Here are a few petitions that we would like you to support please.

Just click on the links to read more and to sign.

 

Punish the man who tortures his puppy!

I want the authorities to intervene, both the Prosecutor’s Office and PROPAEM to have the dog removed from this subject and be judged for animal abuse. I saw this video of this man torturing a puppy in his house in Ixtapaluca, State of Mexico, and my blood flowed, how do we continue to allow these things without anyone doing anything?

The man wet the dog with a pressure washer of those who have the strength to remove the paint from a wall or the old dirt of a floor, imagine what it does to the poor puppy hitting him with water in the face. Immediate punishment! What are you waiting for?

Petition link –

https://www.sosvox.org/en/petition/punish-the-man-who-tortures-his-puppy.html?utm_source=highlight&utm_medium=title&utm_campaign=campaign-p230319

 

 

Justice for Chihuahua Brutally Dismembered and Dumped in Trash

 

PETITION TARGET: Floyd County Police Chief Mark Wallace

In Lindale, Georgia, a chihuahua was dismembered, burned, and dumped in a trash can.

After mutilating and torturing the dog, the sick individual behind the cruel act wrapped the dead animal in a sheet and carelessly tossed the remains into the garbage outside of a car wash.

Floyd County Police Sergeant Chris Fincher described the disturbing state of the dog’s corpse: “The legs were removed and the body appeared to be cut in half.”

Some other body parts were missing, including portions of the dog’s head.

The horrific scene took an emotional toll on the police. “Police officers, we’re trained for certain things, but this sort of thing we’re really not trained for,” Fincher said.

Whoever committed this gruesome act is a threat to both animals and people and needs to be put behind bars.

Sign this petition urging the Floyd County Police Department to do everything in their power to identify this dangerous individual and bring them to justice.

Anyone with information about this crime is urged to call the Floyd County Police Department at (706) 235-7766.

Petition link –

https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-justice-for-chihuahua-brutally-dismembered-and-dumped-in-trash/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

 

 

Call For Lolita and Other Orcas to Be Transferred to a Seaside Sanctuary

Despite overwhelming evidence that orcas suffer in captivity and that the tide of public opinion has turned against marine-mammal confinement, Parques Reunidos, the parent company of the Miami Seaquarium and Marineland Antibes in France, continues to confine intelligent, sensitive orcas to cramped concrete tanks.

Lolita was torn away from her family and natural habitat in Puget Sound decades ago, along with dozens of other orcas who were later sold to marine parks.

Nearly half a century later, she’s the last surviving orca of the 45 who were captured there, and she’s still imprisoned by the Miami Seaquarium. She has been alone since 1980, when her tank mate, Hugo, died after repeatedly ramming his head into a wall.

Across the ocean, four orcas – named Wikie, Inouk, Moana, and Keijo – are trapped at Marineland Antibes in France, where at least 12 orcas have died, including two in 2015. Four months after his mother, Freya, died, a 19-year-old orca named Valentin was killed during severe flooding, along with many other animals.

The parks are a showcase of neglect and abuse: orcas swim in repetitive patterns, vomit, chew on metal cage bars until they irreparably damage their teeth, and bang their heads against concrete walls.

Please help free Lolita, Wikie, Inouk, Moana, and Keijo – urge Parques Reunidos to retire them to a seaside sanctuary, where they could feel the ocean’s waves, hear the calls of wild orca pods, and finally have some semblance of a natural life.

 

Petition link   –

https://secure.peta.org.uk/page/17987/action/1?utm_source=PETA%20UK::E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert&utm_campaign=0319::ent::PETA%20UK::E-Mail::Lolita%20AA::::aa%20em&ea.url.id=2316803

It’s your last chance to show your support for New Zealand dolphins …

The smallest dolphins in the world are in big trouble – they need your help. We can save them if the New Zealand government bans certain fishing nets from the areas where the dolphins live. Our petition will close soon so please sign and share it if you haven’t already

When you go to our petition, you may notice something’s different – I’m very pleased *drum roll* to let you know that we have launched a new website. We hope we have made it much easier to find everything you ever wanted to know about whales, dolphins and porpoises and how your support is helping us keep them safe and free.

We’d love to know what you think of the new site. All comments – positive, negative or anywhere in-between – will be very gratefully received and will help us make your website the best experience that we can for you.

Go in and have a look around and then tell us what you think.

As always, thank you for being with us – without our supporters, we wouldn’t be here to fight for the whales and dolphins we all love.

Julia Pix, WDC.

 

Visit the new WDC Website at:

https://uk.whales.org/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=March%20ENL%20-%20NZ%20dolphin%20special%20new%20website%20sentience%20petition%20MSC%20fish&utm_content=March%20ENL%20-%20NZ%20dolphin%20special%20new%20website%20sentience%20petition%20MSC%20fish%20CID_54965d6fadf8335166c0fac79ae2af76&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor%20WDC&utm_term=VISIT%20THE%20NEW%20SITE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark,

Imagine the deafening sound of dozens of 90,000-pound “thumper” trucks shooting violent tremors through the ground.

Now, imagine them barreling over the dens of mother polar bears and straight through the birthing grounds of wild Porcupine caribou.

This will be the terrible fate of Alaska’s serene Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the very last unspoiled wild places left on our planet, if we allow President Trump and Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to throw open this sanctuary to oil and gas drilling.

NRDC is mounting a powerful counteroffensive using all of the tools at our disposal — and step one is raising a public outcry so loud that we can’t be ignored.

 

ACTION – 

Add your voice now: Tell President Trump and Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that the Arctic Refuge is NOT for sale.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to polar bears, caribou, wolves, and migratory birds from all 50 states, and vital to the culture and survival of the native Gwich’in people, who have depended on this land for thousands of years.

And with temperatures in the Arctic rising at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, the Refuge’s fragile habitat is ground zero for global warming.

But even with so much at stake, industry allies in Congress voted for the first time ever to open up the Arctic Refuge for oil and gas drilling — and the Trump administration is now fast-tracking plans to auction off the land to the highest bidder.

The Interior Department could slow or reconsider these plans, but Acting Administrator David Bernhardt — a former oil lobbyist — has made his priorities clear: Drive up profits for his fossil fuel allies, even if it means destroying the Arctic Refuge forever.

The Senate will soon vote on Bernhardt’s nomination to become the official Interior Secretary. And if confirmed — which is likely — his and President Trump’s attacks on wild places like the Arctic Refuge will continue unabated.

And if the Trump administration isn’t stopped, lease sales for drilling in the Refuge’s pristine coastal plain could begin this year, resulting in an industrial wasteland of rigs, roads, pipelines, and toxic waste pits.

We must make our voices heard. Demand that President Trump and Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt stop their destructive plans to sell off the Arctic Refuge.

Protect the Arctic Refuge

Mark, this is the fight of our lifetimes — once the Arctic Refuge is handed over to Big Oil, there’s no turning back. With your support, we’re fighting on multiple fronts: Mobilizing massive public opposition, arming the national media with the facts, battling in Washington, and getting ready for court.

This land cannot defend itself. Mark, the reason the Arctic Refuge still exists as a protected wildlife sanctuary is because NRDC, our allies, and supporters like you have raised our voices together and fought for decades to keep it that way.

This is the closest Big Oil has ever gotten to invading the Arctic Refuge — and we need as many people as possible to stand strong and speak out in its defense.

It’s now or never: Tell Trump and Bernhardt that you strongly oppose destroying the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

We need you standing with us.

Sincerely,

Rhea Suh
President, NRDC

https://animalpetitions.org/educational-series-apes-our-intelligent-endangered-relative/

They’re our closest living relatives of the animal world, some sharing almost 99% of our DNA. They are far more intelligent than scientists once realized, with elaborate social structures and family networks. They make sophisticated use of tools. And they are among the most endangered mammals on the planet. These are the apes, a group of animals about whom we still have much to learn despite decades of scientific research.

The ape most famous for close genetic ties to humans is the chimpanzee, one of the “great apes.” Chimpanzees live only in tropical forests of Central Africa, the continent where modern humans first evolved some 100,000 years ago. Despite this long history of chimps and humans living in close proximity, the scientific community knew little about their behavior in the wild until the 1960s, when primatologist Jane Goodall began studying chimps at Gombe Stream in Tanzania. By carefully and patiently observing them in their natural habitat, Goodall became the first scientist to witness chimpanzees making tools, hunting and eating meat, and displaying complex social behaviors, among many other discoveries.

Today we know chimpanzees live in loosely connected social groups of as many as a few hundred individuals, divided into more closely knit subgroups. Mother chimps spend years caring for their offspring and family ties can remain important even once chimps reach maturity. Chimpanzees use a wide array of vocalizations and facial expressions to communicate. Scientists have even observed cultural differences between chimpanzees over different parts of their range, with groups in some areas practicing behaviours that are never seen in other chimpanzee communities.

It is now widely known among even the general public that chimpanzees share almost 99% of humans’ DNA. However, in the last few years evidence has emerged that another ape species may be as or even more closely related to us. This is the bonobo, formerly known as the “pygmy chimpanzee.” Genetic studies suggest it’s a toss-up whether chimpanzees or bonobos actually deserve the title of closest living human relative. But studies of human, chimpanzee, and bonobo muscular systems show bonobos appear to be more physically similar to us.

Whereas as chimpanzee societies are male-dominated, bonobos are matriarchal. They are also known for being less prone to social conflict than chimpanzees, and for using sex to maintain social bonds. Bonobos eat mainly fruit, other vegetation, and insects, and unlike chimpanzees they hunt meat only occasionally. From a conservation standpoint, another important fact about bonobos is they are restricted to only a single country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

Only slightly less closely related to us than chimpanzees and bonobos are gorillas. There are actually two species, the eastern and western gorillas. Eastern gorillas are divided into two subspecies: the eastern lowland gorilla and mountain gorilla. The western species is likewise divided into the western lowland and Cross River gorillas. Like other African great apes gorillas are social, but their networks are smaller than those of chimpanzees. Gorillas travel in groups related by family ties, consisting of as few as five or as many fifty individuals. Groups are dominated by an older male known as the silverback.

The only great apes found outside of Africa are orangutans. They differ from African great apes in several important respects, including their habits. While gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos are all social, orangutans are solitary with adults normally coming together only to mate. They are also the only great apes to spend most of their time in the trees. This makes orangutans the largest truly arboreal, or tree-dwelling animals in the world.

Orangutans are found only on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and for many years scientists recognized two species, each confined to one of the islands. However, in 2017 a third species was announced. Known as the Tapanuli orangutan, this species lives in northern Sumatra and was previously thought to be simply a population of the Sumatran orangutan. Tapanuli orangutans are the most recently-described great ape species–and with only 800 individuals are also the most endangered.

More than a dozen additional ape species live in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. These are the gibbons, or “lesser apes.” They get this name not because they are somehow less important than great apes, but simply because they are much smaller. Like orangutans, gibbons are mainly arboreal. They are famed for swinging hand-over-hand through the tree branches at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour,

Sadly, all or most apes are at risk of extinction due to factors like deforestation and hunting for the meat and pet trades. Although Tapanuli orangutans have the smallest population of any great ape, all the others are classified as endangered or critically endangered. In Africa threats like logging, poaching, and armed human conflict threaten great apes. Gorillas have also been seriously affected by the spread of the Ebola virus, which is deadly to them just as it is to humans. While the outlook for Africa’s great apes is grim, there are rays of hope. For example, thanks to conservation efforts mountain gorillas has seen a modest population increase recently.

In Borneo and Sumatra the single largest threat to orangutans–and gibbons found on the islands–is the conversion of rainforests into palm oil plantations. Used both as biofuel and an ingredient in everything from peanut butter to shampoo, palm oil production has skyrocketed as demand for these products increases worldwide. Limiting this industry’s expansion represents the best hope for Borneo and Sumatra’s apes. Fortunately, consumer-driven campaigns led by groups like Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network have had success pressuring some U.S. food companies–including Kellogg’s, Mars, and General Mills–to adopt policies limiting their use of palm oil that is not sustainably grown. More public pressure is needed to persuade additional companies to cut ties with palm oil deforestation.

Most people know iconic great apes like the mountain gorilla are endangered. However, the apes at greatest risk of imminent extinction are gibbons. With only about two dozen individuals in existence, the Hainan crested gibbon has the smallest population of any primate species. They live only in a single forest on the island of Hainan in the South-China Sea and have lost 99% of their habitat. Only slightly better off is the world’s second-rarest primate, the Cao-Vit gibbon. Only 100 members of this species survive in a forest in Northeast Vietnam. Though not quite as rare as these two, most other gibbon species are also at severe risk. Habitat loss is the most serious threat, but gibbons are also hunted for meat, with babies sometimes being sold into a life of captivity in the pet trade.

If our ape relatives survive into the latter part of the twenty-first century, it will be because of the caring actions of people all over the world. Whether by writing to major food brands and encouraging them to adopt sustainable palm oil policies, or supporting conservation groups working to protect great apes and gibbons from poaching and habitat loss, you can take action wherever you live. If you travel to Central Africa or Southeast Asia, consider patronizing eco-tourist organizations that help local communities profit from conservation.

With their intelligence, complex societies, and human-like expressions, apes are a reminder that humans are not as separated from our animal ancestry as we sometimes like to think.

By saving these remarkable primates from extinction, we are also preserving links to our own rich evolutionary heritage.

 

Regards Mark.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47608949

 

Dead Philippines whale had 40kg of plastic in stomach

A dead whale that washed up in the Philippines had 40kg (88lbs) of plastic bags inside its stomach, researchers have said.

Workers at D’Bone Collector Museum recovered the Cuvier’s beaked whale east of Davao City earlier in March.

In a Facebook post, the museum said the animal was filled with “the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale”.

There were 16 rice sacks in its stomach, as well as “multiple shopping bags”.

• Ocean plastic a ‘planetary crisis’ – UN
• Plastic pollution: Images of a global problem
• Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem

The museum will post a full list of the items found in the whale over the next few days.

“I was not prepared for the amount of plastic,” the museum’s founder and president, Darrell Blatchley, told broadcaster CNN. “It was so big, the plastic was beginning calcification.”

The use of throwaway plastic is a particular problem in some South East Asian countries, including the Philippines.

Five Asian nations – China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand – accounted for up to 60% of the plastic waste that ends up in oceans, according to a 2015 report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.

In June last year, a pilot whale died in Thailand after swallowing 80 plastic bags.

Its death came shortly after a report for the UK government revealed the level of plastic in the ocean could triple in a decade unless steps are taken to curb litter.

 

The following pictures are NOT associated with this article – including the Whale – WAV.