Worldlog Week 03 – 2010

The parliamentary year has started with a vengeance once again. The Dutch government tasked a committee to inquire into the legitimacy of the attack on Iraq. The results will surprise no one: We were in the wrong!

The way the Prime Minister tried to push the findings aside almost caused a crisis in the cabinet. However, the government coalitions have closed ranks once again for now as they fear both the elections and the success of Geert Wilders' anti-Islam party. I expect nevertheless that they will not ride it out and that they will push the elections forward.

We are now starting preparations for the city council elections. We currently have 20 representatives of the people in parliament, States-Provincial and water boards. Then on the third of March we will participate in the city council elections for ten municipalities.

We made a conscious decision to limit ourselves to a small number of municipalities as we believe we need not only sufficient potential voters, but also a strong local organisation and excellent candidates. These people are aware of the fact that they are ambassadors of a global animal rights movement.

Last week in the senate we debated the prohibition of sex with animals. According to the submitter, a member of the Dutch Labour Party, he wanted to protect animal’s sexual integrity. This however is impossible when you want to forbid sex with animals, classifying it as a ‘lewd act’, but then allow pigs to be castrated with no anaesthetic, allow cows to be artificially inseminated, keeping them permanently pregnant to keep milk production afloat to benefit humans. Nor does cutting up tens of millions of one day old chicks fit into the idea of protecting animal sexual integrity.

Finally the truth came to light. The act is not an animal protection law, but rather one to protect morals. We indicated that we would support the act but as a rule we do not support new morality legislation.

But it is a small step forward in the thought processes that safeguard animals from human infringements on their integrity. We are looking forward to the next steps in which animals are given the freedom to live according to their natures.

See you next week!