Animal Political Foundation's European Animal Parties: 'Regime Change' by Dutch MEP Marianne Thieme

The Italian Animalist Party, recently become an official member of the growing international movement for the protection of animals and our planet, together with other European Animalist Parties—ranging from Marianne Thieme's well-known Dutch Animalist Party (which has several MEPs in the European Parliament) to the Portuguese (which also has MEPs elected to the Parliament) to the Spanish (Pacma) party, to the German, French, and Swedish parties, all members of the Animal Political Foundation and Political Party—have produced an opinion piece on the international need for "Regime Change."
The article is reported in full:
“Politicians go crazy after majorities: majorities to create coalitions, majorities to achieve their goals, majorities to change the political agenda. But we humans are not the majority. A recent study by a group of international scientists, led by Professor Ron Milo of the Weizman Institute of Science, shows how humanity behaves as if it were an epidemic for all other forms of life on the Planet. This while the 7,6 billion people who populate the world, paradoxically, only account for 0,01% of life on Earth. If any other type of species did as much damage as humanity does, we would do everything to fight it immediately. For our part, we are already doing this with some species that are, literally, vital to our survival: we fight many insects with pesticides on a large scale, thus endangering our own lives by changing the rhythm of nature, although we will only discover this with time. Yet, only a respectful approach to other life forms on Earth can truly give us a sustainable future. Although we apparently know this, in the end we do not realize it enough. Since the beginning of our civilization, 83% of all mammals free in nature and half of the plant species have been wiped out due to the “human hand”. The total transformation of life on Earth is evident by the complete modification of biodiversity or, often, by the lack of it.
Let's take birds as an example. After World War II, global chicken consumption exploded with the arrival of the food industry. Today, factory-farmed chickens are the world's largest bird species, with nearly 60 billion chickens slaughtered in a single year. Factory-farmed chickens represent 70% of all birds on the planet, which means that only 30% of all birds are still free in the wild. Furthermore, half of the different breeds of chicken have been exterminated because the poultry industry has focused on producing "factory chicken". However, this effect has also become risky in itself when we talk about genetic defects. In fact, the extreme number of farmed chickens, the excessive use of antibiotics on a large scale with the addition of pathogens, creates a serious risk for public health. According to scientists, "zoonosis" can lead to a pandemic of unprecedented, almost apocalyptic proportions!
Professor Jan Zalasiewicz, geologist at the University of Leicester, says the following about industrial chicken farming, namely that it is the clearest evidence of the New Age of modern anthropocentrism and its consequences: “Thanks to us, the factory-farmed chicken has become the most populous bird in the world. Yet, its remains have been thrown into thousands of landfills and on street corners around the world”. The way we live now is mainly focused on maximising our prosperity, which is only focused on the short term. Our ecological impact is so large that all the primary natural resources (water, oil, biomass) that the Earth can produce for us in a calendar year are exhausted by mid-August of every single year. For the rest of the year we live on a “credit” that we waste irresponsibly and that, thus, will lead us to an uncertain future. In fact, in the medium and long term, this way of living will not only threaten our health, but it already puts at risk our chances of survival as a species.
All this is there for all to see. But humanity — the 0,01 percent — is so focused on itself that almost all political parties only have a short-term vision, especially when they are developing their policies for the future. Animals, nature and the environment are only taken into consideration when all short-term human desires have been exhausted, and indeed, this is very rarely the case. In the Netherlands, where the first European animal party was born, in the plans for the climate agreement in which the biggest polluters are clearly industrial poultry farms, it is clear that these have been a real “taboo” for every possible solution. Literally: “elephants in the room”.
In 2006, for the first time in history, an animalist political party that placed the interests of “non-humans” at the center of its program, elected deputies to its national Parliament. The Dutch Party for the Animals elected two representatives to Parliament. Today this number of parliamentarians has reached 5 after the last elections, two in the Senate, 18 in the provincial councils, 15 in the Water Commission, 33 in the municipal councils and one MEP elected in 2014 to the European Parliament.
In international terms, the organization of the Parties for Animals and Nature is also one of the fastest growing movements in the world, with an agenda based on protecting the “interests of the weakest” against the supposed “rights of the strongest”. This is not only in the interest of the “voiceless”, but also in the interest of that small, but very dominant, minority that is human beings. The right to control and dissect other species to the point of their death by the millions, has no justification. We are not the first species to arrive on our planet, nor can our intelligence be seen as a justification for our cruel and self-declared supremacy. As “Earthlings”, we have the duty and the need to reconsider our interaction with animals, nature and the environment. Gandhi said that the degree of civilization of a people is measured by the way in which animals are treated. The Party for Animals faces this offensive to civilization: giving a voice to the 99,99% also in the interest of that 0.01%.
There are now 19 Parties for Animals and over 17.000 animal protection movements in the world. The Italian Animalist Party is one of them. Our Project and Dream is to serve the interests of all living beings on Earth, including those living beings that are seen by men only as property or objects to be subdued, animals for slaughter or mere livestock, despite the fact that these are of essential importance for our lives on Earth and for the Planet itself.
SIGNED
Marianne Thieme, Leader of the Party for the Animals (Holland)
Signed by other European Animal Parties
Cristiano Ceriello, Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
Santeri Pienimäki, Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
Silvia Barquero, PACMA (Spain)
Bruce Poon and Tamasin Ramsay, Animal Justice Party (Australia)
Endri Haxhiraj, Institute for Environmental Policy (Albania)
Therese Ericsson, Djurens parti (Sweden)
Kyriacos Kyriacou, Animal Party Cyprus (Cyprus)
Constance Adonis Villalon, DierAnimal (Belgium)
Liz White, Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
Robert Gabel, Matthias Ebner and Sandra Lück, Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz (Germany)
Héléna Besnard, Isabelle Dudouet-Bercegeay and Hélène Thouy, Parti Animaliste (France)
André Silva, Pessoas-Animais-Natureza (Portugal)
Vanessa Hudson, Animal Welfare Party (UK)
Ivan Kurajov, Society for the Protection of Animals (Serbia)
Zülal Kalkandelen, Animal Rights Watch Committee, The Independent Animal Rights Group (Türkiye)