Worldlog week 22 – 2014

At the time of writing this Worldlog, it looks like we have reached a new milestone for animals, nature and the environment. Our party got 4.2 per cent of the votes, which is good for just over one seat in the European Parliament. For the first time in history, a party which stands up for the interests of animals is represented in an international parliament. It’s a result that we can be proud of!

Below is a great photo compilations of our very successful campaign. I would like to thank everyone who put in an effort to make our party big and visible in recent times. We have a wonderful team. ☺ And of course we should not forget about our great list of candidates from home and abroad and the many declarations of support from well-known people like Paul McCartney, Maneka Gandhi, John Coetzee, Will Kymlicka, Bob Barker en Tom Regan. It is fantastic that they supported us.

Also the Tierschutzpartei in Germany has gained one seat. It’s great that we can fight together in Brussels against animal-unfriendly ‘traditions’ and the sky-high agricultural subsidies among others.

Furthermore, it’s very important that we stand up against Brussels as regards animal transports. Last week, it became known that European commissioner Borg refuses to adopt rules to limit animal transports in Europe any further. The Netherlands and Denmark had asked for this, supported by Germany, Austria and Belgium among other countries.

Also the European Parliament wanted to introduce a maximum transport duration. Following this news, I asked the State Secretary to implement our motion adopted, in which we ask the government to set a maximum duration for animal transports from the Netherlands. As far as we are concerned, the EU can no longer be an excuse for the State Secretary not to take action himself. I have urged him to implement the motion, but the State Secretary keeps pointing at Europe. Apparently, the State Secretary is more into eurocracy than democracy.

On the instruction of our party, research was done into the opinion of Dutch citizens on the upscaling in agriculture. The research showed that a majority of the Dutch is against upscaling in agriculture. Good news, as we have been opposing to the construction of pigs apartments and chicken towers for years and are thus supported by a large majority of the Dutch citizens.

Last week, we asked Parliamentary questions about the export of live mitten crabs to vending machines in China. In a broadcast on the Dutch television they reported on the trade of mitten crabs which were caught in the Netherlands. These crabs are caught, packed in plastic, and sent alive all over the world, the are especially popular in China. Unbelievable. We have thus pleaded for an immediate stop to the export of mitten crabs to China.

Next week there will be more news about the election results, have a great week everyone! Marianne.