Have Unused and Expired Medications? Give To Take-Back Programs.

Most people have a cabinet or area in their home used to store medication. I bet if you took a look in there you would find old, unused medications. Unfortunately, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy still advises people to flush medicine down the sink or toliet or throw them in the garbage.

The truth is, flushing medications only leads the medication to end up back in our tap water and cause defects in animals. Increasing amounts of prescription drugs and personal care products are being detected in U.S. rivers, waterways, and groundwater. Wastewater treatment facilities are not equipped to “filter out” these chemicals, so drugs like antidepressants, cholesterol reducers and antibiotics are being detected in drinking water supplies. The risk to humans and animals of long-term exposure to these contaminants in drinking water is unknown.

So what can we do with our unused and old medication? Luckily, "drug take back" programs are rising. There are facilities that can and will take your unused and outdated medicines and properly dispose of them. A lot of pharmacies are taking part in this. I found that the majority of locations follow these rules: Pill bottles, blister packs, ointment tubes, and leak-proof liquid containers are all acceptable. Remove or black out any personal information on the label to protect your privacy, but make sure the drug name is still visible. They do not accept scheduled drugs.
If you do not see a location near you, please do not flush your medications. Instead:

Take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers

Mix the prescription drugs with an undesirable substance, such as coffee grounds or cat litter

Put the mixture in an empty can or sealable bags and throw in the trash

When possible, return prescription drugs to pharmaceutical take-back locations

Locations by State (I will update as much as possible)

California:
- San Francisco
- Recycled AIDS Medicine Program- Help Save Lives
- Los Angeles
- Pacific Palisades
- Alameda County
- Contra Costa County
- Marin County
- Marin County Pharmacies
- Napa County
- San Mateo County
- Santa Clara County

Connecticut
- Information

Illinois
- Northern Cook County
- Henry County
- Grundy County
- Iroquois County
- Kankakee County
- Livingston County
- Marshall County
- McLean County
- Will County
- Woodford County

Maine
- The Safe Medicine Disposal for ME program

Massachusetts
- Arlington
- Braintree
- Fall River

Michigan
- Washtenaw County

Minnesota
- Chisago County

Missouri
- St. Louis

New York
- Westchester County

Oregon
- Information


Utah
- Handled by Law Enforcement with locked, mounted steel collection bins in the lobbies of their stations

Vermont
- St. Albans

Washington
- Clark County
- King County
- Kitsap County
- Pierce County
- Snohomish County
- Spokane County
- Thurston County

If you know of locations that have take-back programs, please contact me so I can add them to this list. As you can see, there are many states missing. Please send any information to WorldEvolved@gmail.com

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Petition Calling For Palin to Investigate the Killing of Wolf Pups

This summer, Alaska wildlife agency personnel reportedly staked out a known wolf denning site – a practice that is illegal under Alaska law – and, using helicopters, gunned down 14 adult wolves from the air.

When they landed, they found 14 helpless wolf pups in the nearby dens – infant wolves just weeks old – and methodically shot each one in the head. 28 wolves gunned down in all.

Due to a loophole in federal law, Alaska is the only state in the U.S. where a few hunters still use aircraft to shoot wolves or chase them to exhaustion before landing and shooting them point blank. But the practice of "denning" – the killing of wolf young in the den – is prohibited even under Alaska law. This killing of 14 wolf pups disturbs even longtime hunters in Alaska. During her two years as governor, Sarah Palin proposed a $150 bounty for the severed foreleg of each killed wolf and introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears.

But it's time that Governor Palin call for a thorough investigation into the killing of these 14 wolf pups, and bring any Alaska employees who acted illegally to justice.

Please sign this petition to hold her accountable. To sign, click here.


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New DFOW Video of Sarah Palin’s Wolf Killing

Defenders of Wildlife have put out a new video (released on Youtube October 10th) regarding Sarah Palin's gruesome support of wolf killing.

In June, after gunning down 14 adult wolves from a helicopter, officials from Governor Palin’s Department of Fish and Game rounded up 14 orphaned wolf pups and methodically shot each one in the head in clear violation of a state law.

Watch their video (not for the faint of heart)



What you can do to help wolves:

1. Take Action to Save Rare Southwest Wolves here
2. Urge President Obama to End the War on Wolves here
3. Urge Cabela's and Sportman's Warehouse to Withdraw Their Support for Wolf-killing Derbies here
4. *Click* to Protect Threatened Wolves daily. How it works: Your free click generates donations from our sponsors. You may click once a day, every day. 100% of the donations raised go directly to Defenders of Wildlife to help stop aerial hunting of wolves, continue efforts to expand wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies, and more. Click here daily.
5. Boycott Alaska Until The State Stops Targeting Wolves. Sign here.

6. Save the Wolves petition. Sign here.

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IFAW Animal Action Week - October 4th-10th

For more than 15 years, IFAW's Animal Action Week has been giving young people around the world the knowledge and tools they need to take positive action on behalf ofanimals and our shared environment.

The Week, which takes place annually during the first week of October, marks the launch of an international educational program with a different animal welfare and conservation theme each year. This year’s theme: Beneath the Waves, Protecting Marine Wildlife.

Whaling ships armed with harpoons hunt whales in defiance of international treaties. Plastic pollution chokes sea turtles and other marine animals and sea birds. And as the icecaps continue to melt, polar bear habitats shrink and they are left to starve or drown

To help protect the ocean, you can start by taking three easy actions:

1. Visit www.AnimalActionWeek.org to learn more about Animal Action Week, the largest animal-focused educational event in the world;
2. Take the Plastic Bag Pledge to help combat one of the main threats to marine wildlife;
3. And spread the word by telling your family and friends about IFAW Animal Action Week 2008.
4. During the week of IFAW Animal Action week (October 4th-10th), you can adopt a whale: here. Please wait until that week, because the program won't be launched until then.

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Help Put Sarah Palin’s Wolf Killing Record on TV

By now, most of the world knows of Sarah Palin's support of brutal aeriel hunting of wolves. (Please read my other posts regarding Sarah Palin.)
1. Petition to Sarah Palin about the wolf killing: Here

Let's get the word out further.

The organization Defenders of Wildlife (one of my favorites) released the video I am sure you all have seen.

• More than 68,000 potential voters have viewed their video on YouTube, with many more spreading the word by re-posting the video on their websites and blogs and forwarding it to friends.
• CNN and other news outlets have picked up the story, running clips from Defenders of Wildlife Action fund and their sister organization Defenders of Wildlife.

In an effort to reach hundreds of thousands of "swing voters" who help decide this election, The Defenders of Wildlife created a new, powerful television ad that details Sarah Palin's efforts to kill wolves.

They can only run it with our financial help. Running a television ad during an election year is expensive. We need to help them raise $100,000 to run the ad and support their work to provide a voice for endangered wildlife. Make your donation here.

Donation overview:

• $20.00 Part of one 60-second spot
• $40.00 Two parts of one 60-second spot
• $60.00 Three parts of a sixty-second
• $100.00 Half of one 60-second spot
• $200.00 One 60-second spot
• $1,000.00 Five 60-second spots
• Other: If you cannot afford any of the above, even giving $5.00 will help so much.

Please donate now

The ad:



With the election less than 50 days away, we don’t have much time to help voters learn about the real Sarah Palin.

Please donate to this cause, as much as you can afford. Please forward it along to your friends, too.

Please read my other posts regarding Sarah Palin.

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Protect the Red Desert in Wyoming

This is a call for all Americans, especially the citizens of Wyoming to protect the Red Desert.

Adobe Town and what the Bureau of Land Management has called the “Jack Morrow Hills Area” are of particular importance to Wyoming’s Red Desert. The Bureau of Land Management has identified seven Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) within the 620,000-acre Jack Morrow Hills Area of the Red Desert. Wyoming conservation groups and the Wilderness Society have recommended that these areas, as well as several other areas within the Red Desert, be designated as wilderness.

Jack Morrow Hills/Northern Red Desert

(Ferruginous Hawks) (Wild Horses)

Concerning the Jack Morrow Hills Area, the "Record of Decision" called for an initial development of 255 natural gas and coalbed methane wells. This number is not a cap, but merely an estimate. The public asked for no new oil and gas development in the Jack Morrow Hills. More than 80,000 people who commented to protect this area were ignored by the Bureau of Land Management. These lands are public and the BLM did not respond to the public’s desires. Mountain lions, coyotes, golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, and wild horses inhabit this area.

Friends of the Red Desert is a coalition of citizens, businesses and conservation organizations united to protect Wyoming's magnificent Red Desert. Please help them protect the Jack Morrow Hill area by writing to the following and let them know you want the Jack Morrow Hills protected as a NCA:

U.S. Senator Mike Enzi
Gillette Office, 400 S. Kendrick Avenue, Suite 303, Gillette, Wyoming 82716 or email at his website.

U.S. House Representative Barbara Cubin
Casper Office, 100 East B Street, Suite 4003, Federal Building, Casper, Wyoming 82601 or email her website.

Fremont County Commissioners
Office 307.332.1130; address 450 N. 2nd Street, Lander, 82520; email commission@wyoming.com

Another way the Friends of the Red Desert suggest to help is to write to their local newspapers. A listing:

(Cheyenne) Wyoming Tribune-Eagle LTE
Contact: Letters to the Editor, Scott Smith e-mail: reede@wyomingnews.com
address: 702 W. Lincoln Way, Cheyenne, WY 82001

(Gillette) The News-Record LTE
Contact: Ann Franscell, publisher, editor
email: news@gillettenewsrecord.com
address: P.O. Box 3006, Gillette, WY 82717
Note: under 300 word limit, no personal attacks; signature, and phone number required

The Green River STAR LTE
Contact: Kathy Gilbert
email: grstar@sweetwaterhsa.com
address: P.O. Box 580, Green River, WY 82935
Note: signature and phone number required.

The (Riverton) Ranger LTE
Contact: Letters to the Editor
e-mail: ranger@wyoming.com
address: P.O. Box 993, Riverton, WY 82501

Rawlins Daily Times LTE
Contact: Dave Perry
email: dtimes@trib.com
address: P.O. Box 370, Rawlins, WY 82301

We need to protect this beautiful land and its wildlife:

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Drill Drill Drill

I previously wrote about stopping the drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Unfortunately, there are more places we need to protect. The Bush Administration’s “lease and drill everything” policy is aimed at opening some of our most fragile places to oil and gas development. Here is a list of places that are too fragile to drill, and we need to take action to prevent it:

1. Beartooth Front, Wyoming

2. Bridger-Teton Nation Forest's Wyoming Range, Wyoming

3. Carrizo Plain National Monument, California

4. Clear Fork Divide, Colorado

5. Grand Mesa Slopes, Colorado

6. HD Mountains Roadless Area, Colorado

7. Little Missouri National Grassland, North Dakota

8. Otero Mesa, New Mexico

9. Red Desert, Wyoming

10. Roan Plateau, Colorado

11. Rocky Mountain Front, Montana

12. Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska

13. Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming

14. Utah's Redrock Wilderness

15. Valle Vidal, New Mexico

16. Vermillion Basin, Colorado

The number of oil and gas wells is increasing at a scary rate. There are now more than 63,000 producing oil and gas wells on the public lands and nearly double that amount, at least 118,000 new wells, are planned for Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and New Mexico.

Drilling is bad for the environment. Full-field oil and gas development means production facilities, staging areas, airstrips, drill pads, and hundreds of miles of pipelines and roads which cause noise, water, air, and light pollution. For wildlife, the development destroys their habitat into smaller and less usable areas. Eventually, animals can no longer survive in these areas at all.

The government is supposed to guard our public lands. The Bureau of Land Management's increased oil and gas permitting activity "has lessened BLM's ability to meet its environmental protection responsibilities," according to a 2005 report from the Government Accountability Office

Citizens want to preserve the West's last great places. Voices is speaking out on behalf of protecting areas from drilling, but are often ignored.

Don't let your voice be ignored. Research what you can do to stop this from happening.

I plan on profiling each of these threatened lands in future posts. Please watch these videos.

Nearly 300,000 natural gas and oil wells have already been drilled in the Rockies, and hundreds of thousands more are planned. Watch this video:




Save Colorado's Majestic Roan Plateau



How could you not want to save them?




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The Real Sarah Palin (Part 2 of 2)

(Sarah's lovely office. I am disgusted that someone can have a dead bear draped on their couch and not feel bad about it)


As promised, here is Part 2 of my analysis of Sarah Palin. I suggest reading Part 1 first before reading this post: here. As I said, I hope that you read what I have found and do your own research.

Again, I want to mention if you find that Palin has written the opposite of what I researched, please be aware that she wrote a campaign booklet for her 2006 gubernatorial bid. Her co-author, Sean Parnell, is now Alaska's Lieutenant Governor. As we all know, politicians have a tendency to say and write whatever is necessary to get elected. What she wrote in the booklet does not reflect what she really ended up doing.

4. Health Care

• Palin introduced a Health Care Transparency Act. Palin’s Alaska Health Care Transparency Act established “an Alaska health care information office” to help consumers “make better-informed decisions about health care in the state.” The act also called for the repeal of Certificate of Need Laws, programs “aimed at restraining health care facility costs and allowing coordinated planning of new services and construction.” [Gov Tech, 1/28/2008; National Conference of State Legislatures, 8/21/2008]
• Palin Failed To Support A Bill To Cover All Alaskans. While governor, Palin “did not get behind the most significant piece of health legislation offered — a proposal to ensure that all residents have health insurance, without disrupting the coverage that many Alaskans already have.” [Anchorage Daily News, 5/17/2008]
• Sarah did not take a position on expanding State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Funding. SCHIP is a United States federal government program that gives funds to states in order to provide health insurance to families with children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid. The program was designed to cover uninsured children. Palin did not advocate for greater federal funding of SCHIP. [Blagojevich Press Release, 2/23/07] States are given flexibility in designing their SCHIP requirements and policies within federal guidelines. Some states received authority through waivers of statutory provisions to use SCHIP funds to cover the parents of children receiving benefits from both SCHIP and Medicaid, pregnant women, and other adults. You would think that Sarah would be interested in helping pregnant women considering she is a mother and pro-life.
• Eventually Palin signed a "watered-down" SCHIP bill. She signed legislation updating eligibility for Alaska’s SCHIP program, Denali KidCare. Alaska’s eligibility criteria are still among the lowest in the nation. Palin did not support legislation to expand eligibility to higher levels. [National Conference of State Legislatures, 6/2008; Kaiser Network, 5/22/2007; Anchorage Daily News, 4/15/2008]
• While governor, Palin “did not get behind the most significant piece of health legislation offered — a proposal to ensure that all residents have health insurance, without disrupting the coverage that many Alaskans already have.” [Anchorage Daily News, 5/17/2008]

5. Civil Rights

• In 2006, Palin vetoed legislation denying benefits to same-sex couples, “based on a legal opinion from her new attorney general that the legislation was unconstitutional.” However, she said that she would support a constitutional amendment to deny same-sex couples the benefits. [Gay Republic Daily, 9/20/2006; Anchorage Daily News, 12/21/2006]
• A 2006 Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire asked, “Will you support an effort to expand hate crime laws?” Palin replied, “No, as I believe all heinous crime is based on hate.” [Washington Blade,9/2/2008]
• Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.
• Palin opposes same-sex marriage. In 1998, Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Palin supported the amendment.

6. Big Oil

• Palin’s First Statewide Campaign Was Fueled By Veco. “While mayor of Wasilla, Palin ran for lieutenant governor in 2002. She gathered $5,000 — or about 10 percent of her campaign fund — from Veco officials or their wives along the way.” [Anchorage Daily News, 9/6/2006] VECO Corporation was an Alaska-based oil pipeline service and construction company until its purchase in September 2007 by CH2M HILL.
  
• Palin’s Inauguration Was Sponsored By BP. BP is listed by the Alaska Inaugural Committee as a sponsor of Palin’s 2007 Governor’s Balls. [Alaska Inaugurl Committee] BP was named by Mother Jones Magazine as one of the "ten worst corporations" in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records. In 1991, BP was cited as the most polluting company in the US based on EPA toxic release data. Since branding itself an environmentally sound corporation in 1997, BP has been charged with burning polluted gases at its Ohio refinery. They were fined $1.7 million for this. In July 2000, BP paid a $10 million fine to the EPA for its management of its US refineries. According to PIRG research, between January 1997 and March 1998, BP was responsible for 104 oil spills. Why would you want to be sponsered by such a horrible company?

7. Environment

• Governor Palin actively campaigned against a state ballot measure this summer aimed at protecting Alaska's Bristol Bay. The mining industry seeks to develop a gold and copper mine in the area that would pollute the Bay's waters and threaten the largest remaining wild salmon run. The initiative would have prevented large-scale mining operations from dumping waste materials into salmon watersheds.
• Palin is on record doubting that human action is the main driver behind climate change. In a recent interview with Newsmax.com, Palin noted that warming would affect Alaska "more than any other state, because of our location." But she added, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." In her head, she probably attributes it to being animal-made. That would explain her desire to kill them off. (Couldn't help myself there.)

8. Endangered Species

• Polar Bears: Palin has actively opposed the listing of the polar bear despite the fact that Alaska's top marine mammal biologists agreed with the federal scientists who believed the bear should be listed. She wrote the Secretary of Interior urging him not to list the bear on the ground it might hurt the state's oil- and gas-dependent economy. Protect the polar bears here.
  
• Beluga Whales: Palin opposes the listing of the Cook Inlet beluga whales, citing the listing as a threat to oil and gas development, despite their genetic uniqueness and the fact that their numbers have decreased from 1,300 in the 1980s to about 350 today.

Again, please go here, to support the PAW Act that will end Alaska's Aerial Hunting program.


9. Her Religion Dictates Her Decisions

I have no issue with religion. However, I don't believe that your faith and religion should decide your politics when you are governor and possibly the next Vice President of the United States.

• Palin believes that the Iraq War is a task ‘From God.’ Speaking at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June, Palin said that “our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.” [Huffington Post, 9/2/08]
• Palin believes it is ‘God’s Will’ to build a natural gas pipeline. Speaking to the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June, Palin said, “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” referring to a $30 billion national gas pipeline project. [Huffington Post, 9/2/08]
• Palin supports teaching creationism in public schools. In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, Palin “said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state’s public classrooms.” [Anchorage Daily News, 10/24/06]
• For more than two decades, Palin was a practicing Pentecostal. She belonged to the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. But though she attended the church from her teenage years through to 2002, she hasn't talked much about her religion since joining the Republican ticket.
• Palin's former pastor says he has no doubt her religious beliefs will influence her decision making when it comes to government policy.
• Tim McGraw, who was her pastor until 1998 and while she was mayor of Wasilla, says Palin attended discipleship classes to strengthen her Pentecostal faith and that he counseled her on how to become a better leader.

Great video of Keith Olbermann talking about how Sarah's religious beliefs affect her choices, thoughts and actions. Including her view that God is leading us in Iraq, that God helped her get elected, and her church's view on gay people:


Sarah saying that our leaders are sending our troops on a "task that is from God":



10. Lack of Knowledge Concerning the United States

• Palin hasn’t given the war in Iraq much thought. Palin told the Alaska Business Monthly, “I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. [Alaska Business Monthly, 3/1/2007
• Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs Saturday September 6th, Palin claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.”..... what?? These lending institutions “aren’t taxpayer funded but operate as private companies." She is obvilous to the workings of our economy. Dean Baker says it all. “You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country’s mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn’t speak well for her, I’d say.” Ouch.

Video of her false statement regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I don't know what's more sad: her not knowing what she is talking about or the crowd cheering her on after she said it (is everyone clueless?):


11. Abuse of Power
Sarah seems to enjoy abusing her power. How will she abuse her power if she were to become Vice President of the United States? The thought is scary.

• Palin billed taxpayers for nights spent at home. She billed the state for “312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.” She also charged for travel expenses to take her children and husband on “official out-of-town missions.” [Washington Post, 9/9/2008] And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife. The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.
• Palin fired Police Chief for "not fully supporting her." After becoming Mayor of Wasilla, she fired the city’s police chief, Irl Stambaugh, writing, “I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment.” Stambaugh charged that Palin fired him “because he stepped on the toes of Palin’s campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.” [Anchorage Daily News, 2/1/1997; ABC News, 9/3/2008]
• As Mayor of Wasilla in 1998, Palin “asked all of the city’s top managers to resign in order to test their loyalty to her administration.”[Daily Sitka Sentenial, 10/28,2006]
• A state employee filed an ethics complaint alleging Palin tried to secure a job for one of her supporters. The complaint accused Palin and her top staffers of “breaking executive ethics branch and hiring rules. It centers on the hiring of surveyor Tom Lamal, who once co-hosted a Palin fundraiser, for a state right-of-way agent job in Fairbanks.” [Anchorage Daily News, 9/7/2008]
• Palin allegedly “tried to get a state trooper fired and she then fired the trooper’s boss because he wouldn’t act on her request.” Palin’s sister was involved in a “bitter child custody battle” with the trooper. [Anchorage Daily News, 7/18/2008] Palin “previously said her administration didn’t exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten,” but “an audio recording that shows an aide pressuring the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/14/2008, 9/2/2008]

"Trooper-Gate" video. Abuse of power:




Video for animal lovers who are against Sarah Palin:


To be continued...


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Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act

President Bush has called for drilling in the Arctic Refuge by 2010 in his new budget proposal. Development in this habitat would threaten numerous animals, including polar and grizzly bears, wolves, caribou, migratory whales and many species of birds. The most urgent is to protect the polar bears. Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would do nothing to solve America's energy problems.

We need to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge. Please ask your Representative to support the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act to permanently protect the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Congressman Ed Markey and Congressman Jim Ramstad introduced the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act. If this bill is passed, it would designate the 1.5 million acre Coastal Plain as wilderness.

Stop the possibility of oil drilling and protect the animals who would be affected by it.

Urge Congress to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge by signing the petition located here.


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The Endangered Species Act

For 35 years the Endangered Species Act has protected plants and animals that are on the brink of extinction. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration wants to change the act. They are targeting the important Section 7 of the act. As of now, Section 7 has independent experts reviewing projects. Currently federal agencies need to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service or Fish and Wildlife to determine whether a project would affect species and/or its habitat.

If the Bush Administration has its way, no experts would be involved in reviewing new projects. Instead, certain federal agencies such as the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Office of Surface Mining would have the authority to review projects and let the projects procede. They would be doing this without consulting important independent biologists or botanists who are experts in this type of decision making. In other words, the Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

It is ridiculous that agencies whose missions are building roads and leasing land and waters for mines and oil drilling will have the power to assess the environment. Their main concern will not be the endangered animals and plants. Their main concern is money, building, and doing anything possible to fulfill their selfish goals.

1,353 animals and plants in the U.S. are listed as threatened or endangered. We need to protect them.



Please sign a petition to protect America's endangered species. It is sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund. Click here to sign.


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Time to buy new checks?

Buy checks that support causes you care about.

Message Products have lots to choose from.

Fund for Animals Checks


Support your local animal shelter Checks


World Wildlife Fund Checks (I use these!)


Veterans for Peace Checks


Sierra Club Protecting Ancient Forests Checks


Go to Message Product's website and choose your next checks to support issues you care about.

Protect Canada's Baby Harp Seals

One of the biggest campaigns I support is animal rights. I found this great way to give a gift and help an animal at the same time. For the holidays, you can purchase one of the animal gifts and give a loved one the included Gift Card showing what you did in their name.

Ninety-five percent of seals killed in Canada's commercial seal hunt are under 3 months old. A Gift for Baby Seals supports IFAW’s efforts to stop the hunt by providing equipment needed to monitor sealers and expose the cruelty of the hunt to the world.

Your IFAW Gift for Baby Seals makes it possible to reveal the truth about what happens year after year on the ice.

Give $25.00 and it pays for a seal hunt observation permit to document ongoing cruelty and abuse.

Give $50.00 and it funds a campaign to prosecute anyone caught abusing seals.

Give $75.00 and it buys a survival suit for seal hunt monitors.

Give $500.00 and it buys a waterproof video camera to document the seal hunt.

Give $1330.00 and it pays for one hour of flight time to bring a seal surveillance team to the ice.

Other gifts you can buy:

During the winter months in Russia, wealthy hunters pay more than US$2,000 each to rouse bears from hibernation and kill them without knowing whether they are male or female. After the adult bear is killed, many cubs are abandoned to die. Some are given to local villagers to be kept as pets or kept in zoos or circuses. There is also a demand for bear meat in hunting restaurants.

IFAW is helping to rehabilitate Russian bear cubs orphaned by hunters so they can be released back into protected forests. We are also campaigning for a ban on killing hibernating bears in Russia, which leaves hundreds of cubs to die. Your gift will help nurse one of these orphaned bear cubs back to new life.

Ivory poachers are killing African and Asian elephants at an alarming rate ... and crucial elephant habitat is disappearing every day. Unfortunately, poachers and illegal ivory traders often have the upper hand. Under-equipped and under-staffed African wildlife law enforcement agencies are easily outmaneuvered in their attempts to fight poaching by sophisticated crime syndicates operating freely across national borders.

Even limited ivory sales lead to the widespread slaughter of elephants. Anti-poaching rangers in many regions lack government support and funding for personnel and equipment. Rangers risk their lives everyday to save the elephants, with hundreds killed each year. Your gift goes to providing these brave rangers with the equipment and skills they need to win the fight against poachers.

IFAW's Community-Linked Animal Welfare program brings pet care to those who need it most: reducing pet populations through sterilization and vaccinating the pets of some of world's poorest people. CLAW also has an excellent education outreach component that teaches responsible pet care to people and children in the areas where it works.

When disaster strikes, IFAW's Emergency Relief team rushes to save animals from suffering and abandonment. For those who lose everything in a disaster, their pets are all they have left to give them comfort and strength. Your gift to Emergency Relief helps save stranded marine mammals, clean endangered birds after oil spills, and rescue orphaned, injured, or mistreated animals.

Your Gift Includes

• Canvas Tote Bag
• Special Gift Card
• Color Brochure of saved animal
• A Pen & Pencil Set

This is the perfect holiday gift. To purchase these gifts, visit IFAW's Animal Gift site.