Chris's Sharebook 

On March 5, 2012, Windsor, Ontario's city council approved spending $80,000 of this year's budget on a skunk removal program. Advocates of the program made it clear that skunks will be trapped and killed rather than relocated. Ward 3 Coun. Fulvio Valentinis cited community complaints about "nuisance skunks" as a major reason for the decision.

Skunks are peaceful, harmless animals that provide ample warning before spraying in self-defense. In addition to being cruel, trapping skunks is ineffective as a long-term control solution -- the spike in their food supply (insects, rats and other small rodents) will encourage surviving skunks to breed and ultimately increase skunk populations.

Educating community members about yard sanitation and feeding wild animals would more effectively control the nuisance skunk problem without causing harm to skunks and other animals that may fall victim to the traps. Please sign the petition to convince Windsor's city council to end their skunk trapping program.

While several nations have banned the use of animals in circuses, U.S. acts such as the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and Shrine Circus continue to force elephants to perform in their shows. Performing is not natural for elephants, so trainers use cruel devices called bullhooks to control them.

The bullhook is a tool with sharp metal prongs that trainers sink into an elephant's sensitive areas, such as behind the ear. The cruel tool inflicts great pain to an elephant. Circuses claim that bullhooks are necessary to handle elephants safely, but if they can't handle elephants safely without inflicting pain, they shouldn't use the animals in their acts.

There is no need to inflict pain to an animal for the purposes of entertainment. Many circuses thrive without the use of animals at all. Please sign the petition to convince the USDA to ban bullhooks nationwide.

New York animal shelter Angel's Gate, founded in 1993 by Susan Marino, has a history of extreme animal neglect resulting in diseases and death. An undercover investigation of the facility exposed animal abuse on video, including animals being denied food and water, offered rancid meat, dead animal bodies left among live animals for days, animals with treatable infections and wounds being denied medication and veterinary care and animals confined to filthy, excrement-caked cribs.

Recently, a young paraplegic St. Bernard named Casey died at Angel's Gate after suffering a lengthy urinary tract infection. An undercover investigation found Casey covered in her own waste and left in a filthy crib without access to water.

These animal abuses have gone on far too long and should not be allowed to continue. Please sign the petition to remove Angel's Gate's status as a nonprofit corporation and remove and help the hundreds of animals that remain at the shelter.

A December 2011 undercover investigation by activist group Compassion Over Killing exposed gross animal rights abuses at Hawkeye Sow Centers, an Iowa pig breeding factory farm. These abuses included immobilizing sows in gestation crates, cutting off piglet tails and testicles with no pain killers, and pushing herniated intestines back inside piglets and securing the wounded area with tape. Thanks to undercover investigation, these abuses are caught on camera to inform customers of pork industry practices and catalyze action to end these abuses.

Iowa agribusiness groups have renewed their efforts to pass "ag-gag" legislation which would make it illegal to make undercover exposes of factory farms like Compassion Over Killing's investigation. This would allow unethical practices to continue and prevent consumers from learning about animal abuses. Iowa is currently the largest pork-producing state in the country. Please sign the petition to convince Iowa legislators to oppose ag-gag legislation.

In the summer of 2011, a young couple
discovered an illegal dump site in Crosby, Texas containing the bodies
of several tortured puppies and other neglected, suffering dogs. New
dogs have been dumped near the area regularly, some of them thrown from
trucks or shot with BB guns. Suspicious individuals have been spotted
prowling the dumping grounds, presumably to obtain abandoned dogs for
fighting.

Activists have received limited support from local law
enforcement, though the illegal animal cruelty has been going on for at
least six months. Please sign the petition to urge Crosby, TX police to
raise awareness of the situation, apprehend the guilty parties and
enforce laws against animal abuse and dumping.

A recent investigation of a North Carolina Butterball slaughterhouse by Mercy for Animals revealed shockingly sadistic, unnecessary cruelty to turkeys. Slaughterhouse workers were caught on video kicking, stomping on and dragging turkeys, bashing their heads in with metal rods and neglecting severely injured birds.

The cruelty displayed in these videos mirrors sadism exposed during a 2006 investigation of an Arkansas Butterball slaughterhouse. The 2006 expose documented an employee crushing a bird's head until it exploded and another employee sexually assaulting a female bird. These disgusting, malicious acts were unrelated to meat production and performed only for the sick amusement of sadistic workers. Clearly, animal abuse is an ongoing issue in poultry slaughterhouses nationwide.

Despite the USDA-confirmed abuse in the 2006 case, Butterball was not charged with animal cruelty. The U.S. currently has no federal law protecting chickens and turkeys raised for food, and the prosecutor assigned to the case chose not to charge Butterball for animal cruelty under Arkansas state law. Without federal protection, the cycle of animal abuse will continue all over the U.S. Please sign the petition to convince Congress to create a federal law to protect poultry from sadistic abuse.

Adolph Bergbauer, a 69-year-old German father, recently received a short jail sentence for the crime of incest. Bergbauer slept with his daughter 500 times over the past 30 years and had three disabled children with her. Only one of these children is still alive today.

According to Bergbauer’s daughter, the rape started at the tender age of 12 or 13. The father also allegedly threatened to kill her if she spoke out about the abuse, and kept her confined in a basement. Because the statutory rape occurred over 20 years ago, Bergbauer could not be charged for that crime.

Bergbauer’s case is notably similar to that of Austrian Josef Fritzi, a man sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for keeping his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and having seven children with her. Bergbauer’s jail sentence, however, is under three years.

There is clearly more to this story than consensual incest between two adults. Please sign the petition to seek a stronger sentence for Adolph Bergbauer.