The Political Animal (December 2015)
It’s been another busy month within the global arena of animalist politics. We’ve got some of the highlights for you.
First to Australia where the government passed a bill to ban dredge dumping in the World Heritage waters. Previous legislation had banned the dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, but this new bill closed a legal loophole that could have been exploited to allow up to 46 million cubic meters of seabed to be dug up and dumped. The Great Barrier Reef is home to more than 1,500 species of fish, 134 species of sharks, 30 species of marine mammals and the majority of the world’s threatened marine turtles according to the WWF. ‘For everyone around the world who cares about the Reef,’ the organisation’s Australia CEO, Dermot O’Gorman, said, ‘this is a moment to savour.’
Now to Northern Ireland where plans for controversial new legislation to tackle hunting were canned following criticism that it did not go far enough. Environment Minister, Mark Durkan, faced calls from other parties as well as the public to toughen up his proposed order so as to bring in an outright ban on the use of traps instead of simply regulating such. ‘3 out of 4 people here want to ban snares,’ Durkan tweeted. ‘300 out of 400 have tweeted me tonight. Message received loud and clear!’
Meanwhile, across the water, Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Spending Review was met with criticism after it announced cuts to both the Department of Energy & Climate Change and the Department for Food and Rural Affairs. ‘DECC will deliver £220m of resource savings by 2019–20,’ the Chancellor’s statement read as well as detailing how DEFRA, which, among other areas, is responsible for safeguarding the UK’s natural environment, would see cuts of 15%. ‘Going green should not cost the earth,’ the Chancellor quipped as he delivered the news.
Speaking of going green, 196 world leaders and delegates met in Paris as part of the UN Climate Change Conference. The talks ended with what many, including US President Obama are lauding as a ground breaking deal. Peta reported good news for animals within the agreement, its text including a clear call for us to eat more sustainably — which could involve a move towards plant-based diets. ‘Sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production, with developed country Parties taking the lead, play an important role in addressing climate change,” the final draft read.
To Albania where November saw the annual meeting of the Animal Politics Foundation, bringing together 16 delegates from animal parties around the world. ‘It was a great opportunity to meet and share ideas,’ Guy Dessoy of the UK’s Animal Welfare Party told us. ‘The Portuguese party PAN presented on how they used social media effectively during their campaign for the national elections this year, which spread their message far and wide and won the hearts of the electorate, leading to their first MP. The Australian party AJP (who also won their first MP this year) presented on the cruel kangaroo meat industry and how it will collapse if we can work together to introduce an EU ban.’
For one of the parties represented, the timing of the APF meeting couldn’t have been better, preluding the Spanish General Election. PACMA — Partido Animalista made incredible gains, receiving 219000 votes for Congress and over a million votes in the Senate. While this was not enough to secure any seats, it is still an extremely encouraging result for PACMA and for animal focused politics in general and we’d like to congratulate them on all their hard work paying off.
And that’s a wrap for this month and this year’s Political Animal. We’d like to wish all our readers a very happy holiday and look forward to seeing you again in 2016 for more news on animal related politics.
The Political Animal is a monthly feature of The Animalist. Written by Wayne Simmons, The Political Animal will update us with all the latest political news in the world of animalism. Contact Wayne.
