Activists in Cyprus have organized the founding conference of the first political party for animal welfare, Animal Party of Cyprus, for this Sunday at the Philoxenia Conference Centre in Nicosia. The party will take part in May’s European Parliament elections.
On behalf of the pioneers of the party, Kyriakos Kyriakou said that the new party aims to lay the foundations for a more dynamic political animal-welfare presence in the upcoming parliamentary elections and municipal elections of 2016.
“Our goal is to pass a message to all citizens and to give voice to those who have no voice, the animals,” he said. “The relations between people and animals are intertwined.”
The conference will be attended by the president of the Dutch party for animal welfare, Marianne Thieme.
Between May 2nd and 5th, seven animal welfare political parties from across the EU will meet to determine a common agenda for the European elections.
The APC aims to address issues such as the registration and microchipping of pets, as well as sterilization programs to stop the island’s burgeoning population of feral and abandoned animals spiralling out of control.
The party also stands against intensive industrial farming of livestock “After a short and miserable life in farms with no natural light, millions of animals are slaughtered to end up as cheap meat in supermarkets,” APC said.
It has also suggested the amount of land devoted to organic farming be increased through subsidisation, and the amount of industrial fertilisers and chemicals be drastically reduced and replaced by biological and organic alternatives.
APC also stands to protect the island’s wildlife from poaching, poisoning, development, forest fires, droughts and climate change. Bird-trapping is a particularly contentious issue in Cyprus, one that is starting to deter tourists and divide opinion on the island.
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