Thrilling Time to be a Volunteer at Animal Alliance Environment Voters

I've been a volunteer for Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada for almost 3 years now. We volunteers do the necessary but unglamorous work of stuffing envelopes for mail-outs, revising addresses, updating fax numbers, and whatever else needs doing.

I quickly learned that human cruelty towards animals is awfully pervasive: there’s the seal hunt; puppy mills; horse slaughter; factory farming; laboratory testing on animals; coyote bounties; deer culls; the plight of elephants in Canadian zoos; rodeo brutality; roadside zoos ... The horrors affect me so deeply that I cannot bear to read about them anymore.

With the upcoming election on May 2, 2011, Animal Alliance / Environment Voters has a great opportunity to get our platform into the public forum for debate. We have 7 candidates standing for federal election this May.

Prior to the election call, Animal Alliance Environment Voters fought to protect wildlife in our national parks. You would think wildlife would be safe in our national parks. Sadly this is not the case. In fact, some wildlife is targeted and sometimes dealt harshly by the very agency mandated to provide protection. In addition to the cormorants on Middle Island, Parks Canada is considering or has already implemented the slaughter of moose in Gross Morne and Terra Nova National Parks in Newfoundland, elk in Elk Island and in Banff; bison on Elk Island; raccoon in Gwaii Haanas and Kejimkujik; and whitetail deer in St. Lawrence Island and in Point Pelee.

The Party for the Animals in Holland has demonstrated that it is possible to give animals and the environment a political. They have party members in Parliament and in their Senate. Their goals are to see animals living free from suffering caused by humans, and to promote animals’ rights to live naturally in their natural environment. They pressure the other political parties to work for change so that animal interests will not be continually subordinate to economic interests.

What is happening in Holland to improve the lives of animals can and will happen here in Canada too! Lynda Spencer