Roll up! Roll up! The circus is in town! Come along to stare at the bearded lady, marvel at the amazing acrobats on the highwire, laugh at the clowns and cry when you see the miserable performing monkeys, lions, tigers and bears ... oh my! Stop! The show mustn't go on!

How great is this clever ad by Italian animal rights group, the LAV? Just like a puppet on a string, an animal in a circus is forced to perform whether he wants to or not. And I bet he'd rather not. I mean, who would want to sit in a tiny barren enclosure, only to be let out to perform ridiculously humiliating 'tricks' that he would never do in the wild?

Travelling between towns is no fun for him either - cooped up for days on end in the back of trains or trucks. It's no surprise that many animals kept this way develop worrying habits like pacing, swaying, or biting the cage bars.

We want to see cruel animal circuses go the way of the dinosaurs, and we're starting with New South Wales! Animals Australia, together with Animals Asia and RSPCA NSW want the whole state to get rid of this outdated practice (I refuse to use the word 'entertainment').

If you're in NSW, you can help! Print out this petition and get it chock full of signatures and send it back by May 1st. It's going straight to the top to be tabled in the NSW parliament by the Lord Mayor of Sydney!

Councils like Ku-Ring-Gai and Lismore in NSW and Ipswich and Gold Coast in QLD have already banned circuses with exotic animals so we know it can be done! Once you've done your part, click here to let us know!

Not in NSW? You can still help by taking the pledge to end circus cruelty. Ask your local council to ban animal circuses or write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

Animal cruelty is just not entertaining. What would you rather see in a circus?

Hi! I'm Sim, I'm new to Unleashed and let me just say, the brutal killing of baby seals before they aren't even two weeks old really upsets me!

See, every year the Canadian government allows hundreds of thousands of baby seals to be killed by hunters on the ice floes of Canada. It's basically the largest mass killing of marine mammals anywhere in the world. But that's not the worst of it -- the way these seals are killed is absolutely horrific -- clubbed on the head or shot for their pelts -- and due to the carelessness of hunters, some are even skinned alive.

Last month Matt.Y had a great idea by suggesting we contact the Vancouver Olympic Committee and asking them to put pressure on the Canadian Government to stop the slaughter. But with the hunt about to start, and the Olympics now over, these seal pups still desperately need our help.

Here in Australia we can do something else to help end this killing. Please sign the petition to show Canada what Aussies think of this cruel slaughter -- and get as many of your friends as you can to also sign.

Most importantly, seals, like all animals killed for their fur, need us to step up and refuse to buy any products with fur on them. If you're with me on this, take the pledge to wear your own skin -- and let the seals keep theirs!

It's one of those things you really hope we would have worked out by now... Whales and dolphins: better off frolicking about the ocean than being bludgeoned to death at the water's edge. Right?? Sadly, in some parts of the world this type of brutal end is still a very real threat for these intelligent marine mammals.

Earlier this week the world wept again for the dolphins killed in Taiji, Japan, thanks to the incredible documentary The Cove at its very deserving win at the Oscars. But there is a lesser-known but equally horrific slaughter of these amazing animals that also needs to stop. Every summer in the Faroe Islands, north of Europe, hundreds of pilot whales and other species of dolphin are rounded up and killed in a bloody event touted by locals as 'tradition'. Men drag the animals ashore by lodging a blunt hook in their blowholes and proceed to hack at their spines and vital blood vessels. It takes several minutes for the animals to die a traumatic and painful death while beached helplessly on the shore. Maybe killing these defenceless animals for food was once necessary in this remote part of the world, but nowadays there is no good reason for it.

Having come from Denmark myself, I find this particularly upsetting, since the Faroe Islands were once governed by Denmark. They are still officially part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but these days they pretty much govern themselves -- and the Danish people have very little power to intervene to help these animals. That's why we are petitioning the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands, to halt this barbaric and outdated 'cultural event'.

Do you have a moment to help these whales and dolphins? Click here to sign the petition now, post it on Twitter and Facebook, and forward it to all your friends. 'Tradition' is no reason for killing. Don't let the Faroe Islands get away with this -- the whole world needs to know about this shameful practice!