Archived Features March 07
Puppy Torturers Receive Strong Sentence – Congratulate Georgia DA!
Last August, two teenage brothers in Atlanta, GA, were charged with torturing and baking a three-month-old puppy to death. Just recently, justice was served - the brothers received the maximum sentence allowable in each of the nine counts under which they were charged. These sentences will be served concurrently, and in effect, the young men will serve 10 years in prison and 10 years under strict probation, for a total of 20 years.
The horrific death of this poor puppy touched animal lovers around the world, and the strong sentencing in this case highlights how strongly the public feels about cruelty toward animals.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard felt so strongly about seeking justice in this case – describing the death of this puppy as "so egregious it cries out for special attention" - that he sent a letter to Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue requesting that the penalty for animal cruelty be raised above the current five year maximum.
DA Howard should be applauded for his commitment to justice and the humane treatment of animals – please sign this petition today to congratulate him on success in this case!
Say Thank You and Encourage other jurisdictions to follow this example!
Is Your Gold Dirty?
Gold mining is a dirty industry: it can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments.
The production of one gold ring generates 20 TONS of mine waste.
Experts predict that the abandoned Iron Mountain mine in California will continue to poison its watershed with acid mine drainage for over 3000 years.
Open-pit mines produce 8 to 10 times as much waste as underground mines.
At the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, trucks carrying toxic chemicals have on at least three occasions spilled part of their cargo into streams, poisoning more than 2,500 local residents.
The Glamis Gold Ltd. mine proposal in Calfornia would destroy or degrade over 50 sacred sites of the Quechan Indian Nation.
Knowing all this, is your wedding ring still such a beautiful symbol?
Demand an alternative to Dirty Gold, add your voice to the thousands who support putting an end to destructive mining processes.
Introducing…Soleil!
For weeks she huddled under parked cars, never far from her brother but never getting too close to us. After weeks of cajoling and coaxing and plenty of cat food, she finally let us pet her as she ate. Then the freeze warnings came out, temperatures dropped below 32 degrees four nights in a row and I decided that it was time to bring her in.
After speaking with a neighbor who had been feeding both little ones along with the mother cat, we discovered that the person who had owned the mother cat had decided that he no longer wanted a cat and let her out one day, never to return to the comfort she had previously known. Mother became pregnant and there were actually 4 kittens roaming around without homes. The smallest runt became ours immediately.
We are pleased to report that she quickly adjusted to her new cushy lifestyle and is healthy, friendly, loving and playful to us and our other two cats who were a bit wary at first but adjusted within 4 days to their new playmate. Her name is Soleil, French for "sun" because we found her a few days after the winter solstice and she is a rare orange tabby.
After bringing Soleil in, I discovered that despite adopting out 18,000 cats and dogs last year, our local shelter had euthanized 25,000. Knowing this and have adopted 3 pathetic runts that turned into chubby fat cats with wonderful dispositions, I can not understand the desire to perpetuate the breeding of pure bred animals when so many loving animals are killed every year. A donation in Soleil's name was made to our local no-kill shelter.
Please support your local shelters. Adopt a pet, don't buy an accessory.
Learn about Trap, Neuter, Release Programs in Your Area
Save Our Wiccan Chaplain
The Sacred Well Congregation is currently pending as an endorsing body for military chaplains. We need only to be able to present a viable candidate for appointment without waiver.
On July 6, 2006, we received a formal request from US Army Chaplain (CPT) Donald M. Larsen stating that he wished to be considered as our candidate for the AFCB certification process and immediately thereafter to change his endorser to the Sacred Well Congregation.
Before this request was made, CH Larsen was a dedicated and distinguished battalion chaplain serving in Iraq. This request led to unethical, unprofessional and discriminatory conduct on the part of at least two US Army senior officers, resulting in the immediate withdrawal of endorsement of CH Larsen.
Visit Sacred Well Congregation
Welcome Home … Now You're Dead
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has recently attempted to reintroduce the Mexican Grey Wolf back into its natural habitat in the American Southwest, but federal agents keep killing them.
Powerful cattle-grower associations have influenced a policy of "3 kills and you're dead" so wolves who wander outside the designated area (as though they have maps or are aware of these designations) and kill cattle (hmmm... wolves are predators) have been removed either by capture or killing. This spring 12 wolves, including 6 pups were killed.
The goal of the reintroduction program was to have 102 wolves back in their native habitat in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico by the end of 2006. There were never more than 60, minus the 12 killed and estimating natural deaths, that would mean there are less than 40.
In an ironic twist, the livestock carcasses that can habituate wolves to feeding (think "oh I got a good meal in this area last time") are not removed by the ranchers and the US Fish and Wildlife Service refuses to make ranchers responsible for the removal of "attractants". This is in opposition to the policy in place in the Northern Rockies where ranchers are responsible for the removal and the reintroduction of the wolves has gone remarkably well.
KAET TV's Mexican Grey Wolf information page
Activ8 May 2007