IN MEMORIAM
PIM FORTUYN
1948 - 2002
Posted on 05/07/2002 4:17:08 PM PDT by gd124
Statement Animal Freedom (may 7, 2002). Volkert is not and was not a member of Animal Freedom. This text is from an interview done by phone 2 years ago.
Volkert van der Graaf Even in elementary school I was interested in animals, the environment and nature. I was a member of the WWF Rangers, and we did things like picking up garbage in the dunes, etc. I also used to fish, with my brother who was two years older. I used to get a kick out of catching fish. My brother put the worms on the hook. I did think it was mean on the worms and the fish. It just wasn't right, but apparently everyone thought it was normal. During my high school years this feeling that something was not right, increased. People think it normal that you eat animals, and that you let fish suffocate in nets when you catch them. But inside me arose a sense of justice; such things shouldn't be happening in a civilized country, I thought, but there's no one to stand up for them. When I was 15, I worked at a bird shelter in Zeeland. Only 2 percent of the birds that were brought in covered in oil survived. I wanted to prevent suffering, and I didn't agree with the suffering of the birds that died slowly from the oil in their intestines. At that place it was a taboo to end that life. The others thought you simply had no right to end it. At the same time they put out mousetraps to kill the mice that were stealing the bird food. I left that place, I didn't want to be inconsistent any longer. At one point I wanted to stop eating meat, but my parents wouldn't let me because you had to eat meat. Only after I started studying in Wageningen I gave it up. The questions remained: is leather OK, is milk OK, are eco-eggs OK? Then I became a vegan. It took some effort, but once you are one, it becomes normal fast, you know where to find things. Sometimes when you have dinner with other people, you encounter incomprehension. During my studies I involved myself in the use of laboratory animals. I joined a regional group of the NBBV (anti-vivisection federation), did stand work, went to work for Lekker Dier, teach at schools, I've been involved in several actions. As a member of the IUOD (Inter University Consultation on Animal use) we tried to bring back the number of laboratory animals used in education. We fought for the right not to have to use test animals in our studies, we made a survey on laboratory animal use for certain subjects, and we tried to offer support to students who were against this as well and told them how they could lodge their objections. We didn't want to impose a standard, but present facts. Students could make up their own minds based on the descriptions of animal tests and the procedure that they could follow to be exempted from animal testing. We asked them: do you want to cut into a dead piglet or into sharks that were caught as by-catch during herring fishery? Now I'm working for Milieu Offensief (Environment Offensive) that is involved in the environment as well as animal welfare. Whatever your motives are for working here, you work together toward the same result: stopping the expansion of factory farming. The result is less pollution of the environment and less animal suffering. Through legal procedures we fight permits for factory farms and fur farms, using the law as our tool. In the past few years we have been through as much as 2000 legal procedures, we won a lot, but now we are going to apply ourselves more to the heavy offenders of environment and animal suffering. My actions don't come so much from love for animals, I just have a basic standard: "what happens to animals in factory farming is not right". For the rest I just act rationally, I don't have to be an animal friend to protect animals. Many animal protectors act from the assumption that "nature is good", but every dark side of humans can also be found in nature. Protecting animals is civilizing people, as they say.
Back to personal stories
He'll be consistent, now. Consistently in one place eating whatever is on the dinner tray.
IN MEMORIAM
PIM FORTUYN
1948 - 2002
No way! you gots to axe nicely. ;^)
Do Dutch election laws provide for a replacement candidate?
It's going to be very interesting to see how the Dutch electorate reacts to the assassination at the ballot box in a few days. A swing to the right could set the stage for even more violence from the Left in Europe.
But he is a member of "Environment Offensive": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/679705/posts
From the Independent article above:
Mr Fortuyn had been quoted as telling an established Dutch green group: "The whole environmental policy in the Netherlands has no substance any more. And I'm sick to death of your environmental movement."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.