As is to be expected the manifesto of the Green Party provides the most progressive and comprehensive platform of animal welfare issues. Here is the section, “Taking Animal Protection Seriously,” in full.
We share the world with other animals and are not entitled to ill-treat or exploit them. Accordingly we would:
There is also a very good section on the environmental impact of factory farming and even a call to reduce the consumption of meat and dairy!
Intensive livestock farming is a major contributor to greenhouse gases through the production of methane. We will work to measure and reduce the impact of our meat and dairy consumption, while recognising that traditional rotational grazing has potential for storing carbon in the soil.
The Green Party is to be applauded for its visionary and authentic “joining up of the dots” public policy, which understands animal welfare as an integral component and not as some fringe issue to be dismissed with token gestures. I could, if I wanted to, nitpick some of the objectives. For example, I’m not sure how you would ban harm to animals in research other than by ending all experimentation but I doubt that this is what they mean. Nonetheless, the Green Party’s animal welfare manifesto commitment is a breath of fresh after holding my head in my hands from reading the nonsense the other parties published.
But, as we all know, the Green Party is a fringe political party. On May 7, however, we may live in a new world in which the next Parliament may include a Green Party MP. Caroline Lucas MEP, the Green Party’s Leader, is standing for election in the Brighton Pavilion constituency. There is speculation that she may even get elected in what’s been described as a “three-way marginal.”