The Animalist Party with the Environment (PACMA) – Advocating for Animal-people Welfare in the Political Arena, Part 1 of 2

“The Animalist Party with the Environment (PACMA)” is one of the few that was established to promote animal-people welfare and rights. Founded in 2003, now with headquarters in Madrid, Spain, this political party progresses the causes of animal-people through innovative awareness campaigns as well as proposals for electoral reforms. Until 2019, PACMA, who had also been supporting animal-people rights protection collectives such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), garnered the victory of seeing the highest court in Spain decree to stop torturing bull-people with arrows, spears, and stabbing.

The party is intent on saving other species from abuse as shared by Eduardo Milla, PACMA’s candidate for mayor of the Almeria City Council in the May 2023 election. “Well, I imagine that you are familiar with PACMA's programme in which we call for the abolition of bullfighting, the outlawing of hunting, a ban on the sale and purchase of animal, the promotion of veganism, the end of all support for the livestock sector and to promote veganism from the institutions.” These initiatives are carried out in solo or in partnership with allies promoting common causes locally and internationally such as La Plataforma No a La caza, Coalición por El Bierzo, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and others.

Other concerns that PACMA loudly calls the public’s attention to is the cruelty on animal-people hunting as sport. Dog-people hunting or fox-people hunting has a long history in Spain and other places. Nowadays, there are some organisations that still keep the tradition. One of PACMA’s strategies is to bring animal-people rights to the legislation platform to ensure that honor and respect of animal-peoples wellbeing are noted. The approach of informing, assessing and negotiating a win-win solution can and will lead to results, as illustrated by Eduardo Milla in incidents involving wild boars-people appearing in the city of Almeria. “So, first of all, to make people understand that there is no invasion, that there are other animals that live in the same municipal area, and that they need to live in a better habitat.”