HighestWelfare.Humane.Assured.GoodPractices.Vegetarian. Regenerative.Flexitarian.Lies...
What is the difference between No Welfare, High Welfare, and Highest Welfare when they all require animals to die? Only human comfort, NONE protect the actual animals. The most humane, ethical, and honest Webster-defined "welfare" is NOT exploiting animals - not using, not wearing, not eating, not killing - animals. The only meaningful position is vegan, everything else is just how humans euphemize animals' required suffering and violent deaths: no human exploits animals because they honestly believe that NOT exploiting animals is UNethical or INhumane.
USDA: Remove the Collapsing Elephant from the Ringling Bros. Circus | LA County: Cancel Cruel Elephant Rides
Please click on and sign
1. USDA, Remove Sarah from the Ringling Bros. Circus
2. Tell the Los Angeles County Fair to Cancel Cruel Elephant Rides
1. Background | From Change
On the night of August 6, as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus loaded a 53-year-old performing elephant named Sarah onto a boxcar, she fell and collapsed on the ground.
The circus says the fall was accidental, and Sarah is perfectly healthy. In fact, she’s never missed a performance.
But just two months ago, the USDA cited Ringling for violating the Animal Welfare Act by failing to treat this same elephant’s chronic medical problem, which could be fatal if neglected.
Sarah has a pus-like discharge in her urine, and an elevated white cell count. Ringling maintains it’s a just a chronic condition that’s of no concern. Per the USDA inspection report, Sarah’s handlers did nothing to treat the infection.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) has filed a formal complaint with the USDA, asking for Sarah to be removed from the circus. ADI’s Campaign Director, Matt Rossell, said, “Sarah is sick, and the stress and fatigue has likely led to this dangerous fall.”
In its own statement, Ringling’s parent company criticized ADI’s allegations, calling them “not only false but grossly out of context,” and accused ADI of manipulating the incident merely to further its agenda.
Last month, Danielle Graham, director of veterinary services for the circus, contended that Sarah was healthy, and the USDA citation was “basically a difference of veterinarian opinions.”
In its steadfast insistence that a sick animal is healthy and by forcing Sarah to continue performing, it is clear that Ringling is only interested in making money and has little concern for the elephant’s welfare.
It’s time for Sarah to stop being forced to perform handstands and instead get the medical attention she needs. Sign the petition asking Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senate Ag Committee Chair, and Robert M. Gibbens, USDA’s Western Regional Director, to remove Sarah from the circus.
Related | What Circus Animals Can’t Tell You
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2. Background | From PETA
Organizers of the Los Angeles County Fair are planning to have elephant rides provided by the company Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT), despite learning about video evidence that the company abuses elephants.
In video footage recently released by Animal Defenders International, trainers with HTWT can be seen forcing elephants to perform by shocking them with electric prods in the belly and genital area and striking them with bullhooks—sharp, metal-tipped weapons that resemble fireplace pokers and can leave painful welts, abscesses, and puncture wounds on elephants’ sensitive skin. In the video footage, a baby elephant cries out in pain each time he is hit on the head and jabbed in his sensitive mouth with a bullhook.
The behind-the-scenes beatings continue throughout the elephants’ lives and leave the animals fearful and intimidated, allowing handlers to maintain control over them. When leading elephants used for rides, HTWT handlers are never without their bullhooks—tools that the elephants associate with pain and that remind them what will happen if they behave in a way the handler doesn’t like.
Please take a moment to write to James E. Henwood, president and CEO of the Los Angeles County Fair Association, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to urge them to cancel the elephant rides at the L.A. County Fair immediately. If you are an L.A. County resident or if you have a few extra moments to make this letter more personal, please feel free to alter the text in a respectful manner before sending it. Personalized letters carry more weight.
Related: Humane Societies Call for Ringling Boycott
Citing Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ constant abuse of animals, several influential California humane societies—the Marin Humane Society, the East Bay SPCA, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, and the Sacramento SPCA—are publicly calling for a boycott of the circus, asking families to stay away from Ringling performances scheduled for the San Francisco Bay Area over the next few weeks.
The elephants used in this production—three of whom are 50 and older—are forced to perform the same silly, repetitive, and uncomfortable tricks year after year. Assan and Baby were born in Asia, were taken from their families, and have been used by Ringling for more than 40 years. At the end of the circus’s recent run in Los Angeles, an elephant named Sarah, a 54-year-old wild-captured elephant with a history of infection, about whom we have complained, collapsed while being loaded into a railroad car.
Kudos to these humane societies for taking a firm stand against blatant animal abuse. Please, ask your local humane society to follow their example by publicly asking families to stay away from Ringling Bros. Circus and never patronize a circus that uses live animals. Contact our Action Team for help.
Written by Jennifer O’Connor
International Animal-Free Circuses
Read more…
Please protest Ohio County, Indiana, Snapperfest, an illegal and torturous event, by signing two Petitions and sending one Sample Letter. If you modify letter, please keep the included statutes defining Snapperfest as illegal, thank you.
BACKGROUND | FROM CHANGE
Ohio County, Indiana, is only showing itself of its delight in barbarity with its extraordinarily cruel event called “Snapperfest”— next scheduled for this Saturday, August 20! Every year at the Campshore Campground, wild-caught snapping turtles endure terrible violence at the hands of participants. The frightened animals are grabbed by their tails and repeatedly slammed to the ground. Their heads are yanked from their shells, and they are then swung around until “contestants” are able to wrap their fists around the animals’ necks.
I feel it seriously disturbing how your County derives its entertainment. News of this is spreading across the nation-as a shameful spectacle.
Exposing society, especially children and young people, to animal cruelty leads to antisocial and deviant behavior.
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/reprint/30/2/257.pdf
“A history of animal cruelty during childhood was significantly associated with APD, antisocial personality traits, and polysubstance abuse. Mental retardation, psychotic disorders, and alcohol abuse showed no such association.,” J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 30:257–65, 2002
I quote: National Institute of Health
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792040/
“Cruelty to animals is associated with elevated rates observed in young, poor, men with family histories of antisocial behavior and personal histories of conduct disorder in childhood, and antisocial, obsessive-compulsive and histrionic personality disorders, and pathological gambling in adulthood. Given these associations, and the widespread ownership of pets and animals, effective screening of children, adolescents and adults for animal cruelty and appropriate mental health interventions should be deployed.”
Also, criminologists note that virtually every serial killer begun their “training” by killing animals because it was *entertaining*.
VIDEO FOOTAGE
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Stop torturing and killing turtles for entertainment
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block:
Complete contact details:
The Honorable Connie J. Brown
Ohio County Commissioner
yvonnewalton@hotmail.com
812-438-4624
The Honorable Todd Walton
Ohio County Commissioner
twalton@cinergy.com
The Honorable Shane Koons
Ohio County Commissioner
812-584-0378
The Honorable Connie Smith
Ohio County Auditor
ohioctyauditor1@earthlink.net
812-438-2062
Campshore Campground
812-438-2135 (office)
812-290-5939 (cell)
info@campshorecampground.com
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to share my disturbance regarding the event “Snapperfest”. As established by footage and first-hand accounts, this event is characterized by the methodical torture of turtles in a demonstration of “entertainment”. During this event, a turtle is systematically brutalized, his tail and neck are pulled and ripped and his body is slammed repeatedly to the ground, all while he is fully conscious, subjecting him to what can only be considered excruciating pain and prolonged suffering and fear. Furthermore, according to Indiana law, this event should be classified as illegal considering that turtles are vertebrate animals.
Indiana law stipulates:
A person having a vertebrate animal in the person’s custody who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally abandons or neglects the animal commits cruelty to an animal, a Class B misdemeanor. A person who knowingly or intentionally purchases or possesses an animal for the purpose of using the animal in an animal fighting contest commits a Class A misdemeanor. However, a person who knowingly or intentionally promotes or stages an animal fighting contest, uses an animal in a fighting contest, or attends an animal fighting contest having an animal in the person’s possession commits a Class D felony. Further, a person who knowingly or intentionally beats a vertebrate animal commits cruelty to an animal, a Class A misdemeanor. However, the offense is a Class D felony if the person has a previous, unrelated conviction under this section or the person knowingly or intentionally tortures or mutilates a vertebrate animal.
Intentional Acts
35-46-3-12 Beating vertebrate animal
http://www.animallaw.info/statutes/statestatutes/stusinset.htm
IN ST 35-46-3-.05 – 15; IN ST 36-8-3-18
As such, I, along with a national contingent of concerned citizens, implore upon you to act swiftly and responsibly by using your influence to enact an immediate moratorium on this illegal event, and, until such a time, I feel my only recourse is to promote a boycott of your state with respect to both tourism and commerce. Please provide your voice for others to observe their obligatory duty and responsibility by protecting animals, not sanctioning their torture; your ethical and dutiful gesture of legal authority would serve as an model of civil and community justice.
Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent issue.
NAME
Related alert and actions you can take:
From Huffington Post
By Joanna Zelman
Over one thousand dogs intended for consumption were rescued by Thai authorities on Thursday evening, reports AFP.
Four trucks were stopped in the Nakhon Phanom province of northeastern Thailand. According to the Daily Mail, police swooped in with two raids near the Laos border. The trucks were stacked high with dogs stuffed into tiny cages, and 119 dogs were already dead.
According to a Nakhon Phanom livestock development official, the dogs died either from suffocation, or from being thrown from the trucks when the alleged traffickers tried to flee the scene.
The dogs were being sent across a Laos river and into Vietnam. Police case officer Captain Prawat Pholsuwan told AFP that two Thai men and a Vietnamese man have been charged with trafficking and illegally transporting animals. The men face a maximum punishment of one year in jail and a fine of up to $670.
According to police, traffickers are known to round up stray dogs in rural Thai villages, and sell them for up to $33 per dog in Vietnam.
The Daily Mail reports that these dogs were “destined to be cooked and eaten.”
According to the news source, there are 13 countries that still consume dog meat. In Indonesia, the Batak Toba culture is reportedly known to cook a dog meat dish named “saksang.”
Related | From Farm To Fridge
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In April, hundreds of dogs were rescued from slaughter in Beijing, China thanks to a group of animal activists. According to the Associated Press, the activists blocked a truck transporting the dogs, and negotiated for their release in exchange for $17,000.
While most reactions to these incidents are ones of horror, and many cultures are disturbed by the thought of eating a dog, some have asked — what is the real difference between eating dog meat and cow meat? Or eating any other animal for that matter?
While the condition that these dogs were found in is considered atrocious, many (billions – SR) other animals face similar mistreatment in the United States.
Earlier this summer, Mercy for Animals, a Chicago-based animal welfare group, unveiled to the public undercover videos of livestock mistreatment.
The Associated Press reported that in the video, “sows are shown in small cages, known as gestation crates, that limit their ability to move, and workers are shown castrating piglets and removing their tails without anesthetics…There are repeated shots of workers tossing piglets across a room.”
Why Vegan – Boycott Cruelty!
Vegan Shopping List
Ban Jumps Racing: One petition, one sample letter
Image | Liss Ralston (theage.com.au)
Please sign Petition Letter and send letter opposing jumps racing. You may use the Sample Letter, but please modify and shorten, thank you.
BACKGROUND | FROM HORSE RACING KILLS
7 weeks after Racing Victoria announced that 2010 would be the last jumps racing season in Victoria, they have bowed to pressure from the jumps racing lobby and announced that if 3 key performance indicators can be achieved in 2010, jumps racing will continue in 2011.
In essence, if the fall and death rate can be reduced to what RVL considers an acceptable level, jumps racing will continue in 2011.
The appalling decision demonstrates that RVL has no regard for horses and is only concerned with public perception. Even Hugh Wirth, President of the RSPCA has vowed to make the banning of jumps racing their highest priority this year. “It’s war, make no mistake about that.’ Said Mr Wirth. ‘This is a disgraceful decision from a spineless and week-kneed board and we will not stop until jumps racing is banned once and for all”.
The Key Performance Indicators are:
1. A reduction in the fall rate from 5% to 3% of starters.
2. A reduction in the on-track death rate by half to 0.65% of starters.
3. Increased racehorse participation: 80% of races must not have less than 8 horses in a single race
While these targets are achievable, they have only been met twice in the last 10 years. With so much at risk, it is possible that the jockeys will be extremely cautious and trainers reluctant to race suspect horses.
Despite this we believe the falls and deaths will unfortunately continue.
CPR will be attending all trials and jumps races and will be conducting several demonstration throughout the year.
ATTENTION JUMPS HORSE OWNERS:
For those horse owners, trainers or riders who are considering sending their horses to the knackery, please click here so that we can assist in re-homing your horse. If you can also provide a home for ex-racehorses please also visit the page.
RELATED | GRAND ANNUAL STEEPLECHASE CARNAGE, 2011
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1. PLEASE SIGN PETITION LETTER:
2. PLEASE SEND SAMPLE LETTER |WHOM TO CONTACT:
denis.napthine@parliament.vic.gov.au
Please note: this email address has recently been invalidated. At times, the addressees will invalidate an email if they prefer to not receive emails again. Feel free to shorten the letter and use Mr. Napthine’s Website Contact Form.
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Honourable Napthine,
I am writing today with grave concerns regarding horse jumps racing, a particular form of entertainment Australians embrace but which inflicts considerable suffering and death upon horses. I am certain you are fully versed and directly acquainted with the interminable abuses and exploitive manners to which these horses are subjected for something as trivial as entertainment and selfish as banking. My intent is not to patronize you with endless statistics and graphic descriptions of the diversified forms of injuries that undoubtedly cause these horses substantial pain, prolonged agony, and in many cases death. In fact, I am confident you are well aware of the collateral damage caused by your business, hidden under generic tarps, concealed behind human walls, and disguised as financial losses, concern misinterpreted as loss of life rather than loss of dollars. Indeed, while I am aware of unscrupulous bureaucratic rules and practices, my goal, rather, is to achieve a better understanding of your motives for supporting jumps racing, whether they include financial, personal, or other incentives.
Please allow me to elaborate. No amount of words can adequately illustrate the dangerous conditions to which the horses are subjected, but footage has repeatedly established multiple injuries, many crippling, some lethal, and all incompatible with any established humane policy. Additionally, although visual documentation can reinforce the physical injuries animals suffer, it lacks the ability to convey the terror felt by these sentient beings, forced to endure unquestionably fearful conditions in frenzied and exploitative states. As a witness to these events, I find it irrefutable that any person who deliberately endorses jumps racing certainly lacks a sense of empathy for, or a fundamental respect of, horses. Possessing indisputable evidence regarding the detrimental and deadly impact jumps racing has on horses you must concede to your absence of regard for them: surely any person who holds an emotional, compassionate bond with a horse would never allow participation in such a dangerous, potentially lethal sport. Any other conclusion is illogical, especially when one considers the nonessential nature of jumps racing and the absolute lack of benefit it provides to horses.
It is important to acknowledge that all animals, like humans, are sentient, capable of fear, love, pain, and suffering; humans have the obligation and the capacity for empathy, and we must utilize our gifts to protect them, not apathetically condemn them to pain and death by exploiting them for entertainment or other endeavors. By supporting jumps racing, you are desensitizing society to animal abuse, relaying the inaccurate and dangerous message that animal abuse is not only tolerated, but it is also sanctioned. When we become immune to animal suffering, acceptance of human suffering is also realized. I therefore ask you respectfully to please reconsider your participation in an inherently cruel event and cease all plans capitalizing on the abuse and death of horses. Please instead practice compassion and respect by engaging in activities that do not support the abuse of our animal friends.
Thank you for your time regarding this urgent issue.
NAME
Victory! 80 Monkeys Saved From Laboratory. Now Please Ask Airline to NEVER Transport Monkeys Again
Image | Peta.org
Previous action:
Urgent: Airline Plans to Transport Primates for Experiments!
New action, please click on and sign request that airline stops transporting primates ALWAYS:
Tell Airline to Stop Transporting Primates to Labs!
Background | From PETA
After thousands of e-mails, hundreds of phone calls, and a PETA “monkey” paying a visit to China Southern Airlines’ L.A. office, the airline—which is the largest in China—has made the compassionate decision to cancel its plans to ship 80 monkeys from China to the U.S., where they were going to end up in the hands of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) and Harlan Laboratories and be tormented in cruel experiments.
Now, we’re urging China Southern Airlines officials to join with many other major airlines, including Delta, American, United, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic, and refuse to transport primates to laboratories ever again. You can also write to them here. We’ll keep you posted!
Written by Michelle Sherrow | Posted by PETA
Related | Chimps: Undercover Investigation at Research Lab
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Petition Text | From PETA
I was pleased to learn that after hearing from PETA and its members, China Southern Airlines canceled plans to fly 80 monkeys to a laboratory in the U.S. on August 15. Primates in laboratories are routinely mutilated, poisoned, deprived of food and water, forcibly immobilized in restraint devices, infected with painful and deadly diseases, and psychologically tormented. In addition, primates suffer as a result of the long and grueling transport in the cargo holds of planes and in the back of trucks. For these reasons, other airlines–including Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, and China Airlines–refuse to transport primates for use in experiments.
Please join other leading airlines and adopt a formal policy prohibiting the transport of primates destined for laboratories to ensure that your company plays no role in the suffering of these highly intelligent and sensitive animals.
Please protest the proposed deer hunt in Rockville, Maryland: petition, sample letters
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Please click on and sign: Save Rockville’s Deer From Being Hunted
2. Protest in person if location applies:
WHEN: Monday, October 24 · 6:00pm – 9:00pm
WHERE: Rockville, MD City Hall | 111 Maryland Ave.
FACEBOOK EVENT: Crowd the Mayor and Council Meeting and Say NO DEER HUNT
3. Send a message to the City of Rockville (mayor and editor of the paper) using one or more of the six sample letters below (if you use number six, please remember to source the quote); additionally, feel free to fax expressing your opposition to the proposed deer hunt.
Address:
City of Rockville
111 Maryland Avenue
Rockville MD 20850
(240) 314-8289 – Fax
Emails:
Mayor | mayorcouncil@rockvillemd.com
Editor of the paper, must include name, address, and phone number | dsimon@gazette.net
Website:
www.rockvillemd.gov
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to protest the suggested deer hunt in Rockville. Animals are inherently sentient and possess the capacity for thought and emotion, including contentment, loneliness, fear, and agony. All animals, human and non-human, experience the desire to live free from exploitation and suffering and fear the manifestation of death. Humans have adopted dangerous constructs of speciesism, the prejudicial regard of non-human species, to validate the brutality inflicted upon them. Using this manufactured status of superiority, humans have sanctioned the use of animals as commodities, regarding them only as products to benefit our goals and needs. We embrace inequity to justify our treatment of animals, which is mere savagery concealed in socially-approved descriptions. Please reject cruelty and oppose the proposed deer hunt.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
NAME
SAMPLE TWO
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to protest the suggested deer hunt in Rockville. It is impossible for me to even contemplate the desire to kill. If you take a moment to invite the thought, imagine the need, consider the implications, you cannot escape the inevitable conclusion of depravity that initiates the process. Despite your promotion of validations used to cultivate societal approval, your actuality is slaughter, the calculated hunt and subsequent kill. Your black and white diplomatic banalities cannot conceal the red of the blood, the immobilizing, excruciating pain, the struggle to escape, the agony of incapacity, the fear of death, the evisceration of life. You recoil at gruesome descriptions, your tedious proposals absent the illustrations of deathly consequences you so easily sign with impunity and indifference. Regardless of culturally accepted monikers of preservation and conservation, however, and despite appeals using biased and emotionally-charged rhetoric, the reality includes the deliberate and vicious killing of sentient non-human animals. Please reject cruelty and oppose the proposed deer hunt.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
NAME
SAMPLE THREE
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to protest the suggested deer hunt in Rockville. Killing is inherently malicious, and sanctioning malice requires apathy towards brutality and a desire to create death. There is no deviation possible from this principle philosophy, and embedding viciousness in conciliatory verbiage and legalese only forgives words, not actions. When you approve hunting, you embrace malice and invite bloodshed into your communities. The images of people expressing joy and pride alongside intentionally killed beings is not only disturbing, it is also a facilitation of cruelty. You are not modeling your behaviour after compassion and tolerance but demonstrating brutal death as an acceptable response to innocent life. I envision you, debating occasionally, championing your party, accepting concessions, gesticulating and arguing, your Robert’s Rules a bible of procedure, the impropriety of sanctioned death hidden in cursory signatures representing the weapons that will cease the lives. Please reject cruelty and oppose the proposed deer hunt.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
NAME
SAMPLE FOUR
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to protest the suggested deer hunt in Rockville. I will not discuss ecology, balance, religion, or conservation: these are your embellished dictates meant to promote acceptance and reason, but which are fundamentally immoral, excluding compassion and any regard towards animals who don’t possess your capacity to observe or understand egotistical, speciesist tendencies. The criminalization of these animals based on your biased perceptions is a perversion of reason and logic. All human and non-human animal life is tangibly sacred and worthy of freedom from exploitation and suffering. Your discussion to needlessly and viciously kill is a personification of malevolence, and I ask that you instead extend a compassionate and equal gesture to observe and accept life rather than viciously extinguish it. Please reject cruelty and oppose the proposed deer hunt.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
NAME
SAMPLE FIVE
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to protest the suggested deer hunt in Rockville. Humans have adopted dangerous constructs of speciesism, the prejudicial regard of non-human species, to validate the brutality inflicted upon them. Using this manufactured status of superiority, humans have sanctioned the use of animals as commodities, regarding them only as products to benefit our goals and needs. We embrace inequity to justify our treatment of animals, yet euphemistic descriptions meant to facilitate morality cannot disguise the fundamentally unethical parameters with which we surround ourselves to distinguish our dominance. As dangerous as racism and sexism, speciesism further divides the chasm between species, which desensitizes us to cruelty and inevitably leads to human inequality and injustice.
This disregard of your most vulnerable group of beings is unacceptable, and until this barbarism is appropriately addressed including a mandatory ban of such, I will boycott. Indeed, allow me to emphasize that it would be financially detrimental for you to enable the harm done to these animals. I and others will collectively voice condemnation of you resulting in the sacrifice of vital tourism and commerce profits. Please act responsibly and with compassion and choose to protect, rather than sanction harm, to animals. Please reject cruelty and oppose the proposed deer hunt.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
NAME
SAMPLE SIX
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to protest the suggested deer hunt in Rockville.
Why don’t I hunt? I could allude to the fruits of exhaustive research into the ecological and biological consequences of hunting, and to collective insights of biologists, ecologists, and naturalists who challenge the prevailing wildlife-management dogma. Yet, fundamentally, the answer can be expressed in simple moral terms:
Hunting is wrong, and should be acknowledged to be so not only by those who espouse the precepts of the animal-rights credo, but by those who hold a common sense of decency, respect, and justice.
When we have exposed the specious reasoning of the hunters’ apologists and stripped their sport of its counterfeit legitimacy, the naked brutality of hunting defines itself: killing for the fun of it.
Steve Ruggeri, Why I Don’t Hunt
Please reject cruelty and oppose the proposed deer hunt.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
NAME
Related hunt | The Forest Preserve District of Will County MASSACRED 400 DOES
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Read more…
URGENT! Wolves delisted, your participation is critical: three petitions, three sample letters to send …
Please send three letters to three governors regarding the hunting of wolves and sign the associated petitions. You may use the Sample Letters, but please modify and shorten, thank you.
BACKGROUND | FROM FRIENDS OF ANIMALS
In April 2011, the U.S. Congress slipped a wolf de-listing rider into the federal budget bill, yanking wolves from the Endangered Species List in the Northern Rockies—where it’s estimated that just over 1500 wolves remain.
Said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals: “Removing federal protection and subjecting wolves to more hunting is unconstitutional and unconscionable.”
The Rally for Wolves in Washington, DC today to denounce this underhanded de-listing is the first of many rallies in North America.
Members and supporters of Friends of Animals now call for a travel and economic boycott of the states that advocate killing wolves: Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
“We need to put the economic screws to state governments that persecute wolves at the behest of haters,” said Feral.
Tags are already on sale in Montana for the shooting of 225 wolves; more than 1000 tags have been sold in the first few days. In Idaho, the bloodbath is slated to begin this month – on the 30th of August.
Friends of Animals’ legal experts are now drafting an amicus brief to buttress an appeal before federal Judge Donald Molloy by Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians “to preserve both wolves and the rule of law in the Northern Rockies.”
Time is of the essence. Support our efforts today. If you can do a Howl-In for your city (international support is welcome), email Dustin Rhodes. Everyone can contact the governors and announce your intent to boycott travel in each state for as long as they continue persecuting wolves.
RELATED | WOLVES REMOVED FROM ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
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1. IDAHO
PETITION:
Governor of Idaho, Stop the killing of wolves in your state
WHOM TO CONTACT:
Governor Butch Otter of Idaho
Office of the Governor
State Capitol
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720
Phone: 208.3342100
Fax: 208.334.3454
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Governor Otter,
I am writing today with grave concerns regarding the rapidly declining wolf population in Idaho, and the recent approval of hunting them; it is my understanding that as the result of the delisting of wolves as endangered species, the government has issued a directive permitting the slaughter of wolves. As such, I am requesting that an immediate moratorium be enacted to prohibit wolf hunting.
Furthermore, it is also important to recognize the potential environmental ramifications of such a species decline; the ecology is a delicate entity whereby all elements work with and amongst each other in symbiotic manners; any one imbalance will cause negative influence throughout all species, plant and animal. It is therefore ecologically necessary that you acknowledge your contribution to this damage and adopt immediate measures discontinuing such.
Although you may not consider the wolves as having essential worth, they value their own lives, and your blatant disregard not only has broad consequences outside your borders but within, environmentally and socially. The hunting and killing of this vulnerable group of beings is unacceptable; the foundation upon which these savage hunts is built is unquestionably one of self-serving indulgence, including greed and power. Until such time when this maliciousness ceases, a concerned national community will voice censure of Idaho, resulting in the sacrifice of vital tourism and commerce profits. Consequently it would be financially irresponsible and socially unethical for you to continue to be associated with the hunting of wolves. Therefore, I respectfully request that you please act in a compassionate and empathetic manner and prohibit any further hunting against them.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.
NAME
2. MONTANA
PETITION:
Sign petition to have America’s wolves placed under federal protection PERMANENTLY!
WHOM TO CONTACT:
Governor Brian D. Schweitzer
Office of the Governor
Montana State Capitol Bldg.
P.O. Box 200801
Helena, MT 59620-0801
Phone: 406.444.3111
Fax: 406.444.5529
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Governor Schweitzer,
I am writing today with grave concerns regarding the rapidly declining wolf population in Montana, and the recent approval of hunting them; it is my understanding that as the result of the delisting of wolves as endangered species, the government has issued a directive permitting the slaughter of wolves. As such, I am requesting that an immediate moratorium be enacted to prohibit wolf hunting.
Furthermore, it is also important to recognize the potential environmental ramifications of such a species decline; the ecology is a delicate entity whereby all elements work with and amongst each other in symbiotic manners; any one imbalance will cause negative influence throughout all species, plant and animal. It is therefore ecologically necessary that you acknowledge your contribution to this damage and adopt immediate measures discontinuing such.
Although you may not consider the wolves as having essential worth, they value their own lives, and your blatant disregard not only has broad consequences outside your borders but within, environmentally and socially. The hunting and killing of this vulnerable group of beings is unacceptable; the foundation upon which these savage hunts is built is unquestionably one of self-serving indulgence, including greed and power. Until such time when this maliciousness ceases, a concerned national community will voice censure of Montana, resulting in the sacrifice of vital tourism and commerce profits. Consequently it would be financially irresponsible and socially unethical for you to continue to be associated with the hunting of wolves. Therefore, I respectfully request that you please act in a compassionate and empathetic manner and prohibit any further hunting against them.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.
NAME
3. WYOMING
PETITION:
Wolf Emergency: Wyoming Wolves To Be Shot on Sight
WHOM TO CONTACT:
Governor Matt Mead of Wyoming
State Capitol, 200 West 24th St.
Cheyenne, WY 82002-0010
Phone: 307.777.7434
Fax: 307.632.3909
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Governor Mead,
I am writing today with grave concerns regarding the rapidly declining wolf population in Wyoming, and the recent approval of hunting them; it is my understanding that as the result of the delisting of wolves as endangered species, the government has issued a directive permitting the slaughter of wolves. As such, I am requesting that an immediate moratorium be enacted to prohibit wolf hunting.
Furthermore, it is also important to recognize the potential environmental ramifications of such a species decline; the ecology is a delicate entity whereby all elements work with and amongst each other in symbiotic manners; any one imbalance will cause negative influence throughout all species, plant and animal. It is therefore ecologically necessary that you acknowledge your contribution to this damage and adopt immediate measures discontinuing such.
Although you may not consider the wolves as having essential worth, they value their own lives, and your blatant disregard not only has broad consequences outside your borders but within, environmentally and socially. The hunting and killing of this vulnerable group of beings is unacceptable; the foundation upon which these savage hunts is built is unquestionably one of self-serving indulgence, including greed and power. Until such time when this maliciousness ceases, a concerned national community will voice censure of Wyoming, resulting in the sacrifice of vital tourism and commerce profits. Consequently it would be financially irresponsible and socially unethical for you to continue to be associated with the hunting of wolves. Therefore, I respectfully request that you please act in a compassionate and empathetic manner and prohibit any further hunting against them.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.
NAME
Urgent: Airline Plans to Transport Primates for Experiments!
See update here:
Victory! 80 Monkeys Saved From Laboratory. Now Please Ask Airline to NEVER Transport Monkeys Again
Please click on and sign:
Urgent: Airline Plans to Transport Primates for Experiments!
Background | From PETA
PETA just learned that China Southern Airlines plans to cram 80 nonhuman primates into 32 wooden crates for a terrifying trip in the cargo hold of passenger flight CZ327. This flight is scheduled to depart this coming Monday, August 15, 2011, and will arrive in Los Angeles, where the monkeys will then undergo another stressful and grueling 1,500-mile trip in the back of a truck to a quarantine facility in Alice, Texas, owned by Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL)—a company that was recently assessed a $31,000 fine for numerous violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. SNBL also garnered notoriety in 2008 after a whistleblower revealed that a monkey was boiled to death when her cage was put into a high-temperature cage-washing machine while she was still in it.
The monkeys will ultimately wind up at Harlan Laboratories, a company that both conducts tests on animals and sells animals to other laboratories. These social, intelligent animals face a future in which they will be confined to small barren steel cages and subjected to cruel and deadly experiments.
A growing number of airlines refuse to take any part in the violent animal experimentation industry by prohibiting the transport of primates to laboratories for use in experiments. These airlines include some of the biggest names in the cargo and passenger airline industry, such as Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, China Airlines, Delta Airlines, Qantas, American Airlines, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and many others.
Please send an e-mail HERE to China Southern Airlines and urge the company to refuse to fly these monkeys on Monday, August 15, 2011, and to adopt a formal policy against the transport of nonhuman primates for use in experiments.
Related action | Please click on and sign:
Tell Airlines: Stop Transporting Nonhuman Primates for Research
Related PSA | BUAV Cargo Cruelty: stop airlines transporting monkeys for research!
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Image | Martin Uki, Artist
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Urge Designer Adrienne Landau to Ditch Fur
2. Urge Dean & DeLuca to Drop Foie Gras
3. Demand Humane Population Control for Brussels’ Pigeons
4.Block the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
1. Background | From PETA
Designer Adrienne Landau shamelessly promotes fur despite knowing that animals killed for their skins live in cramped, filthy conditions before being killed by anal or vaginal electrocution, by gassing, or by having their necks broken, as seen in this brief video narrated by Tim Gunn. In a recent interview, Landau said, “Women have always loved fur, and it became ‘Should I or shouldn’t I?’ Now it’s, ‘I can wear it. I don’t feel any guilt.”‘ Landau is one of few designers to get on a pedestal and actively promote wearing fur. Please let her know what you think of this.
Because of the cruelty inherent in the fur industry, a rapidly growing number of designers—including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Marc Bouwer, Vivienne Westwood, Perry Ellis, Liz Claiborne, and retailers such as J.Crew and Forever 21—now refuse to use or sell any fur products. Not only has a long list of celebrities, including Eva Mendez and Lady Gaga, sworn off fur, first ladies Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy also recently announced that they are fur-free.
Please speak out to help the animals who are slated to suffer and die in the fur industry by urging Adrienne Landau to stop promoting fur and to ditch it for good.
Related | Fashion Victims
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2. Background | From PETA
Because of the extreme cruelty involved in the production of foie gras—the diseased and “fatty liver” of force-fed ducks and geese—many restaurants and grocery stores around the world have stopped serving and selling it. PETA has shared with Dean & DeLuca—a U.S.-based gourmet grocery chain—the shocking undercover video footage of foie gras farms showing birds as they have tubes rammed down their throats, yet the company refuses to end sales of foie gras. Please write to Dean & DeLuca and urge the company to stop selling foie gras.
Investigations of foie gras farms in the U.S. and overseas have documented countless sick, dead, and dying birds, including some animals who were found suffering from holes in their necks after pipes had been forced down their throats. One investigation in New York found ducks crammed into wire cages. The birds’ beaks were bloody, and their wings were twisted together. At a foie gras farm in Europe, birds were found dangling by wires as blood spilled from their neck wounds onto the live animals beneath them.
Foie gras production is so cruel that it has been condemned by the Pope and is prohibited in 15 countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.
3. Background | From PETA
Earlier this year, the European animal rights group GAIA released undercover photos and videos showing Brussels’ pigeons as they are surgically sterilized without anesthetic, a practice that numerous veterinarians and avian specialists have condemned as cruel. These pigeons are beloved by tourists and appear in books and photographs around the world.
The birds, who are fiercely loyal and mate for life, undergo the terrifying experience of being separated from their loved ones when they’re captured in the wild and then shipped to Paris. Upon arrival, they are roughly handled and have their legs and wings constrained with rubber bands as their abdomens are cut open while they are still conscious.
Watch the graphic undercover video now. Warning: This video contains disturbing images.
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GAIA has been respectful and patient, but the city is ignoring its appeal for humane pigeon control. Please use the form below to contact Brussels city officials and urge them to implement humane population control methods, and let them know that Brussels will not be a vacation spot for you or your family as long as they treat animals in this cruel way.
4. Background | From RAN
If TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is approved, close to 1 million barrels of thick tar sands crude will flow each day at high pressure from Canada through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and all the way to Texas, threatening countless communities and over 2000 waterways, including America’s largest under ground water source—the Ogallala Aquifer.
Tell President Obama to block the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The tar sands represent a catastrophic threat to our communities, our climate, and our planet. We urge you to demonstrate real climate leadership by rejecting the requested permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and instead focus on developing safe, clean energy.
Please send message regarding extreme animal abuse
Please send message requesting authorities investigate a dog being set on fire; you may use the Sample Letter but please modify and shorten.
BACKGROUND
From Foundation for Animal Aid on Crete
Venetia Soulakeli was taking care of a female dog in the back of the factory “Lixnia”, in Kokkinos Milos at the area of Acharnes in Athens, at Friday the 5th. Venetia, as always, went to feed the dog; the poor dog was ready to give birth to her puppies. The dog created her nest for the babies there in the rubbish under chipboard. A few hours later the dog was found burned alive, set on fire while giving birth to her pups. She must have felt horrendous pain from the delivery of the puppies and from the fire, too, because her bowel was out of her body. The pictures speak for themselves.
The so-called “human” who set fire to the rubbish must have seen the dog hidden beneath the chipboard giving birth to her puppies.
Please email the Press Officer of the Ministery of Citizens Protection Headqaurters in Athens to make sure that this is not going to be unpunished and hushed up. They have to do everthing to find the culprit
Click on each to enlarge. Warning, these are graphic.
WHOM TO CONTACT
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Press Officer of the Ministery of Citizens Protection,
I have learned of an extremely disturbing and malicious case of animal cruelty in which a person deliberately caused the suffering and death of a female dog while the dog was giving birth. This alleged incident occurred on Friday, August 5, behind the factory “Lixnia” in Kokkinos Milos in the area of Acharnes in Athens. I am writing today to encourage you to pursue every route investigating this hideous crime in order to capture and effectively prosecute the perpetrator who set the dog on fire, causing unimaginable agony and fear.
When I try to imagine what possible motive animal abusers entertain for subjecting their animal victims to such malicious, heinous acts of brutality, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To voluntarily engage in such malicious behaviour suggests sadistic tendencies, and this person’s actions, causing unmitigated pain and suffering, demonstrates an incontrovertible lack of morality regarding other living beings and a gross disrespect for the law. In fact, a person who shows such a remarkable lack of compassion towards non-human animals has the ability to show such indifference towards human animals. This link between animal and human abuse has been established, and if society excuses this person’s criminal behaviour, or agrees to a lesser punishment, we only harm ourselves by unjustly nullifying cruelty as acceptable behaviour.
Please respect the victims by investigating the crime and penalizing the guilty; doing so will demonstrate your commitment to justice, responsibility, and integrity, attributes unquestionably necessary in a law enforcement setting: rejecting cruelty by maintaining an unyielding position towards it would be a model for all community members and would serve to characterize this type of behaviour as both impermissible and punishable.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.
Name | Address | Email Address
Tell Walmart to Stop Rape and Torture of Women in its Factories
Please click on and sign:
Tell Walmart to Stop Rape and Torture of Young Women in its Factories
Background | From Change
Scores of young Sri Lankan women guest workers have been sexually abused and repeatedly raped, over the course of years, while sewing clothing for Wal-Mart, Hanes, Target, Macy’s, Lands’ End and other labels at the Classic Factory in Jordan.
Please tell Wal-Mart, Hanes, Target, Macy’s, Lands’ End, Kohl’s and Jones Group to immediately end the sexual abuse, rape, torture, and beatings of young women guest workers at the Classic factory in Jordan.
We demand that the companies:
- Immediately remove all serial rapists, especially Anil Santha and Priyantha, from the Classic factory;
- Pay significant compensation to the rape victims for the damages done them;
- Ensure that independent and highly respected non-governmental women’s rights organizations from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have complete access to monitor factory conditions;
- Guarantee that there will be no retaliation against any worker for speaking the truth about factory conditions;
- Ensure that the false charges against the internationally respected human rights advocate, Mr. Rafiq Alam, must be immediately dropped;
- If Classic refuses to strictly enforce the worker’s rights laws in the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, their sweatshop garments should be prohibited from entering the U.S.
Classic/Jordan—Sweatshop Abuse, Sexual Predators – Institute for Global Labour & Human Rights
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Key press, from Institute for Human Labour and Global Rights:
Wall Street Journal. Sex Abuse Alleged at Apparel Maker. 20 June 2011.
RT, Thom Hartmann. Sexual Predators and Serial Rapists Run Wild in Free Trade. 13 June 2011. [Video and Transcripts]
Huffington Post. Major American Brands Silent on Alleged Rights Abuses at Overseas Factories.
Five quick actions for cats, turtles, justice, and elephants
1. Tell Indiana University to stop using cats! Say NO to cruelty!
2. Help Reform Trade Practices That Kill Turtles
3. Bring Animal Killing Artist, Katinka Simonse To Justice
4. Netherlands: Ban Disgusting Animal Cruelties Permitted By Your Laws
5. I pledge to do at Least ONE Thing Effective for the Elephants Every Day
1. Background | From PCRM
PCRM is asking all our compassionate supporters to take action immediately to save innocent cats at Indiana University from pain and suffering. Please, sign your name to the petition.
2. Background | From Center for Biological Diversity
The United States is a turtle biodiversity hotspot, home to more types of turtles than any other country in the world. Unfortunately, unregulated international trade is rapidly depleting this rich native heritage: More than 12 million wild-caught freshwater turtles were exported from the United States in the past five years.
Given the enormity of this commerce, the United States has a duty to take a leading role in promoting responsible commercial turtle trade. Regulation under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is critical to ensuring that international trade does not threaten the survival of our wild freshwater turtle populations.
We need your help to stop this harmful turtle trade. Please use the form to urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose several species of freshwater turtles for regulation under CITES.
Related | This Is Animal Research
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3. Background | From Change
Katinka Simonse, a 31 year old female living in Amsterdam, has been killing innocent animals and getting away with it. These horrible acts have been looked over because she killed these animals in the name of “Art”. Katinka owns many animals and keeps them in horrible conditions. She owns 60 hamsters in balls and remote controlled guineas pigs. She puts day old male chicks through paper shredders. She writes numbers on the snails in her garden to keep count of them. Although she is not being charged by police, she has angered a good part of the animal loving world and definitely will be charged by them. However crazy this woman may seem, she has given an explanation to why she does what she does and thinks it is ok. To view a translated video of Katinka (TINKEBELL) giving her reasons, click here.
The act that has angered most people about this case is, in 2004 Katinka Simonse killed her very own cat and then made it into a handbag. There was some confusion on how she went about with the killing, but in this video she clearly stated at 1:10 that she snapped its neck. To view that video, click here. It is not translated, but the message is very clear, as she even demonstrates how she did it. Now you know the acts and the evil, but our work is not finished. Something must be done. We need to urge the Dutch government to obtain Katinka and sentence her to a very harsh trial for animal abuse.
4. Background | From Anti-Fur Society International
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you because of an individual who has become infamous for her animal abuse in the Netherlands:
She has been abusing animals for years, killing as she pleases and making sordid items with their skin, calling it art. She harbor small animals such as rabbits, cats and dogs and kill them while she films the gruesome process. After inquiring as to why the authorities allowed this to happen, I’ve just learned that the laws in the Netherlands allows for pet owners to dispose of their companion animals as they please which may include torturing, maiming, and killing. Likewise, pet industries including any breeder can destroy their animals as they please (when animals are not born to specification). Under such law, anyone with a sociopathic tendency may also use animals (claiming to be owners) to kill to satisfy their murderous instincts, involving torture as he/she may wish to inflict upon their victims.
Ladies and gentleman! This is not what I would have expected from a country that calls itself civilized. And this not only places tremendous stress on compassionate Dutch citizens, but also on the international animal caring community.
I am absolutely disappointed and horrified that in your country, you DO NOT care for the most vulnerable members of your society: the defenseless non-human animals. They depend on our compassion to exist, and I do hope that you can still find some compassion in your hearts to make the necessary changes to give protection to animals in the Netherlands.
Please change the laws and prosecute people with criminal instincts such as the person, object of the above petition.
5. Background | From Change
Elephants are being killed at 100 a day in Africa for their tusks to fuel the bloody trade in Ivory. Elephants are abused everyday in circuses, zoos and on the streets of Thailand. Elephants are amazing, social, complex animals with strong family bonds and beautiful in their own right. We must speak up for them if they are to survive, or live as good a life as possible incarcerated. They need each on of us. Today, Tomorrow, and ever after. I stand and speak for the elephants!
Painting by Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Please sign Petition and send Sample Letter protesting the capture and imprisonment of 27 (now 25) bottlenose dolphins by Resorts World Sentosa.
BACKGROUND | FROM CHANGE
News that 25 bottlenose dolphins that once roamed free and wild are now facing a life of captivity and sadness as permanent residents of Resorts World – Sentosa, Singapore. These 25 dolphins were captured in the waters of the Solomon Islands and are now being kept in the Philippines while the new facility at Resorts World Sentosa is being built. Two of them have already tragically died. Ric O’Barry, the marine mammal specialist has also offered his help to rehabilitate and release the dolphins back to the wild, in the Solomon Islands, off Papua New Guinea.
Some known facts about Dolphins:
53% of those dolphins who survive the violent capture die within 90 days.
The average life span of a dolphin in the wild is 45 years; yet half of all captured dolphins die within their first two years of captivity. Every seven years, half of all dolphins in captivity die from capture shock, pneumonia, intestinal disease, ulcers, chlorine poisoning, and other stress-related illnesses. Some may die due to stress while transport. To the captive dolphin industry, these facts are accepted as routine operating expenses.
In many tanks the water is full of chemicals as well as bacteria, causing many health problems in dolphins including blindness.
When a baby dolphin is born in captivity, the news is usually kept secret until the calf shows signs of survival. Although marine mammals do breed in captivity, the birth rate is not nearly as successful as the one in the wild, with high infant mortality rates.
Wild dolphins can swim 40 to 100 miles per day – in pools they go around in circles. Dolphins are predators of fish and spend up to half of their time in the wild hunting for food. Supplying dead fish results in less exercise and lack of mental stimulation, thus causing boredom.
Many marine parks subject their mammals to hunger so they will perform for their food. Jumping through hoops, tailwalking and playing ball are trained behaviors that do not occur in the wild. Confined animals who abuse themselves (banging their heads against the walls) are creating stimuli which their environment cannot supply. Dolphins in captivity tend to develop stereotypical behaviors (swimming in a repetitive circle pattern, with eyes closed and in silence) because of boredom and confinement. This is equivalent to the swaying and pacing of primates, lions, tigers and bears confined in cages.
Won’t you please help us and Say NO TO CAPTIVITY. ~RESORT WORLD FREE THE DOLPHINS.~
Thank you to Ric O’Barry, Save the Blood Dolphins, The Dolphin Project, Save Japan Dolphins and Earth Island Institute for their continued support.
RELATED | Please let the dolphins go: Saddest Dolphins
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Please Help Free the “Sentosa 25” from Resort World in Sentosa Singapore
WHOM TO CONTACT
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to encourage Resorts World Sentosa to relinquish the 25 bottlenose dolphins back to their home in the waters of the Solomon Islands. Individuals comprising a large global audience concerned with these dolphins have been encouraging you to relinquish them to freedom; sadly, corporate greed and indifference have resulted in their continuous enslavement, contributing to deteriorating mental and physical state by their continued imprisonment. By refusing to release them, you are establishing your approval of animal cruelty, and I am appalled to learn of your deliberate involvement in the exploitation of animals.
Although you may assert that humane protocols must be followed, the visual evidence validates the position that these directives are often ignored in favor of management; nevertheless, establishing a threshold of humane treatment is ambiguous at best, these standards being implemented by those with questionable interests. As such, it is important to recognize that all animals, fundamentally valuable beyond monetary benefit, are being exploited in demonstrably cruel and unnecessary manners.
I hope you make the compassionate decision to discontinue your imprisonment of the “Sentosa 25”. However, as long as you continue to unnecessarily capitalize on the exploitation, imprisonment, and maltreatment of them, I will not financially support you. It is important to recognize that consumers are increasingly rejecting those tourism destinations that are complicit in the suffering and unnecessary treatment of animals by shifting their loyalties to those that do not participate in the exploitation of them, and I hope that you will extend such an ethical and empathetic gesture as well.
I understand your time is limited and I want to thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter.
Meat’s not green and walnuts aren’t drugs …
Please click on and sign the following:
2. USA friends – US Declaration of Health Rights: Foods Are Not Drugs
EU friends – EU Declaration of Health Rights: Foods Are Not Drugs
1. Background | From PETA
What’s the number one cause of global warming? Cars? Nope. Factories? Nope. Planes? Nope. According to the United Nations, raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, planes, ships, trucks, and trains in the world combined.
According to the UN, the livestock sector is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. This is a higher share than transport (13.5%). So cutting down on animal products could be the biggest single thing you could do to reach your carbon target. Vegetarian and vegan meals tend to be more healthy, no more difficult to prepare than ‘animal-based’ meals and these days there are many recipe books and products available to make it easy. Transition Keyworth
You can help reduce climate change! Sign the pledge!
Your pledge: I want to help save the planet and to stop supporting cruelty to chickens, pigs, cows, and other animals who are raised for food. By signing my name, I pledge to try going vegan.
Meat’s Not Green
Need a vegan grocery shopping list? Check out PETA’s:
Guide To Cruelty-Free Eating: Vegan Outreach
Devour the Earth
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Additional information on how to stop global warming:
2. Background | From Change
Our right to manage our own health is being stolen!
A stunning theft of our rights is happening now–right under our collective noses. We’re losing the right to manage our personal health in the manner we choose. It’s a right so basic that no one ever thought to list it among the rights of free speech and assembly. Who could ever have imagined that something so basic might come into question?
If you’re in the US, please sign the US petition, not this one.
One of the primary methods used to steal our health rights is redefining foods as drugs. In both the US and the EU, public agencies that are supposedly tasked with protecting our health are using this technique to limit access to our foods of choice.
According to the US’s FDA in the US and the EU’s EMEA, simply making a health claim turns a food into a drug! That would, of course, be absurd–if it weren’t so frighteningly effective.
For background into the history and thinking behind this petition, please go to The Theft of Health Rights: Can It Be Stopped?
This petition is to protect your right to access the foods that you wish to eat. Right now, the FDA in the United States of America and the EMEA in the European Union are actively declaring that common foods are now to be treated as if they were common drugs. See FDA Says Walnuts Are Drugs and Doritos Are Heart Healthy for documentation.
Just making a health claim for a food literally turned it into a drug! That would, of course, be absurd–if it weren’t so frighteningly effective.
RESTORE RARE HERITAGE HERD TO BLM RANGE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – Please Send Emails Now.
Dedicated to the Horses who have Shed their Blood, Lost their Freedom, and Given their Lives for BLM
ESTRELLA - Photo Courtesy of Rock Creek Pack Station
Please send Sample Letter requesting to repatriate the last Coyote Canyon Heritage Herd of wild horses.
From The Persian Horse
Colonial Spanish horses were first introduced in the coastal regions of San Diego County by settlement of missions and ranches. Further inland, Cahuillan pictographs of mounted Spaniards at the north end of Coyote Canyon (La Puerta) indicate the early expedition of Pedro Feges in 1772 or Anza in 1774.
This band of Native Americans made their home in Coyote Canyon and surrounding mountains along the NE Corner of San Diego and bordering Riverside counties. Long before western settlement a tributary of Coyote Canyon was named Horse Canyon after the residing herd. During the infamous 1851 Garra revolt and raid on Warner’ Ranch the Cahuilla’s added more cattle and horses to their Coyote Canyon herd. According to author Lester Reed, at the turn of the century, Native Wrangler Carlos Moreno referred to the canyon horses as “The Ranch Ramuda”. Bands of the herd ranged east and west as far as Beauty Mountain, into the surrounding mountain valleys. Indian ranching continued in the Canyon until the late 1970’s when California State Parks expanded the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The Federal designated Coyote Canyon herd area was “zeroed out” and the herd was removed by the park in 2003.
With the assistance of Ca. Senator Bill Morrow and the Bureau of Land Management, Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza rescued four of the Wild Stallions with the BLM promise that the herd could be restored pending acquisition of an alternative sanctuary. In January 09 rare wild Spanish Foundation mares were acquired to re establish, maintain and preserve a unique gene pool.
As the only Heritage Herd of Spanish Horses in San Diego County, and the last wild herd in Southern California, the Coyote Canyon horses represent a vanishing element of our local pioneering landscape.
In 1971 Congress unanimously declared that wild free roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West that enrich the lives of the American People. They were to be managed on their historic and native ranges.
The Coyote Canyon herd’s vital legacy of cultural, educational, aesthetic, and inspirational benefits should be maintained as our heritage and the inheritance for future generations.
With the 1966 passage of the Nation Historic Preservation Act “Congress declared that the spirit and direction of the Nation are founded upon, and reflected in, its historic heritage.” This includes identification, documentation, curation, acquisition, protection, management, rehabilitation, restoration, stabilization, maintenance and reconstruction, or any combination of the foregoing activities. Grants are available to accomplish these noble endeavors.
The Coyote Canyon Herd was sequestered for more than two centuries from other wild horse herds. As a result they evolved into a distinct population segment. This evolution meets the criteria of both state and federal statutes of endangered and threatened species.
1. “Endangered” when its survival and reproduction in the wild are in immediate jeopardy from one or more causes, including loss of habitat, change in habitat, over exploitation, predation, competition, disease, or other factors; or
2. “Rare” when either: Although not presently threatened with extinction, the species is existing in such small numbers throughout all or a significant portion of its range that it may become endangered if its environment worsens; or
3. The species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range and may be considered “threatened” as that term is used in the Federal Endangered Species Act.
Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza was formed as a 501 3c to acquire a permanent local herd area as sanctuary on Federal lands. This was overlooked in the 1971 inventory of their native ranges resulting in a defective land management plan.
The currently vacant Beauty Mountain grazing allotment and contiguous BLM acquisitions would correct the defection. It is within the newly passed California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act.
The 1945 California Riding and Hiking Trail, California’s first legislated trail, lies within the allotment and provides the public opportunity to experience this unique part of California history. Restoration of the Coyote Canyon horses and the Trail would maintain both historic icons NOW, and into the future.
.
HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP THE COYOTE CANYON HERITAGE HERD
Please copy and paste the below Letter, and send it in an Email to the Following Decision Makers:
Whom To Contact Individual
Congressman Darrell Issa’s Chief of Staff EMAIL: phil.paule@mail.house.gov
San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Chair of Board Bill Horn EMAIL: bill.horn@sdcounty.ca
Salvatore Giametta EMAIL: salvatore.giametta@sdcounty.ca.gov
Pam Slater EMAIL: pam.slater@sdcounty.ca.gov
Greg Cox EMAIL: greg.cox@sdcounty.ca.gov
Riverside Board of Supervisors EMAIL: cob@rcbos.org
Whom to Contact Email Block
paule@mail.house.gov , bill.horn@sdcounty.ca , salvatore.giametta@sdcounty.ca.gov , pam.slater@sdcounty.ca.gov , greg.cox@sdcounty.ca.gov , cob@rcbos.org
COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING LETTER BETWEEN THE 2 ROWS OF ASTERISKS
Honorable Decision Makers:
Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza, a 501 C 3 was organized to repatriate the last Heritage Herd of wild horses to its native habitat and foster access to the coinciding California Riding and Hiking trail between San Diego and Riverside counties. We are requesting assistance from both counties in the form of Heritage declaration. This would serve the public interest best while providing local governing bodies with the ability to compel federal agencies to coordinate with them.
The Coyote Canyon Heritage Herd are extinct in the wild. We salvaged the only four wild stallions left in San Diego County of Spanish Colonial Horses representing a cultural evolution predating 1776-2003. Time is running out for our ability to maintain this herd in confined quarters. They need to be wild and free roaming as much as we need them to be. They represent our own freedom and right of access to the public domain.
Repatriation of this Herd is mandated by multiple laws including National Historic Preservation Act, Rare, threatened and endangered species of special interest (ESA), Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act (1971 Herd area as critical habitat) Multiple Species Habitat Conservation, and Public Trust Doctrine.
An interesting history of the our foundation mares can be viewed at:
http://www.americanspanishsulphur.org/WesternHorseman.html
A quote from the article states, “What makes the Sulphur Horses unique is that they are probably the only horses in existence representing the Spanish Horse of colonial southern California. They are descended from the most recent, in historical time, introduction of pure Spanish Horses into the wild.”
The author of this December 1995 article, Ron Roubidoux, was likely unaware of the Garra Revolt at Warner Springs Ca. in 1850, or previous and subsequent events that resulted in the Colonial Spanish horses in Coyote Canyon. This Quote is from When the great spirit died: the destruction of the California by William B. Secrest -2002 – “Scouts sent out by the volunteers discovered a large force of Indians, together with much of Warner’s livestock, located in Los Coyotes Canyon. “
BLM Director Henri Bisson must have been unaware of this also when he signed the http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/palmsprings/southcoastrmp.html which neglected to ensure the herd’s 1971 area as critical habitat
Open range existed in most of southern California’s backcountry and is still unfenced on most of the1971 historic ranges of the Coyote Canyon Herd. Regulation provides for the current Resource Management plan be amended to repatriate this Heritage Herd to its native ranges. There are several vacant BLM/USFS allotments in the area adjacent to the Vista Irrigation District (,original Warner Spanish Land Grant) that also qualify. Wildlife habitat restoration grants are available that could assist with habitat management to accomodate this small herd while improving grazing resources. This is an excellent opportunity to proceed with the original BLM offer of partnership which fosters group, local gov. and federal partnerships.
Several years ago we, Coyote Canyon Caballos d Anza nominated the Coyote Canyon Herd Area as a Historic District to the Federal Register. The major obstruction was California’s all powerful Dept of Resources and party politics. Our Heritage should NEVER be used as a political battering ram, and, as a matter of National Interest the document will be viewed in D.C.
Please make a formal declaration to acknowledge our unique Coyote Canyon Heritage Herd for repatriation.
On behalf of our wild horses, thank you.
(Your Name)
**************************************************************
KATHLEEN WITH STALLION ANZA
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN HELP THE BEAUTIFUL AND RARE COYOTE CANYON HERITATE HORSES PLEASE CONTACT KATHLEEN HAYDEN:
Kathleen Hayden
Coyote Canyon Caballos D’Anza
PO Box 236
Santa Ysabel, Ca 92070
CCCDA@znet.com
Phone 760 782 3340
Our Compass 