The abolition of the factory farming industry is number one on our list of priorities. Intensive livestock farming in the Netherlands is an industrialised sector, in which 500 million animals lead short and miserable lives each year. These animals have been removed from their natural environment, are packed into cages or overcrowded stalls, and seldom or never get to go outdoors. This results in stress and boredom, and the animals can display serious and abnormal behaviour, such as cannibalism. The animals also grow too fast as a result of breeding programmes. Broilers, for example, grow so quickly that within just a few weeks their legs become too weak to support their body weight, with all its consequences. Dairy cattle now produce 100 times more milk as 100 years ago, and chickens lay eight times as many eggs as in the past.
We want the treatment of animals as economic products and the industrialised character of the livestock sector to be brought to an end as soon as possible. It is unacceptable that so many animals should suffer so much, just to provide consumers with an excessive amount of cheap animal products. We believe that the price of animal products is unethically low. An egg, for example, costs the same as it did 60 years ago. As a result, the farmers find themselves in an economic stranglehold. This should also come to an end. A fair price for animal products is part and parcel of respect for animals and farmers.
Other important spearheads in the Party for the Animals’ policy are over-fishing, bloodsports, angling and climate change. However, we also concern ourselves with all kinds of other situations where animal welfare is also at issue. Whether this may related to abused or neglected animals, the living conditions of wild animals in circuses, animals that are used as objects of art in exhibitions, or puppies that are the victims of illegal dog breeders, we try to use all of the means at our disposal to improve both the living conditions of animals and the animal welfare legislation.
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