Worldlog 20 lipnja 2016

Prošli tjedan bio je poseban po sastanaku u parlamentu s Ricom O’Barryjem. On je bio trener jednog od najpoznatijih dupina, Flippera. U šestdesetima je O’Barry čak pet dupina iz divljine trenirao za popularnu televizijsku seriju. No, dodir s ovim društvenim i inteligentnim životinjama promijenio mu je pogled na svijet. Danas, on je strastveni aktivist za prava životinja. Možda vam je poznat njegov dokumentarac The Cove. Svojom se organizacijom Dolphin Project bori za oslobađanje dupina i zatvaranje dupinarija diljem svijeta.

O’Barry je posjetio parlament da razgovara o Dolfinariumu u Nizozemskoj. Tokom posjeta O’Barry je pozvao na zatvaranje Dolfinariuma. On tvrdi da su dupinariji maskirani cirkusi koji su loši za dobrobit životinja i šalju pogrešnu poruku djeci. Oni uče da je prihvatljivo držati životinje u zatočeništvu i dominirati. Osim toga, životinje žive u betonskim spremnicima u kojima se ne mogu ponašati u skladu sa svojom prirodom kao što je komuniciranje sonarom i lutanje kilometrima po otvorenom moru. Bio je to poseban doživljaj pozdraviti Rica O’Barryja i podržavam njegov poziv za zatvaranje dupinarija!

Frank Wassenberg (PvdD), Ric O’Barry en Marianne Thieme (PvdD) u parlamentu

Europska komisija je objavila svoju namjeru da promijeni direktive o PDV-u. U ovom trenutku, jedino se može utvrditi samo visoka i niska tarifa, a ne 0 stopa. Također je točno propisano kojim proizvodima se niska stopa može ili ne može ubirati. Za sada se čini nemoguće osloboditi zdravstvene proizvode poput (organskog) voća i povrća od PDV-a. No, sada kada se direktiva PDV-a treba mijenjati, čini se da je idealno vrijeme da se borimo za zeleniju i fleksibilniju direktivu PDV-a. Snizimo poreze na zdravim proizvodima! Zar nismo povećali poreze na alkohol i duhan kako bi smanjili njihovu konzumaciju?

U kineskom gradu Yulin se svake godine održava Festival psećeg mesa na najduži dan u godini. Psi se zlostavljaju i okrutno kolju za prehranu. Većina pasa su ukradeni ili psi lutalice. Srećom aktivizam za životinje prisutan je u Kini i sve više Kineza žele da prekinu Yulin Festival psećeg mesa. Pročitaj ovdje više o borbi koju vode kineski aktivisti za životinje.

Victor Hugo je jednom rekao: “Žalosno je misliti da priroda govori, ali da čovječanstvo ne sluša.” I to dokazuje i ovak članak.

Srdačan pozdrav,

Marianne

Last week there was a special meeting at the Lower House with Ric O’Barry. He was the trainer of one of the most well-known dolphins: Flipper. In the 60s, O’Barry captured and trained five dolphins from the wild to be used for the popular television series. But because of his contact with these social and intelligent animals his opinion changed. He is now a committed animal activist. You might know him from his documentary The Cove. With his organisation, Dolphin Project, he is fighting to free dolphins from captivity and to close dolphinariums all over the world.

O’Barry visited the Lower House to talk about the Dolphinarium in the Netherlands. During his visit he called upon the Netherlands to close the Dolphinarium. He said that dolphinariums are like a circus, which are bad for animal welfare and give children the wrong idea. They are taught that it is acceptable to keep animals in captivity and to control them. Additionally, they live in a concrete tank in which they cannot perform their natural behaviour, such as travelling for many kilometres and communicating by sonar. It was very special to have Ric O’Barry at the Lower House and I am delighted to support his call to close the Dutch Dolphinarium.

Frank Wassenberg (PvdD), Ric O’Barry and Marianne Thieme (PvdD) at the Lower House

The European Commission has announced that it intends to change the VAT Directive. Currently, it is only allowed to use high and low rates, not zero rates. It is also exactly prescribed which products the low rate may or may not be applied to. As a result, it is currently no longer possible to exempt healthy products, such as (organic) vegetables and fruit from VAT. But since the VAT Directive is to be changed, I think it is now the perfect opportunity to fight for a greener and more flexible VAT Directive. We should lower taxes on healthy products. As a matter of fact, we also levy higher tax on alcohol and tobacco to limit the use of them.

In the Chinese city of Yulin, the Dog Meat Festival is held every year to celebrate the longest day of the year. The dogs are abused and cruelly slaughtered for consumption. Apparently, most of those dogs are stolen pet dogs or stray dogs. Fortunately, animal activism in China is growing and increasingly more Chinese people want to put a stop to the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. You can read more here about the fight of the Chinese animal activists against the Festival.

Victor Hugo once said: “It’s sad to think that nature speaks and mankind will not listen”. And this article proves it again.

Kind regards,

Marianne