Sign to help animals!

URGE THE EPA TO SAVE BEES

BY: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
TARGET: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy
About this Petition
Native pollinators like bees play an essential role in the environment and are an indispensable part of our agricultural system. Many foods that we eat depend on crops pollinated by honeybees and 90% of all flowering plants require pollinators to reproduce. But in recent years, bees and other pollinators have been disappearing at alarming rates, causing widespread concern that these important species could be wiped out altogether.

A widely used class of insecticides called neonicotinoids affects pollinators including honeybees. Since neonicotinoids first became widely used in the mid-2000s, roughly one-third of America’s honeybee colonies have collapsed each year. Allowing even one more of these insecticides to be used on farms and orchards will only make the situation worse.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently approved a new insecticide called sulfoxaflor even though their own scientists considered the product to be similar to neonicotinoids and “very highly toxic” to honeybees. We need to ensure that this insecticide, and others like it, does not get out into the environment. We cannot afford a collapse in pollinator populations.

Urge the EPA to refuse to approve any insecticides unless scientists confirm they present no threat to bees and other pollinators.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/731/622/274/

STOP THE ATROCITIES AT THE BABY MONKEY LAB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON AND SHUT IT DOWN FOR GOOD

BY: Britt Lind
TARGET: Francis Collins, the head of the NIH
About this Petition
I was horrified when I found out that the University of Washington, where I went to college, performs sickening experiments on monkeys. Employees at the school perform grisly vivisections -- experiments on live animals -- drilling holes into the skulls of monkeys, implanting coils on their eyes, and tearing infant monkeys away from their mothers to intentionally cause psychological trauma.

Please sign this petition to demand that the National Institute of Health stop sending taxpayer dollars to the University of Washington to fund these cruel and unnecessary experiments.

The primate research taking place at University of Washington is scientifically meaningless. Experiments on baby monkeys are fraudulent and cannot be extrapolated to humans, but University of Washington vivisectors routinely perpetrate barbaric experiments on baby monkeys such as inducing convulsions, disfiguring eyes, suffocating them, torturing babies while still in their mothers' wombs, causing deformities and more.

If the babies don't die on their own, they are killed at one year of age and thrown away. For this the vivisectors received over $18 million of our tax dollars between 2010-2011 alone and another $12 million to breed baby monkeys for other laboratories to torture.

Other schools, including Harvard University, have been forced to shut down their live animal experiments -- if enough of us speak up, we can get the University of Washington to do the same. Please sign this petition and share it to shut down this horrible lab.

For pictures and more information, go to www.peopleforreason.org

To sign the petition: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/703/775/553/stop-the-atrocities-at-the-baby-monkey-lab-at-the-university-of-washington-and-shut-it-down-for-good/

SHUT DOWN SOUTH KOREA'S MONKEY SCHOOL!

BY: Chris Wolverton
TARGET: Environmental Committee of the Korean Government
About this Petition
Animal Defenders International released an undercover investigation yesterday that reveals cruel treatment and horrible conditions at "Monkey School," a performing monkey attraction in South Korea.

The investigation revealed mother and baby monkeys living in isolated or cramped and crowded conditions, monkeys exhibiting bizarre behavior such as spinning and biting themselves, and abusive trainers hitting and dragging animals on the floor during training. One monkey was found dead in its cage.

Congresswoman Hanna Chang has proposed a Zoo Act that would establish animal welfare standards and prohibit circus-like animal performances like those that monkeys are forced to participate in at Monkey School. Please sign the petition to convince the Korean Government to pass the Zoo Act!

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/661/376/822/shut-down-south-koreas-monkey-school/

ENOUGH GAMES NINTENDO: TIME FOR ACTION AGAINST SLAVERY

BY: Walk Free
TARGET: Charlie Scibetta, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, Nintendo Co. Ltd
About this Petition
Conflict minerals are often mined in brutal conditions of forced labour, debt bondage and even child slavery in the Congo. Slave-mined minerals are in many of our everyday electronic items: they generate hundreds of millions of dollars and fuel the world's deadliest ongoing conflict.

Huge progress is being made to rid our household electronics of modern slavery: Intel recently announced that all its new microprocessors will be free of conflict minerals and CEO Brian Kraznich has urged other companies to follow suit.[1]

While Intel and many other electronics companies are making moves to ensure they're no longer part of the violent cycle of conflict in the Congo, Nintendo -- the world's largest manufacturer of video game consoles -- lags behind. We simply don't know what steps the electronics giant is taking to ensure its products are free of the violence, murder and modern slavery associated with these minerals and its conflict minerals policy has been dismissed by experts as a "meaningless piece of paper." [2]

It's time for Nintendo to stop playing games and step up its efforts to help end modern slavery.

Call on Nintendo to take concrete steps to ensure its products are slavery-free by:

- Only using conflict-free smelters and carrying out audits or spot checks to confirm this is the case.

- Making the name and number of its smelters public.

- Committing to making a conflict mineral-free product in the next year.


Sources:
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25636001
[2] http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/game-over-nintendo-bends-activists%E2%80%99-pressure-conflict-minerals

To sign petition:  https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/562/300/588/

Help Emperor Penguins Avoid a March to Extinction

The icy oceans of Antarctica, where emperor penguins live, are some of the harshest, most isolated places on the planet. That makes these birds extraordinarily tough -- small south polar superheroes that lay their eggs on ice. Male penguins incubate the eggs, fasting for months through darkness and extreme cold.

But neither isolation nor the emperors' legendary powers of endurance can protect these icons of wild Antarctica from the deadly threat of climate change.

Emperor penguin colonies are declining and disappearing from parts of Antarctica where sea ice is rapidly melting. Warming ocean temperatures and melting ice diminish the availability of krill, a key food source, and emperors have to compete with industrial krill fisheries for limited food supplies.

These penguins desperately need the protection of the Endangered Species Act and rapid cuts in carbon pollution.

Please -- act now to urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to give emperor penguins a fighting chance by granting them Endangered Species Act protection, including protections from climate change and overfishing.


http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15266.

Australia, Cape York

As a Queenslander and an Australian, you must be proud to live in a state and country that is home to one of most spectacular places on Earth.  

From pockets of ancient rainforest and tropical savannah grasslands to fringing coral reefs and free flowing rivers, Cape York brims with wildlife — much of which can't be found anywhere else in the world.

But the Queensland government is proposing a region-wide plan that will weaken environmental regulation and open up the Cape to invasive development. They need to know that Queenslanders care about the Cape.

Take action and tell the Queensland government to protect the Cape with a quick submission on the Cape York Regional Plan.

www.action.org.au/cape-york

Queensland marine life under attack from the Newman government

In a blow to marine life, science and community sentiment, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman is proposing to allow fishing in a marine national park area (green zone) at Scotts Point, in Moreton Bay Marine Park.

With 84% of this marine park already open to various forms of fishing, this is a huge step backwards.

And it gets worse.

The Newman Government has left the door open to winding back other protected green zones in Queensland’s marine parks, calling on people to come forward with other locations they want opened to fishing.

We must speak out.

This undermines the extensive community consultation and scientific research that went into the creation of the Moreton Bay Marine Park, which the Newman Government endorsed in their first year of office.

Together we have fought long and hard to establish networks of marine national parks within Queensland marine parks like Moreton Bay, the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Sandy.

These areas are the national parks of the sea, safe havens for our fish, turtles and dugongs. There is clear scientific evidence they already have great benefits for our marine life.

We must defend them.

The science on the benefits of marine national parks is clear and the public sentiment is too. Conservation and fishing go hand in hand in our marine parks. There is clear evidence that the Queensland recreational fishing community broadly support our marine parks too, having fished in them for years now.

To sign petition and have your say: http://australianmarineconservationsociety.cmail1.com/t/j-l-iythidl-kkshrdlu-o/

Sign to reject coal seam gas exploration in the Blue Mountains!

The process of mining for coal seam gas can be incredibly destructive to the environment around it. Just this week, coal seam gas activity in New South Wales contaminated a nearby aquifier with dangerously high uranium levels. So why is the government considering opening the Blue Mountains up to coal seam gas exploration?

The Blue Mountains area is a World Heritage site. It is home to a range of rare and endangered species -- including the Wollemi Pine -- that UNESCO regards as being of "outstanding significance." In addition, its water catchments feed into the water supply for residents of Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Lithgow.

But now, a major gas company has lodged exploration licence applications covering three national parks in the Blue Mountains region.

Allowing coal seam gas mining in the Blue Mountains won't just endanger the plants and animals that live there. It'll also put the thousands of people who rely on the area for clean drinking water at risk -- and severely increase the fire hazard in the region.

Our environment is in enough trouble already. We can't expose our natural treasures to even more threats. Ask the NSW government to reject coal seam gas exploration in the Blue Mountains!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/279/530/135/save-the-blue-mountains-from-coal-seam-gas/?z00m=20852749

Stop Coal Seam Gas Blue Mountains: http://stopcsgbm.net.au

Sign the Petition to United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)



Today, we have the chance to do something big together. Something that will make history.

The facts are simple: unregulated, dirty power plants produce 40 percent of the United States' climate-disrupting carbon pollution. The good news is that the EPA understands this -- and they're attempting to make a change by limiting the carbon pollution new power plants can dump into our atmosphere.

But we're willing to bet Big Polluters aren't taking this lightly -- and that's why your comments today in support of the EPA's standards are SO important.

In order for us to move towards the clean-energy future we want and need, we have to limit carbon pollution. The EPA's carbon standards are an important start.

http://links.causes.com/s/clQsKg?r=3zq7&ctag=6c57a7d33f0cbdd791207d3b684f97f71d&ctoken=9LF8cjOQbmTI0Pm8KOnQHbRRBxsGuiXerVkLjA6NfuVQZIL6jGJWUIMYkbK5pwSEwkddPlL2xHWoZVZL9A5UmDQs3XDwE2Hg&uid=148804178

STOP SELLING BABY CHICKS, DUCKS, AND BUNNIES FOR EASTER!

BY: Julie Burge, DVM, director of Burge Bird Rescue
TARGET: Tractor Supply Company, Orscheln Farm & Home, Other stores that sell Easter animals
Update #2 January 27, 2014
We only have a short time left to get more signatures asking stores to stop selling baby animals for Easter. These ducks, chicks, and bunnies will usually die as they outgrow their baby cuteness and are let go into the wild to starve or be killed by predators. Please consider sharing this petition just one more time and ask your friends and family to sign it. The animals are counting on you to help save them from being abandoned or neglected!

Update #1 November 17, 2013
I have updated this petition asking stores to stop selling baby chicks, ducks and bunnies for just 3 days before Easter to save these babies from neglect and often death. Would you please share this petition with your friends and ask them to sign?

About this Petition
We are asking stores to stop selling Easter pets for just 3 days out of the year: the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before Easter Sunday.
From the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): Baby animals, including baby chicks and ducks, are sometimes given as gifts or put on display at Easter. Young birds often carry harmful bacteria called Salmonella. Each spring some children become infected with Salmonella after receiving a baby chick or duckling for Easter.

Children can be exposed to the bacteria by simply holding, cuddling, or kissing the birds. Others at increased risk include persons with HIV/AIDS, pregnant women, the elderly and other immunocompromised persons.

From the animals' standpoint, many people are unprepared for caring for adult chickens, ducks, or rabbits.  Studies show that up to 95% of baby bunnies purchased for Easter never reach their first birthday.  Baby ducks are often abandoned in ponds, where they will starve to death or be killed by predators when the pond freezes, as they are unable to fly like their wild cousins.

Please, don't buy animals and if you don't want to keep them for many years!  It puts your children at risk, and sets a bad example for them for taking proper care of pets.

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/867/254/195/stop-selling-baby-chicks-ducks-and-bunnies-for-easter/