Sign Petition: This Power Company’s Negligence Killed 7 Elephants

thepetitionsite.com

by: Care2 Team
recipient: Orissa state government and the Forest Department

34,530 SUPPORTERS – 35,000 GOAL

The Asian elephant, the second largest land animal in the world is undoubtedly a hearty beast. But as any conservationist knows, their size and stature don’t protect them from all dangers. We know they face the daily threat of poachers, who kill them for their tusks and skin to sell in the black market. But they also face additional dangers, ones that some could never predict.

That’s what happened to a family of elephants in near the town of Kamalanga, India. The herd of 15 was tragically cut in half after. The group was out searching for food when they came across a stream near a paddy field. As they walked through the area, seven of these beautiful animals came into contact with sagging 11-kilovolt power cables. Seven of the pachyderms were electrocuted instantly.

According to the Forest Department, it is the worst mass death of elephants in the area’s history. And what makes it worse is that the whole thing could have been avoided. The central power company, who managed the cables, had been warned several times about the dangers of the hanging power lines yet did nothing, and now seven endangered Asian elephants have died.

Apart from their excruciating death, elephants are known to mourn their dead, for a family of elephants that lost more than half of their pack, the pain must be terrible.

Officials say some people have been suspended and others are being investigated for their responsibility in this horrible accident. But the fact remains that the power lines in the area still pose a danger to other elephants who may happen upon more hanging cables or other risks.

The central power company, apart from being held responsible, must do a review of the entire area and ensure that the rest of the elephants in the area are not in danger because of their negligence.

Please sign the petition and demand that the Orissa state and the Forest Department force the power company to do an immediate review of their lines and take precautions so that an accident like this never happens again.Photo credit : CEN more

Sign Petition

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/548/819/363/this-power-companys-negligence-killed-7-elephants/

 

The problem with paper receipts

treehugger.com
The problem with paper receipts
Katherine Martinko feistyredhair November 7, 2018
4-5 minutes

They seem so innocuous, but they’re becoming an environmental nightmare.

In recent months, the one statement I always make at checkout counters – “I don’t need a bag” – has been joined by another – “No receipt, please.” I began doing this after learning about the harmful effects of thermal paper, the shiny smooth paper that most retailers now use to print receipts.

Thermal paper uses heat rather than ink to form letters and numbers, and it relies on bisphenol A to do so. (If you scratch a receipt and see a dark line, then you know it contains BPA or its common substitute BPS.) BPA is a hormone disruptor and is absorbed through the skin, which means that even reaching for a receipt poses a risk of contamination.

Turning down receipts at the time of purchase also saves me having to deal with all those annoying slips of paper that fill up my wallet. I used to be amazed at how many I’d unearth every few months, but when you think about it on a global scale, the amount of receipt waste is staggering. In the UK an estimated 11.2 billion receipts are handed out annually, costing around £32 million to make and generating 1.5 billion pounds of waste.

To make matters worse, thermal paper cannot be recycled. Its only ‘safe’ destination is the landfill, because the recycling process would only release more BPA into the environment and cause further damage. Stop and chew on that for a minute. All that contaminated trash, just so you can remember six months down the road that you paid $3.50 for a crappy muffin and weak coffee at a truck stop somewhere.

Now, I understand that not all purchases are an unmemorable as that muffin-coffee combo. Many others, particularly more expensive ones, do require proof of purchase, so what are the alternatives?

• Digital receipts, emailed from retailer to customer, are becoming more common. But this can also mean handing over your email address, which enables a company to inundate you with promotional material. Whenever I feel I have to do this, I make sure to say I don’t want to receive any other communication.

• Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay can be used on your smartphone to make small purchases. As Sanjana Varghese writes for Wired, some retailers are moving to plug-ins such as Flux, which “creates an itemized record of a user’s transactions.” Similar apps include Transaction Tree and Yreceipts.

• Be selective about the receipts you accept. Only take receipts for items that you know may have a higher chance of needing to be returned, or that you can claim as a business expense, or that come from cash transactions that can’t be tracked online. For example, I’d take a receipt for a pair of shoes, but not for a meal eaten out or even groceries.

• Track your expenses elsewhere. Don’t use receipts to keep track of your expenses. Make a habit of writing down that information in a special place that you can reference any time. For me, that’s in my phone, but a small notebook could do the job too. As soon as I leave a store, I add the amount to my monthly expense tally with a brief description.

• Ask stores to reconsider their system. If you’re a regular shopper at a store that uses thermal paper, bring it up in conversation. It doesn’t hurt to ask and educate. After all, if every store finds that customers are rejecting their receipts, they will be more inclined to come up with an alternative.

Veronique Barbossa, the co-founder of Flux, is absolutely right when she tells Varghese, “Paper receipts are non-recyclable, consume oil, trees, and water, and they don’t fit into the digital lifestyle that we currently have.” They seem nearly as outdated as paper cheques, which I haven’t owned in several years because e-transfers make life so much easier.

It’s not a problem that’s going to be solved overnight, but it is something I suspect we’re all going to start hearing more about.

They seem so innocuous, but they’re becoming an environmental nightmare.

https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/problem-paper-receipts.html

Petition: This Zoo’s Dangerous Wild Animal Encounter Program Must End — One Small Child’s Already Been Hurt

thepetitionsite.com
This Zoo’s Dangerous Wild Animal Encounter Program Must End — One Small Child’s Already Been Hurt

by: Care2 Team
recipient: Potawatomi Zoo

3,363 SUPPORTERS – 10,000 GOAL

Earlier this month, a mother and son went to the zoo to see some wild animals, but they never could have expected exactly how wild their encounter would be.

It all happened when a group of children went to celebrate a birthday party at a zoo in Indiana. The Potawatomi Zoo has an “ambassador animal” program which they believe gives their guests a unique opportunity to get up close and personal to some of their collection. For a hefty fee, you and your party can “invite” a wild animal to your event at the zoo.

That’s how Copper a wild African serval cat ended up in the unnatural situation of being used as a prop for a “meet-and-greet” at a child’s birthday party. Surrounded by screaming children, under bright indoor lights is never a situation a serval would find itself in the wild. When one of the mothers knelt down with her child to get a close up with the cat, Copper decided he had had enough and struck out, swiping the boy with his paw and biting him on the head.

In the video, one could hear gasps and screams as the mother pulls her child away from the cat.

Zoos should know better than almost anyone that wild animals shouldn’t be forced to interact with people, especially children. Doing so puts both the animal and the child at risk. The child, in this case, was lucky, but it could have been much worse. For example, there is no vaccine for rabies for wild cats, the only way to know if a cat like Copper had rabies would be to put him down and test him. If the child’s mother was worried about her son catching rabies, the authorities would have to kill Copper. Risking his life, just so the zoo could make a little extra cash.

A spokesperson for the zoo says that Copper has now been taken out of the program for the time being. But he never should have been forced to participate in it in the first place. No wild animal is completely safe, especially around children.

The Potawatomi Zoo must stop endangering their pets and their public with this misguided program. Sign the petition and demand that they stop using wild animals in their ambassador animals program.more

Sign Petition

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/682/951/283/

Petition: Animals Are Getting Hurt in Pranks — End Falconry Now!

by: Care2 Team
recipient: Air Force Academy

25,848 SUPPORTERS – 30,000 GOAL
Animals are not entertainment. They should not be trotted out to spaces that stress them out for human amusement. But that’s just what happens at the Air Force Academy to falcons. In fact, the Air Force Academy has its own falconry. And recently, one of its falcons was injured in a “prank.”

Please sign the petition to ask the Air Force Academy to end their falconry program.

Their official mascot, Aurora, is a 22-year-old white gyrfalcon, and she got hurt the other week because West Point cadets wanted to use her for a prank. She was kidnapped by someone who threw a sweatshirt over her and stuffed her in a dog crate. She injured her wings badly while trying to escape!

It’s not funny to put an innocent creature in the middle of school rivalries. But apparently this is not the first time something like this has happened. In fact, these pranks have been so heinous in the past. Someone even used chloroform on animals in the past. Potential abuse is just one reason why schools should not be keep captive animals at all, and especially not for use as a mascot.

Sign the petition to ask the Air Force Academy to end their falconry program right now!

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/514/143/165/

Photo from Air Force Academy website

 

Petition: More Animals Are Suffering at This Horrible Aquarium

by: Care2
recipient: City of Guangzhou

29,790 SUPPORTERS – 30,000 GOAL

Those of you who remember Pizza the Polar Bear might remember why he became famous. He was known as the “World’s Saddest Bear” because he was once housed at the Grandview Aquarium in Guangzhou China. A pathetic excuse for an animal park located within a shopping mall.

Well now, that same aquarium is back in the news and for an equally depressing reason. The Grandview may have let Pizza go to a better facility but they still house several animals that are living in unsuitable conditions. This menagerie includes belugas, seals and a walrus that still call the Grandview home.

The aquarium has been called a “living hell” and for good reason.

The beluga whales, which were caught in the wild and forced into a life of captivity, live in a plain tank with no stimulation. They’re only outside interaction comes from the trainers and paying customers for whom they are forced to perform.

The seven-spotted seals don’t fare much better. They also have little to no stimulus and seem to exhibit behavior that suggests the animals are utterly bored with their existence. For seals and whales, marine mammals that usually have a vast ocean to call their home, being forced to live in an empty tank in a dimly lit facility is absolute hell.

Finally, as activists point out, the aquarium further endangers these animals well-being because of its location. Defying logic, the aquarium isn’t located on the ground floor, so if there is ever a leak or worse, not only the animals but the people below could be swept away.

It is time to shut down this tragic facility. These animals deserve to live in peace in a sanctuary where they can enjoy their remaining years. Not holed away inside a shopping mall.

Sign and share this petition and ask the the city of Guangzhoe to seize Grandview’s animals, give them to a sanctuary and shut that aquarium down. more

Sign Petition

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/859/920/671/

29,790 supporters

 

Petition: Scotland Must End Trophy Hunting

thepetitionsite.com
Scotland Must End Trophy Hunting

Disturbing photos posted on social media by self-proclaimed “professional huntress” Larysa Switlyk during her trip to the island of Islay in Scotland have sparked outrage around the globe, and within the Scottish government as well.

In the photos, Switlyk, who lives in Florida and hosts a hunting TV show, smiles beside the carcasses of goats, stag and sheep she killed with a high-powered rifle.

“Such a fun hunt!” she wrote regarding the killing of a wild goat. “They live on the edge of the cliffs of the island and know how to hide well. We hunted hard for a big one for 2 days and finally got on this group. Made a perfect 200 yard shot and dropped him…”

It’s currently legal in Scotland to hunt deer and goats as a part of sustainable land management. But because of Switlyk and her disgusting photos, those laws could, and should, be changing.

Michael Russell, the local Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), called the photos “horrific.” He said it was unacceptable “to see people in camouflage with highly powered sniper rifles rejoicing at the killing of a goat, let alone a ram.” Russell wants goat hunting on Islay stopped immediately and is bringing it up with Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that the government will “review the current situation and consider whether changes to the law are required.”

Scotland must change its laws to prevent more animals from being killed by trophy hunters. Please sign and share this petition urging government officials to take this action immediately.

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/502/650/828/scotland-must-end-trophy-hunting/

Why Are Travel Associations Blatantly Disregarding Animal Cruelty At Wildlife Attractions Worldwide? – World Animal News

World Animal Protection’s (WFPA) new research revealed that a shocking high number of the world’s travel trade associations are lagging in providing Animal Welfare guidelines to travel companies. The majority are doing nothing to prevent Wildlife cruelty in tourism.

Over 550,000 wild animals are suffering endlessly just to entertain tourist. The research shows that travel associations must do more to protect them.

Continue reading here..

https://worldanimalnews.com/why-are-travel-associations-blatantly-disregarding-animal-cruelty-at-wildlife-attractions-worldwide/

Historic News! The Hometown Of PT Barnum, Founder Of Ringling Bros. Circus Becomes 2nd City In Connecticut To Ban The Use Of Wild Animals In Circuses – World Animal News

Home News Historic News! The Hometown Of PT Barnum, Founder Of Ringling Bros. Circus
By WAN –

November 7,2018
In the midst of the history-making midterm elections, another important vote was taking place in the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, during which the City Council voted unanimously to ban wild animal circus acts.
Marking it the second city in the state after Stamford to pass such a ban. The ruling is especially significant because Bridgeport is where PT Barnum lived and was mayor.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) supported the historic measure sponsored by Councilmember Kyle Langan and Councilmember Marcus Brown, and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Denese Taylor-Moye, Jeanette Herron, Pete Spain, Michelle Lyons, Eneida Martinez, and Karen Jackson.
“As the home of PT Barnum, we’ve taken a symbolic step that proclaims we’ve learned from the past and emphatically decided to move forward in a more progressive and compassionate way,” Councilmember Langan said in a statement. “Thank you to ADI and all the advocates who supported us along the way.”
Studies and evidence show that the health and welfare of animals in traveling circuses is inevitably compromised due to small, barren, mobile accommodations, restricted movement, long journeys, and excessive periods of time spent in transporters and containers.
ADI is among the organizations that are exposing the brutal training methods through undercover investigations, documenting the systemic violence and abuse occurring in the United States and around the world.
Proving that attitudes are changing with the times, American audiences have been turning away from animal circuses in droves; several have closed, including Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, while others have gone animal-free. Bridgeport and 87 jurisdictions in 31 states have taken action to restrict wild animals from traveling circuses.
As previously reported by WAN, New York City and San Francisco both have bans on wild animal circus acts; Los Angeles is working on a ban as well.
Other states are also considering bans on wild animal circus acts, with both New Jersey and Hawaii close to statewide bans.
A federal bill to end the use of wild and exotic animals in traveling shows nationwide, Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act, is gaining bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives. 45 countries have also passed national restrictions on the use of animals in traveling circuses.
“We’re thrilled that people are finally listening and progress is being made to help protect these beautiful species from exploitation.” -Katie Cleary

https://worldanimalnews.com/breaking-hometown-of-pt-barnum-becomes-2nd-city-in-connecticut-to-ban-use-of-wild-animals-in-circuses/

 

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