MEPs from all EU groups in the European Parliament called on the European Commission last week at the initiative of the Party for the Animals to immediately stop the import of Argentinian horse meat. Meat from stolen and non-earmarked horses appears to end up in the food chain via Argentinian slaughterhouses on a large scale. There is also gross animal abuse and troublesome hygienic conditions, ac...
As I’ve already previously stated this year: we are at a turning point. Around the world, citizens are flocking to the streets to demand climate action. A wind of change is blowing. All kinds of measures that the Party for the Animals and its sister parties have been proposing for years, measures that were previously deemed unrealistic idealism, are now clearly necessary steps that scientists agre...
The international political movement for animal rights, nature and the environment continues to grow. Ever more representatives get elected who explicitly put ‘the planet and all its inhabitants’ on the political agenda - most recently in Portugal and Australia. ‘A positive change is in the air’, thus Esther Ouwehand, leader of the Dutch Party for the Animals - the first such party ever to be elec...
No more animals will be used in education at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Sarajevo. Thanks to the Association for Animal Rights and the Environment of Bosnia and Herzegovina (EVA), students from now on will practice their skills on modern alternatives instead of real animals. Another step forward in the transition to a world without vivisection and animal experiments.
Last week, the Dutch Party for the Animals convinced the majority of the House of Representatives to vote in favour of their proposal to ban the import of fur and fur products. “It’s about time that we end the import of fur in The Netherlands”, party leader Esther Ouwehand states. “With the import of fur, The Netherlands actively participates in maintaining a cruel industry that now turns out to p...
Experts worldwide are sounding the alarm: the human activities that lead to nature destruction, climate change, and animal suffering are also the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic and other pandemics. If we don't act, they will become more common in the future, spread faster, be more deadly, and cause even greater economic damage, they warn in a report by the IPBES that went public last week. "We can...
European Union Member States are no longer allowed to give agricultural subsidies specifically intended to breed fighting bulls. A binding proposal to that effect, submitted by the Dutch Party for the Animals and The Greens, was approved by the European Parliament last week.
Last week, the European Parliament voted against a proposal that would have banned “meat names” for plant-based meat substitutes. This means that “veggie burgers”, “plant-based sausages” and “soy steaks” are allowed to keep their current names. The Dutch Party for the Animals strongly resisted this proposed ban together with various civil society organisations. Such a ban on “meat-resembling names...
Last week, the European Parliament approved the new European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and billions in subsidies for the meat industry. A disaster for the climate, nature and the wellbeing of both people and animals. “These billions in subsidies for the agricultural industry are completely incompatible with the so-called green goals that the European Union says to strive towards” states Anj...
In my previous blog I already wrote: positive change is in the air. Political pressure is therefore more than ever needed to make this change happen. For a liveable planet and the welfare of people and animals. The Party for the Animals exerts that political pressure, together with our sister parties, citizens, and social organizations. Last month we saw good examples of this.No animals in captivi...
Next week, the European Parliament will vote on a ban on 'meat names' for vegetarian and plant-based products. Worldwide, this has been heavily lobbied for years, especially by representatives of the meat industry. The Dutch Party for the Animals opposes the criminalization of 'meat-like names' at a national and European level: such a ban stands in the way of innovation and the promotion of plant-...
Bullfighting glorifies abuse, violence, and cruelty against animals and should absolutely not be included on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. This was recently announced by MEP for the Dutch Party for the Animals Anja Hazekamp together with sixty other MEPs in a joint letter to Audrey Azoulay, director of UNESCO. Hazekamp is calling on citizens around the world to let UNESCO know t...
Historian Philip Blom recently stated: “We are on a tipping point, and things could go either way. We are stuck in an economic system that can’t go on for much longer. It either ends in a catastrophe with new pandemics, wars about access to resources, you name it, or we’ll go in the other direction. But the fact that it will tip one way or another, that’s a given.”Signs of approaching tipping poin...
A return to business as usual after the Covid-19 pandemic is unacceptable. That is the message conveyed by the Dutch Party for the Animals. Not only orally, during debates and contributions in parliament, but also literally: with the clothes that representatives of the party wear when the television cameras are aimed at them. Like last week during the most important political moment of the year in...
Worldwide nature is being exploited and destroyed by humans on a scale never previously recorded. Thus states The Living Planet Report, a recently published assessment of global biodiversity. Animal populations have plunged by more than two-thirds on average since 1970, as humanity is pushing the planet’s life support systems to the edge by overconsumption, population growth and intensive agricult...
A lot has happened this summer. First of all, on behalf of our Party for the Animals, I would like to express my condolences to all the victims of the terrible explosion in Beirut. Many human and animal lives have been destroyed in a country that was already struggling. In recent years, we have gotten to know many people from Lebanon who dedicate themselves with heart and soul to a society in whic...