write letters for Amnesty International

URGENT – SIGN THE PETITION – FOR THE UPCOMING COURT CASE.
We have 32,000 signatures but need more!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/2147025
facebook group entitled ‘PUPPY HACKED TO DEATH IN QLD… HAND DOWN THE MAXIMUM PENALTY!’- please join this also to raise awareness of this cruelty. details of the case are on the facebook group but i copied and pasted some of it below.

HARDENED police officers have been shocked by the horrifying torture, mutilation and brutal slaying of a seven-month-old fox terrier pup “PEANUT” at Moranbah.

Jonathon (Jon) Connor Blake, 20, and Trent William Cunniffe 24, (the accused) did not apply for bail.

Police have obtained video footage from a mobile phone that shows graphic images of the puppy yelping and howling in terrible pain as it is hacked to pieces.

Animal rights experts have described the case as one of the worst and most horrific in Australian history. Police allege that a pair of garden shears and a pocket knife were used to torture and kill the little puppy.

Moranbah police said the dog was a family pet and the owners were too distressed and upset to talk to anyone about it.

The pup’s nose was cut off, its front right leg and rear left leg were cut off and it was decapitated. His stomach was cut open from neck to tail.

Police will say the dog was stolen from a residence in Railway Parade in Moranbah and was taken to a lookout in the town. Congealed blood and dog hairs were found on picnic tables at the lookout.

A three-part video series on a mobile phone shows the dog being tortured. The final stages of the video show the dog’s mutilated body parts. The dog’s body was found about 3.50am on Monday near the town’s campdraft ground. It was dumped beside a road.

Police were attending a car accident when they discovered the dog’s body. After seizing the mobile phone, police recovered a set of garden shears which had dog hair and blood on them. Police also took possession of the clothes worn by two men in the car, for scientific testing.

“Senior police officers were visibly shaken after viewing the footage. Police and the RSPCA say that if the allegations are true this could well be the worst case of animal cruelty ever brought before the courts in Australia,” RSPCA’s Queensland Chief Inspector Michael Pecic said.

“This is very, very disturbing,” Mr Pecic said.
“For legal reasons this is really all I can say at the moment. But when you talk to senior police officers who have seen a lot of carnage in their time and they say it shocked even them, then you begin to get the picture.”
Footage from the attack has been suppressed by police until the outcome of the court case.

The maximum penalty under the Animal Care and Protection Act for such an offence is $75,000 or two years in jail; however, the maximum penalty ever handed out has been a four-month jail term.

Both men were charged in the Mackay Magistrate’s Court with stealing a dog, wilfully and unlawfully killing it, wilfully damaging a gate, and unlawful possession of marijuana, all at Moranbah on Monday.

I have been told by another concerned animal lover this little dog tried to escape on the bloodied stumps away from these people who slaughtered it in the end.

THESE SADISTIC LOSERS ARE TRYING TO PLEAD MENTAL ILLNESS TO REDUCE THE SENTENCE!
One the monsters, Trent Cunniffe has just been admitted to the Mackay Base Hospital’s mental health unit, the Magistrate’s Court was told yesterday.” Daily Mercury .

• NEXT COURT CASE MONDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2008 **

The initial court case has gone ahead with a great turn out of around 150 people and very positive support from the community. Cars drove by the court sounding their horns, cheering for the demonstrators and thanking them.
Channel 7 and ABC were there (hopefully we will see some coverage on the news tonight) and the police were a wonderful help closing off the footpath for the rally.

Unfortunately the court case has been re-scheduled for the 15th December 2008… keep signing the petition and try to get to Mackay for the next rally on Monday 15th.

A massive thank you to all the caring people who travelled from afar, to take a stand for Peanut outside the court. The rally was peaceful and everyone sends their sincere appreciation for all the dedicated animal lovers who supported our cause.

The town is buzzing and the court/magistrate saw the concern and outrage by our protesters today. Todays contribution will go along way in getting the maximum penalty for these two monsters!

A heartfelt thank you to every one of you.

Nb – You can see a photo outside the court house in the photo section of this group.. next to recent photos of Peanut.

the stupid thing is i did the hardest part of it, which was typing it. then i’m too lazy/absent-minded/apathetic to go out and buy envelopes. i still haqve some chance of posting it, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely.

on a positive note, i noticed the body shop has a fair trade range of stuff, and i was xmas shopping in there anyway, i chose a pair of re-usuable moisturing sock-type things, costing £7.00, and an inflatable bath pillow, costing £8.00, from their range for my mum. i admit they’re quite expensive for what they are, but i reasoned i would rather buy her something slightly different (as opposed to the regular bubblebath/showergel type stuff i usually get from there or somewhere else), she’s more likely to appreciate it (my mum always suffers from bad feet, and loves taking baths, whereas showergel and bubblebath, nice as they are, are used up very fast). plus, a nice set of bubblebath can cost anything between £10-£20 anyway, so while fair trade stuff IS fairly expensive, i would rather spend the money on that than pay equal for a less original purchase that just benefits capitalist agendas.

of course, i’m not perfect, i still buy stuff from primark and most of the stuff i buy isn’t fair trade, but i have decided i’m gonna try and buy less in general (therefore being less consumerist), and when i am looking for presents for people, consider looking at fairtrade products first and aim to buy more of them than i have done in the past. it’s still important to like what your buying, and some fair trade products are ridiculously priced for what they are, but there’s also some really good quality stuff out there too. i strongly recommend THE BODY SHOP, as the ingredients are really natural too, and good quality and ethical purchases

I just added my address and signature to pre-formulated letters… does this really help? It seems too easy to be effective.

To remember which urgent actions I supported, I will list them here. The letters will go to: Mexico (two letters: security of witnesses of police operation in indigenious community; torture of two men), Israel (destroying of houses in West Bank), and Guatemala (attacks against human rights organization COMNUNICARTE).
All I need now is stamps.

I wish I could write with my own words, but I don’t know if my English will be sufficient for these kind of letters.

But I also would like to go to an amnesty meeting in my city. I think it will feel better to meet other supporters in real life.

basically, why don’t we discuss ideas and track our actions on here, to keep ourselves motivated and inspire others?? there’s strength in numbers and it makes us realise that every little helps, and reminds us the extent to which we have helped in this goal so far. the discussing and listing definitely works for me, anyway..

well i joined amnesty in the summer and done v little since then, it’s a combination of laziness meets apathy really..

-however i’ve signed a few petitions, i can’t remember all of them but one was an
INTERNATIONAL TREATY TO BAN CLUSTER BOMBS- you don’t have to just be in canada to do it; it’s a worldwide thing and takes about 5 mins, here’s the link: http://www.minesactioncanada.org/peoples_treaty/index.cfm?fuse=Home.Index

-another was this pre-written petition card to obama to give guantanamo bay detainees a fair trial or release them.

-also a few emails that were pre-typed on the amnesty website for certain cases, i typed my name and sent them off, though that realy didn’t require me to do much at all, and apparently personally typed letters/emails are much more effective.
-i go on the freerice site pretty often as it raises money for world food programme (WFP)
-today i finally typed a letter personally to my local MP to raise the case of binyam mohamed (a guantanamo bay detainee held on insufficient evidence who is on the verge of mental breakdown) in UK parliament, asking for his transfer back to the uk and to be given a fair trial..i really struggled typing this letter as i’m so unused to it, and can’t help feeling i’m ignorant on the subject and won’t make much of a difference! however i know this is defeatist thinking. amnesty international has a letter writing guide on it’s website to help me, but this is the first time i’ve attemped a personal letter as i’m usually way too lazy.
-i’ve educated myself more about politics and discovered noam chomsky, who is very knowledgeable on politics and is a civil rights activist; his videos are on youtube and he has about 21 books published on these matters.

despite how much this sounds, most of these things are the bare minimum- however i do find it very difficult to maintain passion and enthusiam when you rarely ever see direct positive results of your actiions, i mean it’s one thing to give money but a lot of the time charities spent a lot on funding so it’s hard to know where your money is actually going, and political figures rarely reply to letters/emails. does anyone have any ideas where i might see direct positive changes??

Does writing an e-mail count,because I have written about 4.

This is something I’ve been intending to do since school but, and this is beginning to sound familiar to me, I’ve just never got round to it. My goal is to write a letter/letters over the next three months and send them.

Well I forgot about this particular pledge for the longest of times but finally got back into it this week. Its only a letter, just a letter, but it could change someone’s life. Praise be to Allah!

Temporarily giving this up.

While I’m happy to be making my living as a writer, it makes me unhappy to spend so much of my time at the desk. I am going to send them a year-end donation, and maybe this goal will re-enter my list at another time in my life.