Vegan Denied Passport for being a pain the bum

A WOMAN has been denied a Swiss passport because residents thought her animal rights campaigning and criticism of local traditions was “annoying”.

Nancy Holten, 42, was born in the Netherlands, moved to Switzerland when she was eight, and has two children who are Swiss citizens.

But her second attempt to obtain a Swiss passport of her own has been rejected by the residents committee in Gipf-Oberfrick in the canton of Aargau, who have a say in citizenship applications, according to The Local.

It reported Ms Holten, a vegan and animal rights campaigner, has gained an unfavourable reputation in the municipality due to her hard-line stance against the local use of cowbells, which she claims damages cows’ health.

Ms Holten has also campaigned against hunting and piglet racing, as well as complained about noise from church bells in town.

So when it came time for the residents to decide on whether Ms Holten should become a naturalised Swiss, they said no.

Swiss People’s Party local branch president Tanja Suter told Swiss media that Holten had a “big mouth”.

She said the committee didn’t want to give Ms Holten the “present” of Swiss citizenship “if she annoys us and doesn’t respect our traditions”.

Ms Holten, who speaks fluent Swiss-German, told The Local she thought she was rejected because she was “too strident and spoke my mind too often”.


http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/europe/vegan-denied-passport-because-she-was-being-annoying/news-story/652c9f811598a3c86e8cae8fa7b37725

Eilzel wrote:I disagree Bee. While not even remotely considering veganism myself, I do have some good friends who are, and they fairly point out that concerns over climate change, deforestation and land clearing as well as human health are among their reasons for going vegan.

As to this woman; I think Switzerland goes too far with its democratising everything. People shouldn't a vote on passport applications- and someone expressing concerns, however forcefully, is not imo a reason to refuse someone citizenship.