A delegation from the Animal Party Cyprus (APC) will join sister parties in Brussels in the first week of April to discuss a common electoral manifesto, common positions and a common strategy for the European elections, the website European Interest has reported.
Currently, only one of those parties is represented, the Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren; PvdD) from the Netherlands.
APC president Kyriako Kyriakou told European Interest he aims to boost coordination of pro-animal activism on a European level.
Animal Party Cyprus (APC), won 1% of the vote in the country’s last election. According to the latest polls, the party is now close to 3%. Kyriacou said Cypriot society is changing in terms of animal welfare issues but there is still a way to go.
Kyriakou spoke out about the trapping of ‘Ampelopoulia’ saying there should be zero tolerance for this criminal behaviour.
“The Party for Animals is calling on the state to increase policing and, in cooperation with all stakeholders, to show zero tolerance. Also, those arrested should not only face a fine but also imprisonment for many years so that the corresponding messages are sent to future and aspiring trappers,” he told the website.
As regards the animal rights parties in the EU he spoke of the need for a joint programme, a manifesto that outlines the priorities on which all pro-animal parties of Europe will work towards.
All animal welfare parties are opposed to any policy on genetically modified foods and, of course, intensive farming. It is time to return to non-intensive farming and environmentally friendly and animal-friendly methods, he adds.
Some changes APC wants the EU to implement relate not only to animals rights, but also agriculture, fishery and food.
As regards animal cruelty issues, he said this concerned a number of cases of animal maltreatment – for example, bullfighting and minimising EU subsidies to finally stop this macabre and unacceptable ‘sport’ under the pretence that it is tradition.
