Animal rights higher up political agenda

The Dutch animal rights party might not have had many motions adopted by parliament, but it has booked a number of successes.

At the 2006 general election, the pro-animal rights party Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD) won 2 of the 150 seats in parliament. The party made its gains because the Dutch system of proportional representation allows parties with only minor support to win seats in parliamen. And it was an international first: a party whose sole objective is to improve the welfare of animals was elected to parliament.

The party's added value is disputed, however, as both fellow members of parliament and lobbyists for animal welfare organisations have doubts about its real clout.

In particular, the numerous, hopeless motions the party submits annoy other parliamentarians. Last month, the party presented its annual report listing all 240 written questions and 170 motions that its two members of parliament Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand have submitted over the past year. The agriculture ministry employs two civil servants full-time just to answer their questions. Thieme: “Wonderful. It is certainly more important work than their thousands of colleagues who help the factory farming industry every day.”

Irritation

According to its loudest critics, the party has not achieved anything substantial since being elected to parliament two years ago. They point to the small number of times that the PvdD managed to get majority support for its actions - only ten of its 170 motions were accepted in 2008. The party too often chooses immutable standpoints, they claim, and does not understand the art of negotiating compromises, which lead to new laws.

Sometimes the PvdD gets insulted openly. When in a debate about animal welfare Thieme began to read the umpteenth motion that the minister would oppose, Boris van der Ham (D66) lost all patience: “I'm going home. I have better things to do.” He didn't actually leave, but his words symbolised the irritation of many fellow members of parliament.

Inspiration

Krista van Velzen (Socialist Party), who has been active against the fur industry for years, has experienced another aspect of the PvdD's influence. She says that other parties listen "more favourably" to her proposals since the arrival of the animal rights party. “Because I'm no longer the extremist,” she says.

That's also the opinion of Bert van den Braak, parliamentary historian at the University of Leiden. Even if the PvdD cannot force through any changes in the law, the party helps others to do so. “They have moved animal welfare higher up the agenda,” he says.

Indeed, the number of animal welfare proposals submitted by the cabinet and other political parties over the past two years has tripled compared with the two years before the PvdD won its seats. And the recent resolve by the cabinet to take a ‘pioneering role’ in Europe in the improvement of animal welfare must be seen in this light, Van den Braak says. This effect was to be expected, says he. “Look at what happened in the past with other single-issue groups, like the two parties for the elderly. Both then and now you see potential competitors try to make the issue their own.”

But not everyone believes in the inspirational effect of the only animal rights party in the world with representatives in parliament. As Labour parliamentarian Harm Evert Waalkens says: “The simple fact that they are in parliament reflects a growing interest in animal welfare by society.”

Ridicule

Thieme is not bothered that other parties are trying to make her party redundant, but she is upset about attempts by parliamentarians and journalists to ridicule the work of her party. That is a Pavlov reaction, Thieme feels.

“At the presentation of our annual report, I gave two examples of positive results that we have achieved: the ban on the docking of horses' tails, and the millions of euros that the government will invest to promote the conversion from animal-based to plant-based proteins. The next day all I read about in the papers was the horse tail motion. Because that fits the image people have of us: people who would love to knit a sweater for every pigeon.”