Stop Overfishing Yellowfin Tuna, Eliminate Big Oil Tax Breaks, and Shut Down Cruel Horse Racing Track: 10 Petitions to Sign this Week to Help People, Animals and the Planet!

Unfortunately, the world is not a very peaceful or safe place for many individuals. From conflict to abuse to exploitation, there is so much cruelty inflicted on both humans and animals. While this can get disheartening and difficult to hear about, petitions are a great way to use your voice for good. Just by signing one, you are a part of helping those who are not treated fairly. You can even share them with your friends and acquaintances to increase your impact.

Through petitions, we can reach those in power and demand justice for others. They are valuable tools for making positive changes in the world. If you are looking for a way to help animals and humans, here are 10 petitions you should sign this week, including Stop Overfishing Yellowfin Tuna, Eliminate Tax Breaks for Big Oil, and Shut Down Cruel Horse Racing Track.

We want to thank you for being the change you wish to see in the world and giving a voice to the voiceless.

1. Stop Overfishing Yellowfin Tuna

Source: Planet Ocean/YouTube

Scientists estimate that yellowfin tuna will be fully extinct by 2026 as a result of being overfished to the point of “collapse.” The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), a subset of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, should be in charge of making sure that this doesn’t become a reality; however, some member states have been blocking necessary actions and were resistant during a March meeting about the tuna crisis. Sign this petition to tell member nations of the UN’s Indian Ocean Tuna Commission to step up and do the right thing by restricting the overfishing of yellowfin tuna!

2. Ban the Sale of Puppy Mill Dogs at Pet Stores

Source: The Humane Society of the United States/YouTube

Puppy mills are mass breeding operations that run solely to make a profit. The dogs are kept in tiny, unsanitary cages without proper medical care, socialization, exercise, or good-quality food. The mother dogs are overbred and then abandoned or killed when they can no longer give birth. Puppy mills are exploitative and the industry needs to come to an end. Sign this petition to Support a nationwide ban on the sale of puppy mill animals at pet stores.

3. Stop Abusive Animal Control Officer From Owning or Working With Animals Again

Recently, after seeing a Facebook post about the conditions at animal control’s Fletcher Animal Kennel, Candi Bridges decided to go help the dogs. The pups were locked in small, outdoor kennels filled with snow, feces, and urine. There was no food, and the water was frozen solid. This was the kennel where dogs went when they had been saved from animal abuse. But (now former) animal control officer Timothy Peek decided to continue the cycle of cruelty by abandoning these dogs to freeze, starve, or die of dehydration. Sign this petition to demand that Timothy Peek is barred from ever owning an animal again, or having a job in animal care and control!

4. Protect Right to Protest

Source: Democracy Now!/YouTube

In response to the historic 2020 protests against anti-Black police brutality, Republican lawmakers have been attempting to pass anti-free speech laws. Minnesota Republicans want to punish protestors by removing their access to state assistance, including student loans, food stamps, unemployment benefits, and healthcare. Florida’s Republican governor has signed into law the heightened criminalization of arrests during protests. These laws will disproportionately target and harm people of color and are an attack on the right to protest injustice. Sign this petition to demand state governors protect free speech and block any heightened criminalization or punishment of protests!

5. Repeal Title X Gag Rule

Source: CBS News/YouTube

The Title X federal program provides sexual and reproductive health care to low-income individuals. This includes affordable birth control, lifesaving preventive screenings, and STI testing and treatment. In 2019, the Trump administration created a gag rule so that Title X funding could only go to places that don’t provide abortions or give information about abortions to patients. This effectively stripped access to essential health care services from hundreds of thousands of people. This gag rule needs to be rolled back to ensure accessible, safe abortions. Sign this petition to show your Support for the Title X program and reproductive health care that works for all families.

6. Eliminate Tax Breaks and Legal Loopholes for Big Oil and Gas!

Source: Rep. Katie Porter/YouTube

Every year, billions of US taxpayer dollars go to helping the oil and gas industries. These companies benefit from not only these large sums of money, but also loopholes that allow them to skip over cleaning up the Pollution they create. Republicans have kept these intact to protect their wealthy fossil fuel buddies at the expense of our planet’s future. Biden now has the power to take away these tax breaks and environmental loopholes to protect the planet. This money can instead be used to Support progressive climate initiatives like building green energy infrastructure and jobs? Sign this petition to demand Biden and Congress eliminate subsidies and environmental loopholes for the fossil fuel industry!

7.  Tell Apple to Stop Using the Forced Labor of Uyghurs

Source: ABC News (Australia)/YouTube

Since 2014, the Chinese government has been actively detaining, indoctrinating, torturing, and exterminating Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region of the country. Between one and two million Uyghurs are detained and forced to work. Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) is a company that supports this human rights violation by profiting off of the forced labor. Even though the US sanctioned the group and barred US companies from working with them, Apple still hosts dozens of XPCC’s apps. Sign this petition and demand that Apple openly condemn the imprisonment and human rights violations of the Uyghur Muslims by breaking ties with XPCC at once and removing these apps from their App Store!

8. Shut Down Cruel Horse Racing Track

Source: TRT World/YouTube

In only 11 years, upwards of 1,400 thoroughbred racehorses have died due and half of these deaths have occurred at Parx Racing in Pennsylvania. Horseracing involves brutal training regimens, forcing horses to run while injured, and drugging horses to push them past their limits. Many die due to cardiovascular collapse or severe injuries that required euthanization. This is common for horseracing as a whole, but it’s obviously especially awful at Parx Racing. Fortunately, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, is proposing that $199 million of money that is given to the casino should instead fund college scholarships. Sign this petition to Support the governor’s plan and demand that Pennsylvania authorities shut down this cruel horse-racing track now!

9. Ban Abusive “Troubled Teen” Programs

Source: VICE News/YouTube

Survivors of the “troubled teen” industry have been speaking out and sharing their stories. Many kids who are sent to troubled teen centers need real mental healthcare. Instead, their parents sent them to troubled teen centers, which involves taking these kids in the middle of the night without notice to facilities in the middle of nowhere where they will be subject to physical and emotional abuse for months. Survivors describe being drugged, put in solitary confinement, watched while naked, beaten, and more. The parents were also tricked to believe that their children were lying if told of any abuse. This cruel, abusive, industry needs to come to an end. It is traumatizing and doesn’t help anyone. Sign this petition to make sure Congress takes action to ban this type of horrific abuse now, and mandate mental health counseling for the caregivers!

10. Protect Possums

Source: Evelyn D. Harrison/Shutterstock

Possums play an important role in our ecosystem. They eat Lyme disease-carrying ticks, clean up dead animal carcasses, and help our gardens through pruning overripe produce and eating pests. They even eat rattlesnakes and copperheads that might hurt our kids or pets. Sadly, they are often the victims of cruel traps. In Vermont, any landowner who claims a possum is doing damage to their property can trap and kill the animal themselves. During trapping seasons, people can pay for a license to trap and kill these animals almost anywhere. Traps are incredibly cruel as the animals often suffer in them for days with broken bones and torn skin. They may chew off their limbs to escape, otherwise, they starve, get dehydrated, fall prey to other animals, and are eventually inhumanely killed by the trappers. Fortunately, Vermont has a new bill that would make trapping illegal for anyone other than a licensed “nuisance” wildlife control officer or a homeowner whose animals or property are actually in danger from a possum. This bill would effectively end the trapping season that leaves so many possums dead every year. Sign this petition to demand that Vermont’s House of Representatives protect Possums and other animals by passing bill H. 172!

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