Worldlog Week 40 – 2009

A very special surprise in the mail this week. Paul McCartney wrote me a short note to thank the Party for the Animals for putting the spotlight on his campaign “Meat Free Monday” on Prinsjesdag, the day of the queen’s speech to the Dutch parliament when the queen, on behalf of the government, reads the cabinet’s plans for the next year.

Vegetarianism is certainly the focus of growing interest. On 1 October (World Vegetarianism Day) we held a large animal ball here in the Netherlands and the entire month of October has been declared Vegetarian Awareness Month.

The Animal Ball

Do what you can wherever you are to encourage a more vegetarian – and thus more animal-friendly – lifestyle!
In the German elections, the Tierschutzpartei (the German Party for the Animals) failed to reach the electoral threshold. At 5 percent, the electoral threshold is very high, but elections held among pupils and students indicate that the future belongs to the Tierschutzpartei, both literally and figuratively. See here.

Last week we received a report on how camels are being transported in the Netherlands. It’s crazy that people actually think that this is an acceptable way to transport animals. I have submitted written questions to the minister responsible.

The debates are many in these opening weeks of the new parliamentary year. This week I debated on the Q-fever outbreak. The outbreak originated at large-scale goat farms and has resulted in thousands of people living near these farms falling ill, dozens chronically. Five people have already lost their lives to this outbreak, more than have died in the recent outbreak of swine flu. And yet the Q-fever outbreak is being kept quiet for economic reasons.

Next week we’ll be having the major debate on the Animal Act, a new law that seems only to aim to protect the economic value of animals and that threatens even more than ever to turn animals into objects for people to use as they see fit. I will reporting on the debate next week!

Regards,
Marianne