Save Orphan Bears

Here is another Care2.org petition. This one is about saving bears in Russia! Please take a second to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. They are trying to reach 50000 signatures – please sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/534/084/459

Target: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Sponsored by: International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

During Russia’s annual bear hunt, hibernating mother bears are lured out of their dens by dogs to be shot and killed, leaving their infant cubs to freeze or starve to death. Each year, den hunting leaves up to 4,000 cubs motherless. Some of these homeless cubs end up as pets to local villagers, while others are taken as cruel props for entertainment or to be eaten in restaurants. Most are abandoned and left to die.

You can give these tiny bundles of fur a second chance at life. Please urge the Russian Prime Minister to ban the cruel practice of den-hunting.

It is one thing to hunt bears in the summer, but it is cruel to wake them and kill them during hibernation. It is just as disgusting as hunting wolves from the air.

Please ban the practice of den-hunting of bears in all of Russia.Den hunting — waking hibernating bears, driving them out of their dens and then shooting the frightened and confused animals — is not only cruel to the bears shot, but also to the orphaned cubs left behind.

Den hunting kills thousands of bears each year and orphans many thousands more. In some areas of Russia, and in Western and Eastern Europe, brown bears are already extinct. The bears being hunted in Russia are from the last healthy population in the world.

Here is the petition, http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/534/084/459

Thank you for your consideration of ending this cruel practice.

-Cara

Ban the Gas Chamber for Animals in Michigan

I just received this petition from Care2.com and thought I’d spread the word. See below…

Target: Michigan House
Sponsored by: American Humane Association

Michigan House Bill 6042, the Humane Euthanasia of Shelter Animals Act, and House Bill 6043 both would ensure that when the state’s unwanted, sick or unadoptable shelter animals have to be euthanize, the procedure will only be done by injection of sodium phenobarbital. This method is called euthanasia by injection.

The American Humane Association considers euthanasia by injection to be the only acceptable and humane means of euthanasia for animals in animal shelters.

Even though a majority of the shelters in the state use euthanasia by injection, 10 still use outdated, inhumane gas chambers. Shelter workers overwhelmingly wish to hold and comfort a frightened animal in its final moments of life. That act may be the only kindness the animal has ever known.

In contrast, even with vigilant oversight, euthanizing any animal by means of a carbon monoxide or dioxide gas chamber is both severely inhumane to medium and large animals, and demoralizing to the workers who have to euthanize. Such outdated practices also create public outcry and demean the purpose of an animal shelter.

HB 4263 is sponsored by Rep. Rick Jones and was drafted by American Humane Association and the State Bar of Michigan Animal Law Section. And HB 4803 would amend the bill entitled, “Dog Law of 1919.” Please sign today to support these bills.

Figure out a way not to kill animals at all.

I said it.

-Cara

End the Financial Irresponsibility of the War in Iraq

The Dead

Target: U.S. Congress
Sponsored by: Care2.com

Donald Rumsfeld, in 2003, estimated that the cost of the war in Iraq would be $50 billion. Five years and more than $500 billion later, Iraq has turned into a sinkhole for American taxpayers. In fact, recent analysis indicates that the true cost of the war could easily top $1-2 trillion dollars!That’s more than any other war, except for World War II. Just think — the war in Iraq has been more expensive than the anticipated cost of the U.S. implementing the Kyoto Protocol to control greenhouse gases ($300 billion).

Countless lives lost and massive fiscal irresponsibility to boot — the entire affair has been one debacle after another. Demand that the U.S. better use its resources and return its troops home.

A Child

The letter you send to congress states,

The war in Iraq has proved far too costly and not just in terms of lives lost. In fact, recent analysis indicates that the true financial cost of the war could easily top $1-2 trillion dollars! That will make it the second most expensive war in the history of the United States.

The yearly cost of the war has doubled since the 2003 appropriation of $74 billion, which the Bush administration expected to be the total cost of the war. And these estimates don’t necessarily account for all the potential expenses, including

* disability pay and health care costs of Iraqi war veterans for several decades;
* replacing worn or destroyed military equipment and resettling the armed forces; and
* paying interest on the debt used to finance the war.

[Your Comment]

To date, the war has cost $341.4 million per day. Worse, thousands of lives have been thrown away in a misguided, high-handed venture of the Bush Administration. I urge you to help the U.S. use its resources better and more importantly, bring our troops home.

Sincerely,

[Your name here]

I am number 3,408, because this war is not worth it.

Sign here.

-Cara