International weekly wordlog by Dutch Party for the Animals leader launched in 9 languages
Today Marianne Thieme, leader of the Dutch Party for the Animals, launched an international 'worldlog' with the help of a team of 24 translators.
Her goal is to inform kindred spirits across the globe about her work both within and outside of the Dutch parliament. The Worldlog will appear every week, first in Dutch, German, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and Turkish; other languages will soon follow. The Worldlog is part of the new Party for the Animals international website. The website and the Worldlog have been set up in response to increasing foreign interest in the Party.
Marianne Thieme will be reporting on the pioneering work of the Party for the Animals; the first political party in parliament, which does not primarily represent human interests. In the meantime, Parties for the Animals have been set up, including UK's Animals Count, whose Chair, Jasmijn de Boo, was a candidate for the European Parliament elections in 2004 for the Dutch Party for the Animals. Similar initiatives are in the process of establishing themselves in numerous other countries.
In the Worldlog, Marianne Thieme will share her experiences with other proponents of animal rights. She also wants to inspire others to develop similar political activities and thereby ensure that we literally do justice to animals.
The Party for the Animals is currently the fastest growing political party in the Netherlands. In addition, the Party now also has its own youth organisation and a scientific bureau. The latter recently produced Meat the Truth, a documentary on climate change. On the basis of scientific reports, this film demonstrates that the livestock industry worldwide is responsible for the emission of more greenhouse gasses than all the cars, lorries, trains, ships and planes combined. The documentary will be screened this summer in, among other places, Brussels, London, Dresden, New York, Madrid, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Beijing, and Singapore.
18 March, 2008 
Dutch 'Party for the Animals' awards and successes
The Dutch 'Political Party for the Animals' (Partij voor de Dieren, PvdD) has been very successful over the past year. Leader Marianne Thieme has won an 'Angel' award from a Christian political party (Youth Chapter) for her achievements in working towards 'Respect for all forms of Life'. She was also named 'Animal Protectionist of the Year' by the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals.
Since Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand were installed as MPs in the Dutch government in November 2006 they have asked so many animal welfare questions that a new Ministerial officer had to be hired to reply to them. They also submitted numerous motions and held passionate speeches on all animal protection issues.
When the recent policy document on animal welfare was discussed in parliament several weeks ago, the Party for the Animals had submitted 41 motions due to the policy document being very weak and conservative. Three motions were accepted, including compulsory CCTV at livestock markets and the need for an action plan to tackle the fraudulent trade in dogs.
The fact that people really care about animals in the Netherlands is demonstrated by their membership figures; in 2007 they were again the fastest growing political party and now have nearly 7,000 members. Animals Count is growing too, but we need you to help raise our profile in order to reach the hundreds of thousands of animal lovers in the UK!
28 February, 2008