Worldlog Week 24 – 2012

Tomorrow will see the continuation of the debate in the Upper House on my private member’s bill seeking to ban the slaughter of animals without prior stunning. Last week, outgoing state secretary Bleker presented a ‘typically Dutch’ consensus agreement, which will also be discussed in the Upper House tomorrow. In the closing phase of the discussion of the private member’s bill in the Upper House, Bleker came unexpectedly with a plan to strike an accord with the religious organizations. This unfortunately stalled the debate and the Upper House has had to wait long time for Bleker to clarify his intentions.

The agreement that Bleker has presented bears a strong resemblance to the CDA’s amendment that barely garnered any support in the Lower House. That amendment would allow religious butchers to kill animals without stunning them first on the condition that the animal dies – chokes in its own blood – within 45 seconds of its throat being cut. If the animal is still conscious after 45 seconds, it would then be delivered a deathblow, in which case the meat, no longer be suitable for kosher or halal consumption, would be processed into animal feed.

If you would like to learn more about kosher slaughtering, view ‘If This Is Kosher’ van Jonathan Safran Foer.

The Lower House had very little sympathy or understanding for the CDA’s amendment. The bill only found support among the Christian parties (CDA, ChristenUnie and SGP). A sharp contrast to the large majority in the Lower House that supported our bill. I am truly amazed about the events surrounding the agreement. Nevertheless I look forward to arguing for my bill tomorrow. It is a move that will bring real improvement to animals.

Wonderful pictures on the website of the Boston Globe the Big Picture of Venus transiting across the sun.

The atrocious hunt of dolphins in the Faeroe Islands (an autonomous province of Denmark) has started again. Each year these islands are the scene of a barbaric slaughter of pilot whales, a species of dolphin. This beautiful aquatic mammal was once hunted to feed the local population. In this day and age, the islanders no longer need to hunt the dolphins for food, but the hunt has since become a cultural tradition. During the hunt, men in small boats drive a group of pilot whales into a bay where they are pulled out of the water by steel hooks slammed into their heads. Each year hundreds of animals are killed during the hunting season. So far this year, 120 have met their deaths in this cruel manner.

We find it outrageous that the government of the Faeroe Islands still allows this hunt, which serves no reasonable purpose, to continue. We therefore call upon everyone to sign an e-mail to the Faeroe Islands government to demand that this hunt is stopped as soon as possible. Sign here!

Until next week, Marianne