Worldlog Week 17 – 2011

This week I had an emergency debate with Bleker, the State Secretary for Agriculture who systematically refuses to implement motions adopted by the Party for the Animals, including my motion for government control on livestock transport and slaughter houses. The motion calls for the control of animal transport to be taken away from the meat and livestock industry and be given to the government. The transport of animals is one of the biggest problems in the livestock sector today. Both animal welfare and health are often seriously compromised. The State recognizes the abuses in the animal transport, but unfortunately still believes in the self-regulation of business.

During the debate Bleker promised to start an investigation into the animal transport company Keus and Mollink. I showed a number of photographs to the House during the debate showing the abuse of this company. These photos are from the report "Inspection of a Dutch transport company loaded with Hungarian cattle in Kapikule, Turkey" from the animal welfare organization Eyes on Animals. This very capable animal welfare organization regularly inspects animal transports and has often reported abuses in shipments by Keus and Mollink. In the report published this week the animal protection organization describes the severe animal cruelty they encountered during the inspections. Hopefully now something will happen to stop this company! http://www.eyesonanimals.com/index.php?id=9&tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=285&tx_ttnews%5bbackPid%5d=8&cHash=6b125ed315

Here are the photographs I showed in the debate:

Also some very moving images of Chernobyl 25 years later. http://bo.st/hrPvY7

Again last week there was a stormy debate in the Netherlands on the proposed ban of ritual slaughter, with religious groups making some serious accusations to the proponents of the ban. Nevertheless, it seems that the bill can count on a large majority in parliament.

Last week the Dutch Planning Agency for the Environment published the report The Protein Puzzle, which calls for using the application of European policy to reduce the consumption of animal proteins in the interest of public health, animal welfare, the environment and biodiversity. You can download the report here. http://bit.ly/iucY8F

Incidentally, another tip if you want to draw more attention to the welfare of animals in your native language, speak with kindred spirits and set up Twitter accounts on behalf of certain animal species. We do this in the Netherlands and many animals already have hundreds of followers on Twitter. The animals have their own website where you can follow all the Twitter messages and biographies. http://www.twitterdieren.nl/

There will be Senate elections in the Netherlands in three weeks. It looks as though we will once again win a seat, but it is a neck-and-neck race between the coalition and the opposition. We very much hope for a sustainable and animal-friendly majority!

Next week we will be on vacation. See you again soon!

Marianne