Black Bears

Be sure to: Sign Senator Lesniak's Direct Petition!

S2702 (Pedals' Law) Prohibits bear hunting and establishes non-lethal control program for black bear for five years; prohibits certain actions that result in feeding of bears and requires use of bear-resistant containers; dumpsters, and food boxes in bear habitat. Bill passed out of Senate Economic Growth committee on October 17, 2016. Please contact your state Senators and two Assembly members to ask for support of this vital measure.

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Pedals Death Rouses Nation

S. 2369 Bear Smart Legislation
This legislation would ban the use of Bear Baiting, the practice of repeatedly luring a bear to a specific location by leaving food over the course of days or weeks in order to draw it back to the same location to be “hunted” during hunting season. This practice is immoral and equivalent to shooting fish in a barrel, and is not a sport. Additionally, multiple studies have showed that baiting has conditioned bears to associate the human scent with the bait, making them more likely to intrude where humans live. Many of the foods that are being used as bait, often human foods such as donuts that are not naturally a part of a bear’s diet, increase the fat reserves and leads to increased breeding.

Bear Smart Legislation
Bear Smart legislation (S2369) corrects a signal failure to organize, implement, and enforce non-lethal solutions preferred by 74% of New Jersey voters.

Please help stop the NJ Bear Hunt

Please sign, share and tweet this petition to everyone you know and to all groups you belong to. We don't have a lot of time to stop the next hunts as hunting season starts in October 2016. Please start calling Governor Christie's office now at 609-292-6000 to express your outrage over the bear hunt. Ask him to STOP stroking the violent needs of the minority calling for a bear hunt; they represent less than 0.07% of New Jersey’s population.

Senator Raymond Lesniak’s (D-20) BEAR SMART legislation (S687) corrects the state’s failure to organize, implement, and enforce non-lethal solutions preferred by 74% of New Jersey registered voters. Senator Lesniak’s legislation incorporates the best science as recommended by leading biologists.

Peer-reviewed studies show that hunts do not reduce human-bear complaints.

The nation’s leading experts state emphatically that the only way to reduce conflicts is to secure human-derived foods and trash. Former Governor Corzine’s staff reviewed the science and came down squarely on the side of non-lethal, trash containment. Thus, there were no bear hunts from 2006-2009.

Under Governor Christie, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin simply does the bidding of the state hunting agency, the Division of Fish and Wildlife, and the political action committee that backed Christie during the election.

Bear hunting does not reduce complaints unless of course every bear in the state is killed. Regulated hunting from 1958–1970 almost did that.

At the March 7, 2003, meeting of the Fish and Game Council: The Council all agreed that the killing of a child by a bear in NY was extremely rare. Councilman George Howard said, "All the hunts in the world will not address that…"

Garbage containment is extremely important not only for keeping bears away from homes, but it also reduces their population growth rate. Bears without access to unnatural food sources will not gain as much weight. Weight is a major factor in their reproductive cycle. A bear’s diet typically consists of berries, fruit, and seeds. They are primarily vegetarian.

Bears are timid animals who often act like prey. Scaring bears - even bears who are used to seeing people can be easily scared off with hoses, umbrellas, broom sticks, and loud noises.

Education reduces unwarranted fears and allows the public to enjoy these beautiful animals and their place in our state. Modifying your behavior will modify the bear’s behavior. When you know what to do, how to properly act and react, the bear will learn from you.

Case studies proved that when food was unavailable, bears were capable of living in close proximity to humans without conflict. (Wildlife Conservation Society, 2008) The vast majority of bear incidents in New Jersey involve unsecured trash bins and dumpsters as well as bird feeders. New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s enforcement of an existing, loophole-ridden state feeding ban is poor to non-existent. It’s time New Jersey passes, and enforces, a meaningful ban.

Hunting, torturing and murdering our bears is not the answer. We can co-exist and live together in peace. We just have to choose it.
Learn more and sign petition...

 

 

Big Cats

 

Fight for the Canada Lynx

The Canada lynx’s future in Wyoming hangs in the balance, as its habitat on public land is scheduled for exploitation for private profit by the fossil fuel industry.

In less than 2 weeks, one of the Canada lynx’s last remaining strongholds in the United States will be placed on the auction block by the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management for fracking.

This specialized creature is already listed as a Threatened Species by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, yet the U.S. government is ready to auction off its habitat for as little as $2 an acre.

Wealthy fossil fuel companies only have one thing in mind: profiting at any cost, including driving threatened wildlife into local extinction. Destruction of public lands and the populations of wildlife sharing those lands means nothing to these corporations, but these treasures mean everything to us.

By protecting the Canada lynx, we also protect the overall health of the flora and fauna sharing their ecosystem. The Canada lynx is responsible for managing populations of small, quickly reproducing animals, which, in turn, controls the health of old growth and new growth flora within their habitat.
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Grizzly bears

Do NOT delist grizzly bears of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem!

Petition sponsored by Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing grizzly bears from Endangered Species Act protection. Threats to grizzlies will significantly increase after delisting and have the potential to quickly reverse the work of 40 years.

Issues including oversight, funding, connectivity, hunting, food security, habitat encroachment, accurate population counts, conflict prevention, the effects of climate change, and the anti-predator culture of western states haven’t been adequately addressed by the states nor the USFWS.

We applaud the USFWS’s work to recover Yellowstone ecosystem grizzlies from a low of around 136 grizzlies to their current population of 717, but they remain vulnerable and delisting significantly increases their vulnerability.

We believe the grizzlies of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem must remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.

This petition will be delivered to:

Daniel Ashe, Director of US Fish and Wildlife Service

President Barack Obama

 

Public Lands

From Defenders of Wildlife:
The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is home to at least 250 species of birds, including the largest colony of wading birds in the Everglades. But the state of Florida is considering terminating a lease agreement that allows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage and protect this key piece of habitat.

If Florida ends the lease agreement, the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge will no longer be managed to benefit wildlife – it will effectively cease to exist.

Tell Florida Governor Rick Scott to protect the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge!

 

 

Pollinators

Mexico's largest mining company is attempting to use a legal loophole to secure one of the final permits it needs to begin potentially catastrophic copper, zinc, and lead ore mining in the protected Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. This UNESCO World Heritage site contains overwintering habitat for most of the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly. Loss of habitat and destruction of milkweed, a plant required for the survival of monarchs, has led to a nearly two-thirds decline in the overwintering population in just 12 years. The Eastern population of North America's monarchs migrates every year to mountainous oyamel fir forests in Mexico, where the butterfliesroost from October to late March before returning to the U.S. and southern Canada. This is unique, as the monarch is the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration. Learn more and sign petition...

 

 

Wild Horses

The Interior Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on October 23, 2015 that has revealed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sold 1,794 federally protected wild horses to Coloradan rancher, Tom Davis, who then illegally sold them to Mexican slaughterhouses. Unfortunately, this is not the first report of the BLM's actions leading to the deaths of wild horses.

As someone who has loved and owned horses since I was eight years old, I was horrified when I learned a few years ago that the BLM has directly and indirectly caused the deaths of hundreds of wild horses. I didn't know what to do back then,but now I am asking you to join me in demanding justice for the wild horses that have lost their lives due to BLM mismanagement and neglect. 

It is illegal for the BLM to sell federally protected horses to buyers that would have them slaughtered, and the BLM is also prohibited from selling so many horses to one buyer. So not only did BLM staff refuse to see the writing on the wall when they sold so many horses to Davis, they were actually breaking the law. But maybe they thought it would be OK because Davis has a personal business relationship with the then Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar. After all, the sale of these horses purportedly began just weeks into Salazar's term.

The OIG report reveals that at worst the BLM has a serious corruption problem and at best has a serious negligence problem. Either way, there should be an investigation. And yet, although the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado and the State of Colorado Conejos County District Attorney's Office have seen the OIG report, both agencies have declined to further investigate or pursue justice in this matter. This is outrageous!

The 1,794 wild horses who perished deserve justice, but the tens of thousands of horses still under the BLM's care also need protection. Please sign this petition to demand that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch investigate the BLM and hold them accountable for sending federally protected horses to the slaughterhouse. 
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Congress: Stop Sterilization & Slaughter of 50,000 Wild Horses

Sponsored by American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
Hillsborough, NC

Our goal is to protect America's wild horses and burros by stopping the federal government's systematic elimination of these national icons from our public lands. Join us and let's put an end to the government's cruel, expensive and ineffective wild horse program.

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This petition will be delivered to the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

 

Wildlife

Tell Secretary Vilsack to Protect Wildlife

Should our government be in the business of killing animals for the benefit of private interests? The Humane Society of the United States is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement much needed transformational reforms of its Wildlife Services program.

The seven reforms we recommend could work together to build a Wildlife Services program that truly enable co-existence between people and wildlife and supports ecosystem health by:

• Using the most humane and effective methods with an emphasis on preventing conflicts
• Assessing its methods for animal welfare impacts
• Fully analyzing the program’s impacts
• Making healthy ecological communities a priority
• Adopting a documented public decision-making process
• Being transparent and open to the public
• Providing broad public benefits and not subsidize private interests
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Wolves

From Defenders of Wildlife:
Wildlife Services has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Idaho Governor Butch Otter's Wolf Depredation Control Board to help carry out the state’s relentless wolf killing program. The goal: to artificially boost elk numbers for sport hunters and outfitters.

It is simply shocking for Secretary Vilsack to allow his Wildlife Services employees to contract themselves out as sharpshooters to kill wolves from the air, especially on Forest Service lands. It is equally shocking for the Forest Service, which is also under the control of Secretary Vilsack, to stand by and allow their Wildlife Service colleagues to kill wolves on our national forest lands.

Please take immediate action and tell the Secretary of Agriculture to order Wildlife Services to stop killing wolves on U.S. Forest Service lands!

 

 

Protect America's Wolves!

Petition by Robert Goldman

To be delivered to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama President Obama and his first Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, a Colorado rancher, adopted unjust and heartless "tea party" policies toward America's wolves, and the U.S. Congress is equally guilty in this ecological and ethical injustice. Wolves are highly intelligent, native, and vital natural predators that belong on the land. Too many brutish ranchers and misguided hunters have unfairly demonized and maligned wolves for centuries. An American majority wants an end to the demonization and massacre of America's wolves and other native wildlife.

 

 

 

 

Stop the killing and trapping healthy wolves on or near public lands - Its your true mandate!

       

Wolves are essential for environmental health … http://www.yellowstonepark.com/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/ ... the natural, most agreeable way to control Wild Boar, Ungulate and Rodent populations that destroy crop and flora, as well as spread disease everywhere! Wolves have been proven to primarily kill sick and old in herds, increase the herd health, prevent them from over-grazing and overpopulating (proven in Yellowstone Park), as well as rodents that can spread diseases. Consider, foxes, coyotes and wolves consume a lot of rodents: mice, rats, prairie dogs, rabbits. Unchecked rodent populations destroy crops and can spread disease outbreaks, e.g., bubonic plague!  (wolves, coyotes and foxes are immune to bubonic plague)  

Don't repeat past mistakes! New study demonstrates that if there is a range rider - man on horseback - monitoring the herd, there are no wolf kills even with a close by wild wolf pack: http://www.conservationnw.org/news/updates/rangeridingsuccess

Consider: Naturally evolved diversity of life supports and enriches all life, Wildlife populations have decreased by 52% over the last 40 years (Living Planet report 2014 ~ http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/. Biodiversity - upon which we depend for a healthy environment.

A new study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows that even with extremely conservative estimates, species are disappearing up to about 100 times faster than the normal rate between mass extinctions, known as the background rate. "If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on," said lead author Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Autónoma de México.  Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-06-sixth-mass-extinction-declares.html#jCp and copy of study report: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253.full

We cannot afford to lose any more wildlife, especially wild large game (except some deer populations) and predators; that are near extinction! Trophy hunting must stop now! Some of many official sites for detailed non-lethal methods:
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/files/non-lethal-predator-control-FS.pdf
http://www.defenders.org/sites/default/files/publications/livestock_and_wolves.pdf
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/how-to-coexist-with-coyotes
http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings/2014/jun/Exhibits/6_3_RSCH_McManusJS2014HWCmitigationonlivestockfarms.pdf

 

Summary: During the first year the mean cost of livestock protection was USD 3.30 per head of stock and the mean cost of depredation was USD 20.11 per head of stock. In the first year of non-lethal control the combined implementation and running costs were similar to those of lethal control (USD 3.08 per head). However, the mean cost of depredation decreased by 69.3%, to USD 6.52 per head. In the second year of non-lethal control the running costs (USD 0.43 per head) were significantly lower than in previous years and depredation costs decreased further, to USD 5.49 per head. Our results suggest that non-lethal methods of human–wildlife conflict mitigation can reduce depredation and can be economically advantageous compared to lethal methods of predator control. wildlife, especially wild large game (except some deer populations) and predators; that are near extinction!

Man's Ancient Promise, to the Wolf ...

For teaching humans leadership, loyalty, teamwork, hunting strategies, love, displays of affection and giving their weakest pups, now called dogs,

We Humans Promise:   
to let Wild Wolves Run Free!...
to continue their role in Nature: 
to improve the health of herds, by taking mostly the sick and old,  
preserve flora, diverse plant, animal, environment, and clean water, simply by keeping herds from over-grazing,
prevent rodent overpopulation and associated spread of disease…

this ancient promise is held In Perpetuity … breach of this promise, signals the end of human civilization.

This petition will be delivered to:
President Barack Obama
U.S. Fish and Wildlife

 

Trapping

Dear Lieutenant Governer Hochul,

I was distressed to learn that the New York State Legislature is considering passing a bill that would make the use of cruel snare traps legal in almost every county. These traps are notoriously inhumane. Animals unlucky enough to get caught in them oftentimes suffer in extreme pain for hours or even days before finally dying. Furthermore, many of the animals crippled and killed by snare traps are “non-target” animals, such as raccoons, bobcats, beavers, bald eagles, and family pets like dogs and cats.

These animals want to live, and they have as much a right to their lives as you and I do. Leaving them vulnerable to the whims of hunters and trappers is unacceptable. Please stand up for New York’s animals by voting no on this bill and encouraging your colleagues to do the same. Your compassion will save innocent lives.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: g’pa bill

 

Ban Trapping in National Wildlife Refuge System

Wildlife is not meant to be exploited or endangered, yet many have met with violence through the use of body-gripping animal traps. Such traps causes the animal great pain, discomfort and undue suffering. The Cruel Trapping Act (H.R. 2016/S. 1081) is designed to amend the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) that bans the use of snare, Conibear, and leghold traps.

The National Wildlife System (NWRS) now provides a home for numerous endangered species, including 220 mammals, 700 birds, 200 fish and 250 reptiles and amphibians. The mission of the refuge system is "to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans."

It is a mission that stands in stark contrast to the use of debilitating and cruel animal traps, such as Conibear kill-type devices, steel-jaw leghold traps (which are banned in more than 88 countries), strangulation snares, and "other body-hold devices." These traps are inhumane and cruel, not only to the intended victims but also non-targeted animals such as bears, river otters, birds, rabbits and even domestic dogs and cats.

These traps are cruel and inhumane. They have no place in our National Wildlife Refuge System.

Conibear traps in particular are intended to break or crush an animal’s spinal column. Other body-gripping traps and snares can be just as cruel. Jawed traps operate by slamming shut with bone-crushing force on any animal that trips the device, while strangling snares tighten around the neck or body of their victims.

Help stop the needless abuse, cruelty, pain and suffering of animals. Sign this petition now to urge your Representative and Senators to support the Cruel Trapping Act (H.R. 2016, S. 1081).