The PAN party (People–Animals–Nature) and Faro City Council have made an agreement on certain commitments for 2020. The agreement includes social, environmental, and animal welfare measures, among others.
This week PAN met with Faro City Council official to assess what should be done, and to present both short and medium-term action measures to combat certain issues.
Faro City Council committed to maintaining the “Projeto Abem”, a free medical care accessibility support network, increasing the available funds to increase the number of beneficiaries that can access the social project.
The Council also welcomed PAN proposals in the area of food, and is expected to hire a nutrition expert and carry out two vegetarian food seminars in the first months of next year, in response to some concerns expressed by parents and students of local municipal schools regarding vegetarian meals in school canteens being nearly always nutritionally incomplete and unbalanced.
In addition to the school aspect, there will be a seminar aimed at environmentally-friend restaurant practices, meeting the growing demand worldwide, providing entrepreneurs in Faro with training in the preparation of these “ecologically-friendly meals.”
PAN have also convinced the Council to promote varied vegetarian diets, which they deem to be more environmentally friendly and contributes to reducing the city's ecological footprint. In the same vein, policies will be created to encourage the introduction of locally produced food in the canteens of the municipality.
A revaluation of the city's pruning and felling procedures will also be looked over in the coming months.
In the area of Animal Welfare, the Council welcomed various measures and recommendations. They will launch a billboard campaign against animal abandonment; open the tender for hiring more veterinarian; offer more microchip readers to police forces; reinforce the CED (Catch, Sterilize and Return) program for stray animals by increasing the incentive’s grant by five thousand euros.
PAN also wants to follow up on something long requested by pet owners and animal aid associations throughout the municipality: the microchips of sterilized lost animals will contain the name of the city council. This pushes through an impasse between associations and caregivers over who would assume responsibility, since the Council itself believes that they can take on the responsibility through their expanding public programme.
“If we add these measures alongside the construction of the official foreseen Collection Centre, Faro will be much closer to being the reference municipality for the protection, health and welfare of animals in the district of Faro.” says Paulo Baptista, a PAN member of the Municipal Assembly and District Political Commissioner.
"With this understanding we reaffirm the position of PAN as a responsible party with the ability to positively influence local governance," he adds. Mr. Baptista also says that “the agreement reinforces the trust placed in those who voted for us and that it revises in this position of constructive dialogue the best way to defend and implement the maximum measures foreseen in the municipal program that we presented in 2017.”
“It is an agreement based on promises, but it will be properly monitored over the coming months” he concludes. In the environmental area, the executive officer was available to evaluate a reduction of noise in fireworks at public events organized by the municipality, opting for quiet fireworks that do not harm birds or other animals, children, or people who with health conditions that have greater sensitivity and panic with the bursts. This will at the same time reduce noise pollution. This option could only have practical effect in 2020, as for 2019 regular fireworks have already been obtained for use through December.
