Seven quick online petitions: please help horses, rabbits, greyhounds, cats, and elephant | One dolphin alert

Petfinder

1. Please click HERE | Source American Wild Horse Preservation

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has an almost ideal management program for the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA) outside Cody, Wyoming. Over the past several years, the BLM has successfully implemented a PZP fertility control program, which has already attained zero population growth in this very popular herd. The BLM has also established a very productive partnership with an excellent community organization, Friends of a Legacy (FOAL), for the stewardship of the McCullough Peaks horses and their habitat. Unfortunately, the BLM is not willing to allow the time necessary for fertility control to reduce the size of this small herd. Instead, the agency is proposing the removal of 20 young horses via bait trapping. Let’s convince the BLM to do the right thing and leave these much-cherished horses with their families at home on the range.


2. Please click HERE | Source American Wild Horse Preservation

BLM Utah is proposing to remove 160 wild horses from a small herd that lives in the Swasey HMA, which is located two hours southwest of Provo. Please take a moment to tell BLM Utah that you support the implementation of a humane fertility control (i.e. PZP-22) program in this HMA, but oppose removals and skewing of  the natural sex ratio on the range. With nearly 50,000 wild horses in government holding facilities, it’s high time the BLM stops removing and stockpiling horses and starts managing them safely and humanely on the range where they belong.

3. Please click HERE | Source American Wild Horse Preservation

BLM Wyoming is once again targeting wild horses in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek HMAs in Wyoming. For the second time in less than three years, the agency is proposing another massive roundup and removal of these wild horses. In advancing this unnecessary plan, the BLM is taking its marching orders from local ranchers who are pressing hard for removal of all wild horses from this area. Please take a moment to tell the BLM that Americans oppose the mass extermination of wild horses in Wyoming, and that ranchers must be persuaded to tolerate America’s wild horses in exchange for the privilege of grazing their livestock on our public lands thanks to our generous tax subsidies.


4. Please click HERE | Source PETA

Despite knowing about the suffering that goes into every fur hat, scarf, and coat, bebe continues to sell fur. Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages that are so small they prevent animals from taking more than a few steps in any direction. Wire cages cut into rabbits’ delicate foot pads, and the animals are denied the opportunity to engage in natural behavior such as running and burrowing. Fur farmers use the cheapest killing methods available, including neck-breaking, suffocation, poisoning, and genital electrocution. Crude killing methods aren’t always effective, and sometimes animals “wake up” while they are being skinned. One of the best ways that you can help animals who are beaten and tortured for their fur is to tell bebe’s executives that you won’t buy while animals die.

Please don’t shop at bebe, and let the company know why! Use the form at the link above to tell bebe’s CEO to dump fur and let him know that you will not shop at bebe until all real fur is off the shelves.


5. Please click HERE | Source Animal Rescue Site

Greyhounds are loving animals and make great pets, but unfortunately they are regarded as mere money-making machines in the hunting world. The Spanish greyhound is an ancient breed of dog that is widely used as a hunting companion during Spain’s hunting season. However, at the end of the hunting seasons, the dogs are discarded like garbage.

If you walk along the streets of certain Spanish towns at the end of the hunting season, you will see skinny and starving dogs hoping to find scraps of food outside restaurants or lying on the sidewalk while people simply walk by unaffected.

During their short lifetimes these dogs are treated solely as property and do not receive human contact. When it’s time to get rid of them, the hunters simply let them free to fend for themselves, or worse, hang them. They often watch for entertainment.

Call on Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to strengthen the country’s animal protection laws.


6. Please click HERE | Source Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary

The world-famous Torre Argentina cat sanctuary in Rome is under threat of being shut down by the city due mostly to archaeological concerns.  An all-volunteer shelter, they take care of 150-180 cats at a time, and over the past 20 years they have neutered close to 29,000 cats.

Please sign this petition HERE and forward it to your friends and like-minded lists.

The following article appeared in the NY Times on November 7th:
Strays Amid Rome Ruins Set Off a Culture Clash

Thank you.


7. Please click HERE | Source PETA Asia-Pacific

Authorities in India have still not transferred Sunder, a 13-year-old elephant who had been chained for years at the Jyotiba Temple in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, to a sanctuary—despite Maharashtra Minister of Forests Dr. Patangrao Kadam’s order calling for Sunder’s release. Authorities have the responsibility to follow the Kadam’s order but seem to lack the will to do so. It is thought that Sunder has been hidden by temple authorities in a dark, heavily guarded poultry shed behind a dairy facility.

Sunder has been denied freedom of movement, and on the rare occasions when he was taken for a short walk at the temple, he was kept in spiked chains. Because of the abusive treatment at the hands of his mahout, Sunder was found by PETA India with wounds all over his body and a damaged eye.

Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals. In nature, they spend around 18 hours a day walking, feeding, bathing in watering holes, and interacting with other elephants, and females live in close-knit family groups for life. Elephants held in captivity are separated from their families as babies and are sentenced to a lifetime of confinement, boredom, loneliness, and abuse. Constantly kept in chains, many exhibit signs of mental illness, including repetitive swaying, rocking, and head-bobbing. The chains also cause painful wounds and pressure sores, which often become infected. The lack of exercise and the years spent standing on hard concrete amid their own waste lead to painful and crippling foot ailments and arthritis. The severe confinement has led Sunder to act out in frustration, creating a risk for temple authorities and visitors.

Please help PETA India in urging authorities to immediately transfer Sunder to a sanctuary.


Online Alert | Source Animal Legal and Defense Fund

$5,000 Reward Offered for Information Leading to Arrest of Dolphin Killers

The national nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) is offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s) who brutally slaughtered and mutilated dolphins off the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Marine authorities, who believe that the offender(s) are on a killing spree, note that the dolphins are not only being killed, but also mutilated. On Friday, a team from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) found a dolphin with her lower jaw missing. Last weekend, a dolphin was shot through his abdomen by a 9mm gun. Other dolphins have had stab wounds.

Cruelty to dolphins, which includes harassing, harming, or feeding wild dolphins, is a federal crime. Under the provision of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that provides for penalties—16 USC § 1375 (a)—offenders can be fined civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation. Criminal penalties include up to $20,000 per violation and/or one year in prison for each violation. Feeding wild dolphins is included in the act because it causes them to become trusting of humans and to approach fishing boats for food. Recreational and commercial fishermen are asked for especially increased vigilance and to report anyone harming dolphins.

Recent months have seen an increase in these ruthless attacks. In Louisiana, a dolphin washed up with her tail cut off. In Alabama, a dolphin was stabbed with a screwdriver and killed. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has put law enforcement and coastal service teams on “heightened awareness,” asking agencies to document every dolphin found as they build a case to prosecute offenders.

“The individuals responsible for these attacks pose a serious threat to our communities. Anyone capable of such brazen cruelty is a menace not only to marine mammals, but also to humans,” says Stephen Wells, ALDF executive director. “It is well-established that abusers repeat violent crimes against helpless animals, and often go on to victimize people as well.”

If you have information relating to the identity of the person or persons who mutilated and killed Gulf Coast dolphins, please contact the Animal Legal Defense Fund at 707-795-2533, x1010.

this is the season,
that our hearts give,
some petitions to sign
to help our beloved
animals, live ♥

Karen Lyons Kalmenson