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Friday, February 15, 2013

Care2 Petition Fights to Stop Fire Department From Hunting Squirrels--While Children Starve, Killers Go Free, and Lizards Go Extinct

Folks on the activist site Care2 have raised the alarm and rallied the forces over a truly "cruel and barbaric event"--hunting squirrels.

Whatever shall we do now.

"Adults and children as young as 12 can participate, so long as they have hunting licenses. (Let's not even get into the idea of giving a 12-year-old a hunting license). Participants stalk and kill both grey and red squirrels with cash prizes for the heaviest catches," reads the e-mail sent out by Emily V. from Care2's Petition Site Team.

According to the mailing, the Holley, NY Fire Department plans to have a fundraiser where hunters win prizes for bagging the biggest squirrel--and if Emily and her team have anything to say about it, it's not going to happen.

I don't have a problem with this petition, really. If you hate squirrel-hunting, by all means use your free speech to try to get the rest of the world to stop.

What I have a problem with is that this mailing, out of all the petitions on the Care2 site, made it to the 'special selections of the week' that hit the mailboxes of millions of subscribers. They've got petitions on Care2 that deal with child abuse and sex trafficking, and they choose a squirrel hunt as one of the most important petitions on the site.

Their competitor site, Change.org, mails me a story every week about someone imprisoned for their free speech, or sex slaves sold on the internet, or at the very least someone who lost their house to a bank foreclosure. I don't always agree with the petitions--the notorious Trayvon Martin petition came out of Change.org, which I signed and now feel stupid about--but at least they're trying to improve the human condition. At the very least, Change.org writes to me about rare-dolphin-hunting.

Today, 18,000 children will die of hunger, according to the UN. 1,871 women will experience rape. For every 100 babies born in the African American community, wealthy doctors will abort 77. Inequality's everywhere, people are dying around you, and if you really love animals, 1 in 5 reptile species faces extinction.

But by all means save the cute little squirrels.

Emily, I love you. You've got awesome intentions, and I love you. But I've got one thing to tell you:

At least that 12-year-old with a hunting license will know how to eat during the zombie apocalypse.

At least she can eat now.

1 comment:

  1. Yes. I just read an article about the rape and murder of three sisters (ages 5-11) in India.

    And as politically incorrect as it may be now, my dad taught me how to shoot and how to defend myself with my hands long before I was twelve. I wish more girls and women had that kind of training.

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