Worldlog Week 06 – 2013

What a wonderful week for animals, nature, and the environment! The Lower House has accepted several of our motions to radically green agricultural policy. So, the cabinet has had to work on such things as lowering European fishing subsidies, plus it has to hurry up and research welfare issues as regards pets that are bred for certain outward appearance traits.

The Lower House has promised to end long animal transports. The cabinet also needs to see if it can shorten the duration of animal transport in the Netherlands. Moving animals around needs to stop now. The fact my motion to stop this was accepted is a sign that the House wants to work towards a policy that excludes unnecessarily long animal transport!

Photo: Jack Tummers

The cabinet will also need to clamp down on breeding and killing surplus laboratory animals. The Netherlands euthanises more than 500,000 laboratory animals as surplus stock each year. This number is in addition to the animals actually used in animal testing. A wonderful new breakthrough in the debate on animal testing!

Finally, the House wants the cabinet to put everything they have into local animal feed production to stop the mass soy imports from South America. This is large win in the fight against deforestation, environmental pollution, and biodiversity loss. But there is still a lot of work to be done… the news stated this week that the Netherlands is not one of the 10 EU member states that abides 100% by the group accommodation requirement for sows. Will you sign the petition to stop bee poison in Europe?

This week we learned of Queen Beatrix's decision to abdicate the throne. We can absolutely understand why the queen has decided, after almost 75 years, to transfer her responsibilities to the new generation. Because the system of succession to the throne is closed to anyone but family and is not subject to political interference, the Party for the Animals makes no value judgement about this abdication. The Party for the Animals would like to voice its appreciation for Queen Beatrix's efforts during her reign and express its desire for King Willem IV to fill his exemplary function in an exemplary manner.

Photo: Schalken Fotografie

More and more people are waking up to the fact that overusing antibiotics in cattle farming, and the antibiotic resistance this creates, presents an even greater danger than terrorism. Read Professor Edward Jones' article here. He is a Professor of medical microbiology at the Metropolitan University in Manchester.

A horrible video of animal abuse in Syria. Please note, these images may disturb some viewers.

Very well done: kitten-covers! People on well-known album covers have been transformed into kittens.

Here's a wonderful clip to start the week.

See you next week!