Animal Rights party elected in Dutch Parliament, 2 % of votes!

[Maastricht]

Herald Tribune article

The Party for the Animals is poised to win at least one, and possibly two seats in the Dutch parliament — another coup for a country known for progressive legislation on decriminalizing and regulating euthanasia, soft drugs and prostitution. “We want a constitutional amendment, guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear, and stress caused by humans,” said Thieme, 34, in an interview with The Associated Press. Her party, known by its Dutch acronym PvdD, has adopted a down-to-earth program, sidelining more radical activists who would like to mandate vegetarianism and forbid zoos.
Its central aims are promoting “biological” farming practices — such as giving animals a minimal amount of living space — and discouraging the most inhumane of industrial farming practices, such as castration or slaughter without anesthesia.

Because I’ve helped campaigning, I was there yesterday in Amsterdam at the election-party, and even talked to Marianne Thieme briefly.

Exciting times lay ahead !

[Paul_in_Qatar]

All decent people are against unnecessary I wish the MP good luck.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

All decent people are against unnecessary SUFFERING I wish the MP good luck,

I swear my typing is getting worse

[Maastricht]

Paul, I’m not sure I understand you correctly. The Animal Rights party was elected yesterday in Parliament, but so are about a dozen other political parties.

The Netherlands don’t have the USA two-party system, where the winning party supplies the Minister President. So the next Dutch MP is sure to be from one big political parties, like our Christian Democrats, our Labour party, Liberal pary or Socialist Party. But it is a possibility that one of these just might need the Animal part bad enough to grant them a post of Secretary of State (we have two or three of those Secretaries under every one of our twelve Ministry’s)

[Unregistered_Bull]

Only 2%, I’d think that there’d be more weirdos with bizzarre ideas. It’s Europe afterall.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

In the English-speaking world, an MP is a 'Member of Parliament." (What the heck is a Minister-President anyway?)

[slaphead]

@Unregistered Bull

Only 2%, I’d think that there’d be more weirdos with bizzarre ideas. It’s Europe afterall.

Hey, the Dutch have the Animal Rights Party, you have the Libertarians. It’s pretty much a wash.

[Maastricht]

@Paul in Saudi

In the English-speaking world, an MP is a 'Member of Parliament." (What the heck is a Minister-President anyway?)

Ah. In that case, thank you.

Oh, and a Dutch Minister-President (sometimes called MP, hence the confusion) is similar to the USA president, only with a bit less power.

Oh and Bull? A few years ago, the Netherlands saw a

The worst was an outbreak of bird flu three years ago that led to the slaughter and destruction of 30 million chickens and infected 89 people, killing one. The government culled livestock and even ordered children’s pet birds be handed over for gassing to control the spreading disease — a public relations disaster.

All of that happened because the Dutch export poultry and meat to some countries that ban the immunization of lifestock. The given reason is that immunization makes it impossible to determine if the animal was sick. But many say the ban on immunization of lifestock is mainly a trade regulation. The Dutch are a powerful producer of meat and poultry (the third or so exporter in the world, and that for a country the size of Massachusets!)so we should have told these countries we export to that they could go and -beep- themselves but we were going to immunize livestock instead of destroying it. We didn’t. How’s that for a bizarre idea?

Ending such atrocities is the kind of thing the Animal Party will try to accomplish.