Five actions, please sign

Please click on and sign the following:

1.CareerBuilder: Stop using chimpanzees in Super Bowl ads

2. Tell Virginia That Dogs Are Not Livestock

3.Support Air Canada’s Decision to Stop Transporting Primates for Research

4.Don’t Let Obama Shut Out Endangered Species

5.Tell ‘Price Is Right’ Producers to Keep SeaWorld Out of Prize Packages


1. From Change

CareerBuilder is hurting chimpanzees, both captive and wild, with their irresponsible exploitation of chimps in their marketing campaigns over the years.

Responsible companies are creating innovative marketing campaigns with new computer generated imagery technology instead of real animals, but CareerBuilder continues to exploit live chimpanzees in their outdated ads that harken back to the mindless exploitation of the last century.

By using live chimpanzees for advertising, CareerBuilder supports an industry that hurts the chimps from the beginning of their lives when they are forceably taken away from their mothers, through their youthful isolation and often abusive training, to their final 40 or 50 years when they are discarded into sanctuaries without financial support.

Beyond the hurt done to these specific chimps, a public who laughs at zany and unnatural antics of costumed chimps is less likely to understand that chimpanzees are an endangered species that need protection.

In refusing to stop their use of chimpanzees, even though they know of the objections by animal welfare advocates, CareerBuilder commits tremendous harm to the “here and now” of the captive chimpanzees they’ve used in the past and the chimps they are using now, and the future (if it exists) of chimpanzees in the wild.


2. From Force Change

Target: Virginia State Lawmakers

Goal: Oppose the Virginia Bill which will classify dogs as livestock and deny them basic rights.

There is a bill currently awaiting passage in the Virginia Senate that would essentially classify dogs that are working, hunting, or show dogs as livestock.  It will also give the Department of Agriculture 100% control over regulation of all livestock, and will bar intervention from any outside organizations (including humane societies).  This means that no outside group will be legally allowed to help these animals if they are being neglected or treated in a cruel manner.  Livestock are allowed by law to be subject to “traditional farm practices”, many of which are inhumane and being protested by animal rights organizations.

The bill defines “traditional farm practices” as follows: “Traditional farm practice” means an accepted and customary standard established by similar agricultural operations under similar circumstances, including notching, docking, tagging, dehorning, debeaking, shoeing, trimming, dubbing, castrating, penning, cooping, caging, tethering, herding, hauling, training, showing, and culling….

In other words, any working, hunting, or show dogs will now be subject to these horrible practices with no consequences for the perpetrators who will be protected fully under this bill.  Currently, the Department of Agriculture’s staff consists of only one inspector and one veterinarian – hardly enough to ensure the well-being of thousands of animals.

The bill is scheduled to go before the Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee as early as January 26, 2012. It’s bad enough that livestock such as pigs and cattle suffer these “traditional farming practices”.  We cannot allow dogs to be added to this list.  Please petition Senator Black and let him know that you are opposed to classifying dogs as livestock.


3. From Change

Airlines play a key role in the international trade in primates for research by transporting monkeys for laboratories around the world. Cruelty and suffering are an intrinsic part of the trade. Some monkeys are taken from the wild; others are the offspring of wild-caught individuals forced into captivity for a lifetime of breeding. All are torn from their family groups, packed into small, wooden crates and shipped as cargo, usually on extremely long journeys.

Revelations by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) of Air Canada’s role in the transportation of primates for research led to widespread publicity and an international campaign supported by Change.org members, animal organisations and individuals around the world. As a consequence, Air Canada has made a decision to stop the transportation of such primates and filed an amended tariff to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).

The airline stated: “It was a decision taken both to align our policies with those of many other major international carriers and in response to widespread public concern.”

Unfortunately, following a complaint, the CTA has now suspended Air Canada’s amended tariff pending a hearing on its proposed new policy.

Please support Air Canada’s decision and request the Canadian Transportation Agency recognise the strength of public feeling on this issue and allow Air Canada to align its policies with those of other major passenger airlines.

Primates are highly sensitive animals, so this treatment and the conditions they endure are extremely stressful for them. Some may become ill and even die in transit. Delays, poor ventilation, noise and temperature fluctuations can add to their misery.

Only a small number of passenger airlines continue to be involved in this grim business, including Air France, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, China Air and Vietnam Airlines.

Read more about the BUAV Cargo Cruelty campaign and see a full list of airlines which do and do not transport non-human primates for research.


4. From Center for Biological Diversity

Right now, the Obama administration is accepting comments on a draft policy interpreting the phrase “significant portion of its range” (SPOIR), which specifies that if a species is at risk of extinction in any significant portion of range, it shall be protected.

This provision has played a key role in the recovery of the bald eagle, grizzly bear and many other iconic wildlife species, ensuring that animals and plants receive protection before they’re past the point of saving by providing protection to species in important parts of their home ranges.

The draft policy would limit species protection in two ways. First, it proposes that a portion of range would only be considered significant if loss of the species from that portion would threaten the species as a whole. This amounts to a regulatory sleight-of-hand that would effectively eliminate the SPOIR provision by making it largely synonymous with a species being at risk in all of its range.

Second, the policy says historic range will not be considered when determining whether a species is endangered in a significant portion of range. In effect, this calls for turning a blind eye to past losses of species, providing a perverse incentive to delay determinations of species’ status, so that they may go extinct in various portions of their range, which would then, in turn, no longer be considered for protection.

Please tell the Obama administration to scrap this disastrous policy proposal and develop one that will truly protect species when they are at risk in significant portions of range.


5. From PETA

We can’t help but wonder what veteran Price Is Right host and crusader for orcas Bob Barker would think of the popular game show offering contestants a free trip to SeaWorld—the same cruel park that he urged families to boycott last summer in a public service announcement for PETA. But despite SeaWorld’s notoriously awful record of animal care, that’s exactly what happened on a recent episode.

In the wild, dolphins and orcas swim up to 100 miles a day in the open ocean, have complex relationships, forage cooperatively, communicate using distinct dialects, and pass down cultural traits to their offspring. At SeaWorld, these intelligent and social animals, some of whom were violently taken from their homes and families as babies, are confined to pitifully small concrete tanks. Deprived of all that is natural to them, they are forced to learn circus-style tricks—and according to whistleblower tips from trainers, withholding food and isolating animals who refuse to perform are common training methods.

The only thing that people learn from visiting a SeaWorld theme park is how miserable life is for the animals who are held captive there. Children see mere shadows of animals—defeated beings who are unable to engage in natural behaviors. These parks teach all the wrong lessons: that it is acceptable to imprison animals, deprive them of freedom of movement and thought, prevent them from exploring and establishing their natural territory, breed and separate them as we please, and allow them to go insane from loneliness.

You can help keep SeaWorld promotions off television by writing to Price Is Right producer Adam Sandler using the form below. Urge him never to offer a trip to the marine animal park again.

every day another fight
another chance
to makes things right
every day another battle
until every abuser’s
cage is rattled!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson