Worldlog Week 19 – 2012

Last week, the Netherlands reached an agreement to comply with the Brussels standard that states a budget deficit shall not be allowed to exceed three percent. The agreement was concluded between parties, that when combined, are called the 'Kunduz Coalition'. The coalition is made up of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA), the Green Left (GroenLinks), the ChristianUnion and D66, as they decided last year that the Dutch should send a police mission to the Afghan province of Kunduz. We believe it is impossible to teach police officers to read and write in 18 weeks as well as provide job training.

Last week the Kunduz coalition suggested a bundle of cutbacks that our party cannot support. This coalition wants to sacrifice the newly appointed animal police, for example. The Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) and D66 say that they want to dismantle the animal police because we need to make budget cuts, but that’s not what we think. This is revenge on the Party for Freedom (PVV), the party that called the animal police into existence), because they left the 'tolerance coalition', thus causing the cabinet to fall. Educating one police officer in Kunduz costs 500,000 Euros, and yet the mission in Kunduz still needs to go ahead, despite us needing to make cut-backs? Cutting back on animal welfare is apparently fine though, and once again it's the animals that have to pay.

Since we've had the animal police and since setting up an animal cruelty hotline , reports of animal suffering have doubled. They remove neglected and abused animals from their owners more often and the perpetrators are more often prosecuted. This is all thanks to the animal police. The number of administrative measures taken in the first quarter of 2012 is already three times higher than all of 2011 combined. We will continue to fight to keep the sorely needed animal police!

Deaths among porpoises and seals in the Netherlands are alarmingly high. On 1 March, 25 porpoises washed up on the beaches near a small place called Ouddorp. The huge number of fishing nets and fish snares in the Grevelingen inlet might have something to do with all the deaths. It seems these marine mammals are cut away when caught up in the nets, only to wash up, severely maimed on Ouddorp beaches. Anja Hazekamp, my replacement in the Lower House, asked questions on this topic to outgoing State Secretary Bleker.

Animals often wash up on the beaches around Ouddorp, but we note that a large number have done it in a short amount of time and that the majority of the porpoises are seriously maimed. These protected marine mammals sometimes have cuts that go down to the bone and they are even sometimes missing chunks of flesh. We still haven't discovered the cause of these wounds, but the cuts appear to have been made deliberately. We think it's plausible the disfigured porpoises are cut when caught up in the fishing nets and fish snares. We want to know if these seal deaths are connected to the fishing nets. If so, we want to know what we can do to prevent it.

We've received a lovely message from Brazil: I just want to say THANK YOU for the wonderful documentary Meat the Truth. It was informative, powerful and wonderfully delivered. Congratulations!!!! Luiz Reikdal, from Curitiba BRAZIL. Have you seen Meat the Truth yet? If not, watch the full documentary here: http://www.meatthetruth.nl/en/.
Even Obama is starting to be inspired by our European from of political animal interest protection.

News from Japan: The notorious Taji Bay in Japan is building a dolphinarium. Every year, thousands of dolphins are driven into this bay, where many of them are caught and sold to dolphinariums all over the world. The remaining dolphins are killed in the cruellest of ways for their meat. If you would like to know more about this horrific practice, watch a documentary called The Cove. The Japanese have now come up with the idea to close off a part of the bay to create a dolphin park where people can swim with the dolphins. What a weird idea, to both slaughter the animals and create a tourist attraction in the same bay. I hope this distasteful plan does not go head and that the dolphin cull will be prohibited immediately!

Greetings, Marianne