Petition Tag - lions

Baner Tywysogaeth Gwynedd oedd baner y Pedwar Llew yn wreiddiol ond yn dilyn cwymp y Dywysogaeth yn 1283, mabwysiadwyd y faner, yn wreiddiol, gan Owain Llaw Goch ac yna gan Owain Glyndŵr. Roedd y ddau yn ddisgynyddion i dywysogion Gwynedd gyda'r hawl i fabwysiadu'r faner. Newidiwyd y llewod i fod yn rhai 'rampiant' gan Owain Llaw Goch ac yna defnyddiwyd y fersiwn yna o'r faner gan Owain Glyndŵr yn ystod ei Rhyfel fawr Dros Annibyniaeth.

O dan y faner yma bu Cymru'n annibynnol o tua 1403 hyd at tua 1410 a gan mai baner Harri Tudur oedd un y ddraig goch ar gefndir gwyrdd a gwyn, wedi ei hatgyfodi yn 1958, rydym, fel gwladgarwyr, ond yn cydnabod baner y Pedwar Llew Rampiant fel gwir faner genedlaethol Cymru a gan fod cynlluniau ar y gweill gan David Cameron a Llywodraeth Lloegr i osod Jac yr Undeb ar drwyddedau gyrru ym Mhrydain, rydym yn mynnu ein hawliau dinesig i gael Pedwar Llew Rampiant Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr ar drwyddedau gyrru yng Nghymru.

The Four Lions Rampant was, originally, the Four Lions Passive flag of The Royal House of Gwynedd in Snowdonia, North Wales. Following the fall of the Royal House of Gwynedd, it was adoped by the rightful heir, the great warrior Prince, Owain Glyndŵr during his war of Independence 1400 - 1421ish and the 'passive lions' were changed into 'rampant lions' to illustrate that the Cymru (Welsh) were up in arms.

Under this flag, Cymru (Wales) was independent between 1403 - 1410ish and, as the red dragon on a green and white background was the standard of Henry Tudor King of England and was only resurrected in 1958, we as Welsh patriots only recognise the Four Lions Rampant as the true flag of Cymru and as plans are being drawn up by David Cameron to have the Union flag or Crest to appear on "British" driving licences, we demand our civil right to have the Four Lion Rampant flag of the Cymric people's Prince, Prince Owain Glyndŵr on Cymric (Welsh) driving licences.

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Lions International NEEDS an official mascot figure in order to promote the organisation as well as gain favour amongst the youth. Melvin Mascot has a friendly and welcoming demeanor that the public find appealing and drawn to!

It's time for new ideas ... it's time to Market Lions to a new audience and remind the people of the world what it is we do - We Serve!

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Lion numbers have dropped from an already reduced 450,000 down to just 20,000 and possibly even lower today. People have shot, speared, trapped and poisoned lions relentlessly. We have chopped up their habitat, introduced diseases and, lately, we have begun to change the climate they and the rest of us live in. Most of all, we are swamping them by our sheer numbers. The 20,000 lions cling to the last remaining habitat our 7 billion people have not yet got to.

I strongly believe that unless we recognize this as an emergency and take action now, we will witness the extinction of wild lions these iconic predators that once ruled from the southern tip of Africa all the way to northwestern India by 2020.

Extinction by 2020. What would that mean? Besides the loss of the magic and romance of these majestic animals, and our spiritual connection with them, there would be a cascade of ecological impacts. The first of these would be an increase in some of the lion's prey, such as wildebeest and buffalo, which would also become less alert and less active in the absence of a fearsome predator. These larger, more stagnant populations of herbivores could overgraze their habitat, leading to soil erosion that in turn causes poor water quality downstream and aids the invasion of weeds and exotic plant species. Finally the bloated populations of prey could collapse as the degraded habitat can no longer support them.

There would be economic and social costs to people, too. In Ghana, for example, when fish stocks declined and men turned to meat poaching to feed their families, they wiped out the competition for game lions and started chipping away at wildlife populations. As a result of the disappearance of predators, baboons got bolder and their numbers exploded. In turn, these bolder and more numerous baboons started raiding crop farms and attacking farmers.

Worldwide, the ecotourism industry generates about $200 billion a year an estimated $80 billion of which ends up in Africa. Most African tourism is safari tourism. Research indicates that if big cats were no longer featured on that dream safari, far fewer people would come to Africa. Without the $80 billion annual revenue stream communities (and some governments) would start failing and poverty would increase.

In addition to the problem of those that don't appreciate lions enough, there is the challenge of those who appreciate this big cat too much. One example of the latter is trophy hunting. I am not anti-hunting. With just 20,000 lions left, however, targeting one of the last 4,500 male lions on Earth with a high-powered rifle merely to serve the pleasure of ego, sport and power, seems inappropriate right now.

Each year an average of about 500 lion trophies or skins enter the United States from trophy hunting in Africa. If you do the math, you quickly see that this is not sustainable. Because male lions operate in coalitions of two or three, each male lion that is shot leaves the remaining male outmatched in the next territorial fight, and he is expelled. There is no future for expelled lions, so one license effectively kills two males. At the same time his eight females (on average) and their 24 cubs are left without defenders. The new alpha males are genetically wired to kill all cubs and start the breeding process again with their genes. So one license is really cleaning out between 20 and 30 lions each time and if Americans are responsible for 500 of those licenses, they are effectively killing lions at an enormous rate.

If I had to choose I' would say the biggest threat to lions is the burgeoning human population. I tracked the curve of lion populations during the past 50 years and then compared it to the human population curve. The result: Every time we add a billion people to our roster we cut their populations in half. We are in essence squeezing big cats out of existence.

With the human population explosion there is an associated cattle explosion.

In Africa, cattle culture communities especially in areas suffering from climate-change-induced drought are grazing domestic stock farther and farther into wildlife reserves than ever. Cattle are different than indigenous grazing animals especially in the numbers now being raised by herders. They rip out the grass and chop up sensitive ground in a way that wildebeest and zebras do not. The cattle stay in certain areas and do more damage every day while wildebeest charge through millions of acres of habitat on their well-refined migratory circuits. But once again, it is humans that do more damage. Cattle cultures up and down Africa are in daily conflict with predators, for understandable reasons; lions eat their livelihood.

Those who wish to do harm to lions have at their disposal a granular poison known as carbofuran, the most popular of which goes under the trade name of Furadan. This substance, developed by an American company as a crop pesticide, is so toxic that it is banned in the United States and the European Union but it is widely available in East Africa. A quarter teaspoon kills a lion (and a human) in minutes. A handful sprinkled on an animal carcass wipes out a whole pride that feeds on the carcass, the hyenas that come in afterwards, the vultures and jackals and any insects that settle there. It is a dirty bomb against wildlife and the natural world and rapidly becoming the poachers weapon of choice.

When we and other conservationists engaged with the manufacturers, they started buying it back in Kenya. The buyback program is too slow, however, and this potent chemical is still being used, and spreading west and south like an epidemic. Tragically, a young Kenyan boy ate some late last year and dropped dead. In another recent incident, workers at a lodge in Maasai Mara National Park sprinkled some on their vegetable gardens, killing a hippo that night, and lions and vultures that came to feed on the hippo the next day.

Another sinister activity that threatens lions (and other big cats) is the trade in their body parts for traditional medicines. There is a burgeoning bone market in Asia for medicines in the ground-up form, or as tea, soup and wine. Drinking tiger or lion bone wine is thought to enhance sexual prowess. It is largely tiger bones that satisfy this need now, but there is no perceivable difference between tiger and lion bone, so lions are being poached for Eastern medicine now as well.

In South Africa recently, the authorities in one province issued permits for a farmer who was previously in the canned lions hunting business (a practice where lions are bred and raised in small enclosures and then shot in a safari hunt to now kill 44 of his lions and turn them into bones. These bones will be legally sanctioned and exported to the East. Now, thanks to this action, anyone with illegal tiger bones can claim they are legal lion bones from South Africa.

The goal of the Big Cats Initiative is to halt the decline in lion numbers by 2015 and gradually restore populations to sustainable levels at least double present levels. A major component of this effort is educating local communities about how to protect themselves against lion attacks. We have produced films in Ma and Swahili to help. We are finding ways to help communities see economic benefits from lions and other big cats through ecotourism, for example. And we are helping people avoid economic losses by paying compensation to cattle owners if their livestock is killed by one of our lions. We offer compensation for their lost cattle at fair market value but only if there are no lions killed by Maasai warriors and hunters during that quarter.

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Female lions do most of the hunting, working in teams to stalk and ambush their prey.

Find more facts on our lion fact sheet http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/lion.php

We are also getting behind saving one lion at a time, realizing that we need to be careful we do not abandon genetically isolated populations. Recently we looked at a small lion population in Wasa National Park in Cameroon. Wasa park may have only a handful of lions, but new genetic evidence shows that many of these populations are unique. As always, it is a lot cheaper to protect species than reintroduce them later when they are locally extinct.

To sit and listen to a lion roar in the African bush is to sit on the edge of paradise, a wilderness that is both rare and essential. Without lions and other big cats, the world will increasingly become a place filled with clutter and noise. And the noble statues of lions that grace our cities will stand silently as reminders of the fork in the road we could have taken.

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(Cape Town, South Africa) - Thousands of captive bred lions are more vulnerable than ever following a court ruling that not only demotes them from being considered a “Threatened or Protected Species” but also allows for the immediate resumption of “canned hunting.”

“This ruling puts canned hunting right back on the agenda, and further entrenches South Africa’s image of a country that puts animal welfare last while profiteering from an abhorrent form of hunting practice,” said Jason Bell-Leask, Director Southern Africa of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org).

An appeal by the South African Predator Breeder’s Association against an earlier ruling that prevented captive bred lions from being hunted before they had spent 24-months in the wild, and also challenging the inclusion of lions as a listed large predator in the Threatened or Protected Species Regulations, was upheld by a sitting of the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday.

The high court said the minister of environmental affairs at the time did not take a “rational decision” when he determined that captive bred lions should fend for themselves in the wild for 24 months before being hunted and that captive bred lions would temporarily lose their status as a listed large predator.

“How was it possible that a minister (Marthinus van Schalkwyk) could make a decision (to force captive bred lions to be released into a wild environment for 24 months) that was so flawed that a judge was able to over turn it, in its entirety, in one fell swoop. There’s something wrong with this picture. The most rational decision upfront would have been an outright ban of breeding lions in captivity for hunting purposes,” said Bell-Leask.

Bell-Leask also called for the court and Government to explain what is meant by temporarily amending the Threatened and Protected Species Regulations to exclude captive bred lions.

As Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (he is now Minister of Tourism), Marthinus van Schalkwyk was outspoken in his condemnation of canned hunting describing it as a “despicable practice” and that the government would “act to eliminate rogue hunting practices, like canned hunting.”

In South Africa the news that captive lions were back in the cross-hairs of a rifle, was greeted with dismay by the public. In an opinion poll on the News24 website, asking the public to vote on the ruling, 56 per cent of all voters said it would be bad for wildlife while only nine per cent said it would be good for hunting.

“The ruling is a sad day for lions but hopefully the court of public opinion will now come to bear on the canned hunting industry, shaming it for what it is – an immoral and indefensible business without a shred of credibility,” said IFAW’s Bell-Leask.

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This is to try and save the killing of lions in South Africa and the breeding of them for killing.

Most lions now live in eastern and southern Africa, and their numbers there are rapidly decreasing, with an estimated 30–50 percent decline over the last two decades. Currently, estimates of the African lion population range between 16,500 and 47,000 living in the wild in 2002–2004, down from early 1990s estimates that ranged as high as 100,000 and perhaps 400,000 in 1950. The cause of the decline is not well-understood, and may not be reversible.

Currently, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are considered the most significant threats to the species. The remaining populations are often geographically isolated from each other, which can lead to inbreeding, and consequently, a lack of genetic diversity.

Therefore the lion is considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, while the Asiatic subspecies is critically endangered.

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Cruelty to animals has gone on long enough. Punishment should be stronger. Remember Jane Goodall.

Would you beat or starve your own cat or dog? Well people out there do, and some of the most likely think it's okay, mabey their parents did, maybe their best friends do it, maybe they do it for sheer entertainment.

Punishment for animal abuse should be stronger! A person who beats, or starves a human doesnt go to jail for a few years and then just be released, they are punished, so what if its not a human, most people in the US cant even find us on the world map, or know that polar bears live in the norther hemisphere, not with the penguins in the southern. If animals could talk, I bet they could know that, humans take their rights for granted, while animals are killed for sport, just trying to live, animals don't kill for joy, some people think,"well, the lions kill the baby lions sometimes" only if they arent their child/cub, lion males, in order to keep their family in charge, they have to get rid of other males cubs.

This is an issue that I cant stay quiet on, I may be this shy kid in school, but not when animals are being harmed, after all, its their world too. Remember, my hero, and idol, Jane Goodall.

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Michael Voss is one of the greatest sportsmen that Queensland has ever produced.

He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to play Australian rules football.

During his 289 games for the Brisbane Bears/Lions, he has won the Brownlow Medal - the national competition's highest award.

The Brisbane Lions captain lead the club to 3 consecutive AFL premierships, a feat which has been equalled only two other times in over 100 years of competition.

He is the captain of the Queensland Team of the Century.

He has captained Australia and was an All-Australian 5 times.

He won his club's best and fairest 5 times and the Most Valued Player in the AFL two times.

Voss put his body on the line for his club and country, playing through debilitating injury during his career.

His off-field reputation is exemplary and he is widely recognised as one of the fairest players ever in the competition and is a statesman for Aussie Rules in Queensland.

Vossy's feats are comparable to the Emperor of Lang Park - Wally Lewis - who has rightly a statue in his honour at Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park). We believe that "The Boss" also deserves a statue in his honour at the Brisbane Cricket Ground - a ground that Voss helped to make a fortress for his club.

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This is a Petition to show that people are tired of bad decisions made by upper management of the Detroit Lions.

Since the Lions will not allow the freedom of speech or the right to protest by the PAYING fans, we request that people sign this petition to have Millen removed.

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I recently visited the Emperor Valley Zoo and it was more like the Valley of Death than an actual zoo. I was saddened by this situation and ever since I have been trying to see what can be done.

Emperor Valley Zoo - Zoo or Animal Graveyard? I have not been to the zoo for years and was expecting to see huge roaring lions, playful monkeys, dears and all the other unusual animals. As I wondered around the zoo, I got more than what I expected, the adrenalin rushed to my head my heart started pounding and my body became frigid with shock, not did I only get to meet the animals but their valley of death. These animals are not only kept there for the viewing pleasure of the public, but also to be tortured, mistreated, harmed, abused and neglected! My eyes were suddenly filled with tears, trying to picture myself in these poor animals places, and it hurts, just thinking about it. The animals just like every other human being has feelings too. It makes you question, why have a zoo, why have zookeepers, why display pain to the public and most important of all why have a Minister of Environmental issues. Does any of this make sense? Does our country only consist of people? All those that are part of the Zoological Society of Trinidad and Tobago should walk with their heads down in shame, because they have to be mentally sick to have the heart to ill-treat animals. You would have to be a HATER!

I have visited several countries and it's so nice to see how wholesome their environment is, almost makes you want to stay, and then I begin to think about driving through the streets of our islands as I am then escorted by stray dogs, dead dogs, vagrants and much more. Oh how proud I am of my country and my government. A government is put in place to take charge of the country and I do believe that it includes caring for all environmental matters and a lot of this begins at the zoo. The government thinks that they are making the every attempt to get rid of crime, but they themselves along with those that are involved with the environment department fail to realize that they are criminals too! They are individuals that do not see animal cruelty as a problem.

There should be animal cruelty laws, are there? If you look at the channel 39 on cable (Animal Planet), there is a program especially dedicated to deal with animal brutality, they literally arrest and press charges against people who can’t look out for animals. They take the animals away from them and carry them to an animal hospital, where they are treated with care and then carried away to homes where they can be loved.

Can you actually tell me you go to the zoo and enjoy looking at sick animals? I have seen with my own eyes animals that are meant to live an aquatic life, live without water and if there is water, it looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for months, since the moss seems to enjoy it more than the animals. It took me five minutes to find the dears, which were all cuddled up in a corner of their water-less den lying on the not so freshly cut grass looking as though they were on the verge of death. As for the three lions or maybe just two with one looking like a corpse, at least that is what it looked like, were trapped with an already eaten, but rottening bone. So very few lions we have, wonder if these strong, as they are known to be, creatures have the strength to even mate. Yes, it’s that bad, unbelievable but true. The visitors of the zoo on the other hand and the zookeepers I must add, had to enjoy a great deal of the foul smell, coming from the monkey’s cages. From what I gathered, this zoo will eventually be an “Animal’s Cemetery” Animals need to be nurtured, meaning to take care of, for those that don’t know. I just had to give the meaning of that word, because a lot of us really do not know.

This is not only a letter of complaint, but a plead to please fill these animal’s bowls with water, cut the grass, give them a need to run around in their dens, swim in their ponds, feed them, clean their homes, this has been their homes for quite some time, shower them love and attention, give them life and a chance to create a life. I would also like everyone to know that I am not stopping here; I am going to continue pleading until all this comes to a stop, by gathering those that are willing to help fight against this terrible situation, by addressing the Minister of Environment and others associated and I urge you to do your part to bring this to an end.

Fighting Against Animal Cruelty,
AM.

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Sources say the Navy decided to acknowledge the experiment, at least in part, because the sea lions were making so much noise in their pens at Bahrain harbor, home of the Navy's largest facility in the Persian Gulf.
Sea lions are not native to those waters and typically bark loudly when excited. There was no way their presence, officials decided, could be kept secret. No final decision has been made on whether the sea lions will stay.

The animals — along with dolphins and a beluga whale or two — are trained as part of the Navy's Marine Mammal Program in San Diego. They are trained to hunt for mines, to locate objects lost in deep water and to provide harbor security.

Intelligence officials have warned repeatedly about the threat of terrorists using divers to blow up ships. That's what both the sea lions and the dolphins are trained to deal with, among other things.

Working with human handlers, the sea lions are trained to locate unexpected swimming intruders, to snap a locking clamp on an arm or leg, then leave.

The clamp is connected to a rope and signal buoy that humans with guns would then reel up, presumably pulling up a human on the other end. In theory, the animals would not be hurt. Their contact with a potential terrorist — who would presumably be surprised — would last only an instant as they briefly made contact.

Eric Jensen, a veterinarian with the Navy program said: "When you study the animals and you come to realize what they can do in their own environment, the aquatic environment, it's no surprise that we have not been able to build a machine that can do what they do."

Sea Lions, Unlike Dolphins, Can Battle the Elements

Why sea lions?

During the Persian Gulf War and several times after, the Navy used specially trained dolphins to pull harbor guard duty. But their handlers discovered as the weather heated up and the water got warmer in the Gulf, the dolphins became sluggish and far less effective.

Officials say sea lions do not appear to be bothered as much by rising water temperature and they have one other advantage. Unlike a dolphin, a sea lion could continue chasing an enemy — if it came to that — onto dry land.

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Four lions are left high and dry by a circus company at Sattur, TamilNadu, South India. This incident has appeared in local newspapers. No action has been taken for the past four months. The lions are living in small cages. They don't get enough water and food and they are semi starved condition. If left so in the summer months, they would definitely die. Please take immediate steps to leave the lions in a national park or a zoo.
B.Harinathan, VIII
I.Bibul, VIII
S.S.Vignesh V
Boopathy, VIII
Muthuraja, VIII
MAthan, V
Nature Club Of YRTV MAT. HR. SEC. SCHOOL, SIVAKASI, TamilNadu, South India.
Pin - 626 123

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