The Green Party and Animal Protection
As the Greens don’t currently have any MPs, we cannot provide a score for their support for House of Commons Early Day Motions. However, their MEPs lead the way in animal advocacy.
The Greens are the only major national party to explicitly embrace the concept of animal rights. This is not surprising given that central to the Green Party’s philosophy is the idea that humans are not the only beings worthy of moral consideration. Hence the broad framework for their policies relating to animals is: ‘The prevailing assumption that animals can be used for any purpose that benefits humankind is not acceptable in a Green society.’ (Section AR100)
The Greens go on to assert that their ‘Party believes that animals have the right to live in safety, without fear or pain caused by human exploitation. We seek a more peaceful world, where all life is respected and all cruelty challenged.’
Therefore, the Greens easily conform with the proposals in our policy questionnaire for the 2010 General Election, pledging to:
- End all animal experiments, replacing them with more reliable non-animal alternatives.
- End factory farming, stop promoting factory farming abroad and encourage a reduction in meat consumption. We would also ban live exports, and the genetic treatment of animals.
- Protect habitats, ban bloodsports and end badger culling. We would ban the use of animals in circuses.
On the specific question of ‘Democratic Reform’, the Greens say that as ‘part of the Environment Commission, a section will be set up dealing with the welfare of all animals, wild and domesticated, to oversee their treatment and make appropriate recommendations’.
The Greens also go further than the other parties in recognising the need to preserve animal habitats. Policy AR402 states their intention: ‘To take pressure off wild animals by voluntarily limiting our population, by actively discouraging and penalising pollution and by preserving and restoring stable habitats’.
The main practical political problem for the Greens is the first-past-the-post electoral system, which means that only the winner in each constituency goes to parliament, rather than seats being equally allocated according to national share of the vote. Such FPTP systems tend towards the evolution of two major parties who monopolise political power. Consequently, voting Green in such systems usually fails to have a direct impact on the result in that seat. However, as a result of long-term campaigning and winning seats on the local councils, the Greens are now in a good position to win in the following seats: Brighton Pavilion, Lewisham Deptford, Norwich South.
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