Walloons sensitive to animal welfare

Walloons sensitive to animal welfare

According to an Ipsos opinion poll, Walloons approve of the priorities concerning animal welfare for the 2014 to 2019 legislature forwarded by the animal rights association Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA). These results were presented in Namur on Monday. Ranked fifteenth in the twenty-four political spheres suggested to those polled, animal welfare is judged to be more important than agriculture, governance, Europe, local government or tourism. Michel Vandenbosch, the President of GAIA, stressed, “These days, our objectives cannot be considered too demanding, radical, or even extremist, given that they are clearly shared by a majority of Walloons.”  The survey respondents agree, favourable responses ranging from 68% to 88%, with the eight points presented by GAIA: a ban on the religious slaughter of animals without pre-stunning, a ban on the use of cats and dogs in research and testing, the setting up of a centre researching alternatives to animal experimentation, a ban on research and testing on monkeys, compulsory neutering of domestic cats, the granting of sentient creature status to animals under civil law, a ban on  the surgical castration (to avoid “boar taint”) of piglets and on the force-feeding of ducks and geese in the making of foie gras.

Young people, women, inhabitants of the province of Luxembourg and educated people of the lower social classes place the most importance on animal welfare. The online survey ran from March 26th to April 2nd (3.1% margin of error).

(Source: Belga)  



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