Worldlog Week 39 – 2011

State Secretary and Minister of Agriculture Blekers’ plans to gas geese as of 1 October have encountered a temporary setback. On Tuesday 27 September, the large majority of the Lower House voted for one of our motions to not gas any geese until 1 January 2012. The cabinet wanted to quickly introduce a bill as of 1 October that would outlaw wild geese without substantive discussion.

Gassing geese would mean that large groups of moulting geese would be caught in mobile spaces and gassed with biocides. Gassing means the animals gasp for air and try to escape, and they only lose consciousness after 1 minute and maintain brain activity for 2 to 3 minutes. We find this suffering to be unacceptable. Moreover, various studies have shown that this form of cull serves no purpose. It is not goose death that determines population size, but the food supply and food will remain plentiful in the Netherlands because we over-fertilise.

We got a majority behind us partially due to an e-mail campaign by our youth organisation PINK!. The email promotion titled 'Don't let the geese choke' let people email every agricultural spokesperson in the Lower House to spur them to vote for our motion and therefore against the planned goose gassing. We had such a wonderful result in just a few days' time: more then 11,000 protest emails flew in a 'V' formation to the agricultural spokespersons' inboxes. By working together we have ensured that we shook politics awake and the geese are safe, for now. A stay of execution is now on the table, we will do all we can to offer the geese lasting protection!

On 29 September the Chamber organised a hearing with marine biologist Dr Rainer Froese, tied to the Leipniz-Institute in Kiel, Germany, on European fisheries policy. He argued that in European reform proposals, fish stocks are systematically kept on the brink of collapse. The Party for the Animals invited the marine biologist to the conversation because of his pioneering research in collaboration with leading fisheries biologist Dr Daniel Pauly. Froese and Pauly worked together on researching what they call 'Fishing Down the Foodweb', which has proved that overfishing quickly leads to a downwards spiral that will collapse the entire marine ecosystem.

The Cabinet will soon speak with State Secretary Bleker about the Dutch effort in the European fishery reform discussions. My colleague Esther Ouwehand will impress on him that we need to secure the future of our seas and oceans and not buckle to the lobby over short-term economic gain.

See you next week!