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Kota Kinabalu authorities are required to take stray dogs to an animal shelter, where they will receive care for at least 48 hours. Unfortunately, this regulation is not being respected. In response to recent complaints about strays, authorities approached a citizen and requested that he kill stray dogs with a blowpipe and poison darts. The shooter claims to have killed 5,000 dogs with his blowpipe since 2010.

Compared to euthanasia, blowpipes and poison darts are an extremely painful and terrifying way to kill an animal. The poison can take eight minutes to put a dog down, and dogs begin to vomit four minutes after being poisoned. This means that the animal is in excruciating pain before it dies. Stray dogs often belong to someone, and killing them on-sight prevents owners from claiming their lost pet at a shelter.

Dogs deserve the opportunity to be reunited with their owners. If they must be put down, it should be by gentle euthanasia, and only after 48 hours in a shelter. Please sign the petition to enforce a ban on killing stray dogs in Kota Kinabalu by any other method, except in self-defense cases.

In late 2011, Idaho removed endangered species protections for wolves, allowing hunters to legally hunt and kill them with a permit. Senate Bill #1305, a piece of legislation proposed this year, would allow them to kill wolves without a permit if those wolves hurt or molested their livestock in the past 36 hours.

The bill suggests a variety of methods for killing wolves, including aerial shooting and using live goats, sheep or dogs as bait to lure them. "Molesting" is defined in the bill as "actions of a wolf that are annoying, disturbing or persecuting...or chasing, driving, flushing, worrying, following after or on the trail of, or stalking or lying in wait for, livestock or domestic animals."

This legislation allows a great deal of leeway for killing wolves without a permit, and could cause great emotional and physical harm to animals used as live bait. Please sign the petition to urge legislators to reject Bill #1305.

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.

Russian Tattooist Timur Rimut recently inked his hairless sphynx cat with a large tattoo reading "Carpe Diem." Rimut sedated his pet during the session so she would keep still while he inked the design permanently on her chest. This is not the first case of a pet receiving a vanity tattoo in Russia: in 2010, owner Oskana Popova had her cat Mickey sedated for three hours to receive a colored chest tattoo of King Tut.

Cats have often received tiny ear tattoos for identification purposes, but these procedures are always performed by a trained veterinary specialist. Unnecessary vanity tattoos leave skin open to infection, especially if the owner neglects proper aftercare. When cats wake up after the inking session, they experience the same pain and soreness that humans feel while their tattooed skin heals. Obviously, cats are unable to give their consent to receive a tattoo.

Please sign the petition to outlaw vanity tattoos for Russian pets.

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.

Despite public outcry over a Utah shelter cat who survived two attempts to euthanize by gassing, most states still allow animals to be put down in archaic, cruel gas chambers. When euthanasia by gassing works, it can take up to 25 minutes to end an animal's life, and is especially cruel to large and medium sized dogs and young, old, pregnant or sick animals -- the majority of most shelter populations. Death by gassing is especially sad, as it prevents animals from being held and comforted in their last moments.

Gas chambers physically and psychologically harm shelter workers as well as animals; there is no excuse for this method of euthanasia to continue in any state. Running gas chambers is more expensive than comparatively quick and painless euthanasia by injection, leaving less money in the shelter's budget for taking care of animals and maintaining the facility.

Nine states -- Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington and Wyoming -- currently ban euthanasia by gassing. Please sign the petition to ban this cruel practice in ALL states.