are getting the short end of the stick. Especially since they formed a coalition with far-right populists.
When, for example, in the summer of 2023 the European Commission warned for the bad state of herrings in the Baltic Sea and proposed a 1-year ban on fishing herring, Minister Sari Essayah (Agriculture and Forestry) called it ‘disproportionate and unreasonable’. Even the Finnish Greens agreed, illustrating the urgency for the Animal Justice Party in Finland.
The importance of herrings in the Baltic Sea cannot be underestimated: besides their intrinsic value, a collapse could have major consequences on the entire food chain. News and debate, however, focused on the short-term human interests. Eventually the ban was canceled and replaced by a dangerous quota of 55 million kilos in 2024. This equals an estimated 1 billion individual sentient herrings, whose individuality is completely taken away!
On March 30th 2024, on the World Day for the End of Fishing (WoDEF), the EOP organized a silent march. They stood up for the right to live for fish and other sea animals. Unlike the Greens, the EOP is clear about protecting fish and nature.
Fur: cruel and hazardous
Almost 75% of ‘Finnish’ herring is used as feed for animals. Fish are, for example, fed to other fish kept in filthy intensive farming systems, and also to animals in the fur industry. Finland counts over 400 fur farms, where minks, foxes and raccoon dogs live in cramped wire cages. Besides the immense suffering, this forms a very high risk for illnesses like COVID-19 and avian flu. As a result, last year 120.000 animals were killed in Finland.
Two foxes sit inside a wire cage on a fur farm. Selective breeding for loose skin and intentional overfeeding exacerbate the pain foxes feel standing on the wire. Finland, 2018. Kristo Muurimaa / HIDDEN / We Animals Media
Most Finnish people are against fur farming. In 2023 a citizens’ initiative to ban fur farming (not the first one) broke records and collected the required 50.000 signatures in one day. And so the parliament had to assess it. But nothing changed: the government actively protects fur farms. Even after multiple citizens’ initiatives, avian flu, COVID-19, and reports about export of fur to Russia.
For Kapa Monola-Lemière it’s clear: the government has no intention of improving animal welfare. Short-term human interests push away even the most basic interests of other animals. That’s why Finland needs the EOP.
Support EOP
Help to give animals a voice, and get the EOP back into the party register. Sign through this link: https://puoluerekisteri.fi/#/puolue/54 and share it with other people who can vote in Finland.
Check out their website and make sure to follow the EOP on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X.