Worldlog week 41 - 2015 - Hoofdinhoud

It was Animal Day yesterday. The national elections were held in Portugal on Animal Day as well. Our sister party PAN also participated in them. PAN asked me to make them a support video. This is the result!

Every year, tens of thousands of animals in the Netherlands are slaughtered during the Islamic Feast of Sacrifice without being stunned. The Feast of Sacrifice takes place on a different date every year, this year it was in the fourth week of September. Slaughter without stunning causes unnecessary animal suffering. According to current law it is thus prohibited to slaughter animals without stunning. However an exception can be made for Jewish and Islamic slaughterhouses. But why should it make a difference for animals what religion the slaughter adheres to.

Our legislative proposal to ban the ritual slaughter without stunning gained a vast majority in the Lower House in 2012 but the Upper House unfortunately voted against it. I will continue to make every effort to accomplish this ban but before I do I’d like to point at some animal-friendly alternatives. Because those are there! It is for example possible to offer money at the Feast of Sacrifice.

Action of the Party for the Animals at Amsterdam Central Station “Feast of Sacrifice: offer money, not animals!”

In the current debates on the refugee crisis I am pointing at the relation between the influxes of refugees and climate change. This makes many people angry because they believe the focus should now be on the current religious conflicts. The root causes of those conflicts, however, lie in the lack of water, food or have a geopolitical background. According to American researchers the war in Syria is in fact a water war. International experts and organisations demonstrate that climate change, extraction of raw materials, trade and tax policy, and the supply of arms have a huge impact on the stability in vulnerable regions. I have called for a motion requesting the government to investigate the effects that climate change causes in such vulnerable regions and to come up with a coherent policy based on this to avoid extreme influxes of refugees. A majority of the Lower House voted for my motion!

Bad news. The hazardous and polluting pesticide glyphosate (contained in the weedkiller Roundup among others) is permitted to be sold in Europe until at least June 2016. The EU permit for glyphosate was to expire on 31 December 2015, which was a great moment to ban the use of this pesticide. Despite our vehement opposition the ban is again postponed by the Environmental Committee of the European Parliament. This is hard to believe! Recent research by the World Health Organisation showed that glyphosate is a carcinogen and that the poison is still much used. It is found in our groundwater and surface water and almost one in two people in Europe has glyphosate traces in his/her body.

And finally I would like to share this article with you on industrial farming being one of the worst crimes in history.

Until next time!

Marianne