Support worthy causes with these petitions

End politically motivated violence against women in Zimbabwe.

Legalize paintball in Tasmania.

Save Polaroid film.

These are just some of the hundreds of active global petitions at GoPetition, www.gopetition.com.

The site is the leading international petition-hosting portal with more than 30,000 active petitions in more than 75 countries. It is a nonpartisan site with no political affiliations. And, it’s free. You have to register to use the site. After registration, you can write your own petition, using the site’s step-by-step instructions and guidelines. The guidelines help you compose either a paper petition or an e-petition with detailed explanations about researching the topic, writing in clear language and promoting your petition. The site has all kinds of free tools to publicize your petition.

The homepage lists featured petitions but you can also browse petitions by country of origin, topic, most recent and most popular. The topics include animal welfare, business, environment, health, human rights, law reform, music, politics, religion, sports, television and youth issues.

When you click on a topic, you see a list of petitions, from the most current to oldest, with a few sentences on its goal. It tells you the author of the petition and the date it was created. When you click on the complete petition, you can read the full version, which includes its country of origin, goal, background and actual petition. At the end of each petition is a link to click if you wish to support or “sign” the petition.

A petition for every cause

The petitions run the gamut.

For example, under animal rights, there are petitions to make zoo habitats larger, stop the British government from allowing experiments on Beagles, end the inhumane use of electric shock collars and eliminate the cruel treatment of snails in guppy farming.

Under the films and movies topic, there are requests mostly for producers to make sequels to movies, television airing times to be changed and give Oscars and other awards to some actors and actresses.

The environmental topic has hundreds of petitions to stop industrial projects on wetlands, agricultural lands and forests, as well as saving trees, stopping global warming and combatting overpopulation.

One of the more interesting topics on the site is human rights, which has subcategories of children’s rights and human rights. There are all kinds of petitions for ending abuses of particular individuals all over the world as well as general, topical ones, such as ending the practice of students getting tardy slips when they are late for lunch at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Ill.

Site is easily searchable

When you click on the search tool to browse petitions by their country of origin, you can see all the ones for that particular country. The petitions covering the United States range from banning wind turbines on beaches in Florida, reinstating country singer Hank Williams to the Grand Ole Opry, making Veterans Day a national, paid holiday and declaring Aug. 29 as Michael Jackson Day. Many of the U.S. petitions are political, such as calling for the resignation of certain White House staff. Others are community-minded, such as saving post offices earmarked to close, saving hospitals, banning pet sales in malls and expanding environmental projects.

Unfortunately, the U.S. petitions are not arranged by state. However, you can use the “quick search” feature on the site and type in a state or city. When I typed in Pennsylvania, there were 37 petitions that are specifically for the Commonwealth. Topics include the tuition relief act, legalizing gay marriages, owning wildlife, the new junior license law, legalizing hedgehogs, the campus smoking ban at Penn State and expelling Sen. Arlen Specter.

While some of the petitions on the site may seem outlandish, many are thoughtful, well-researched and well-written. The site also has forums where users can discuss their petitions and others, as well as news stories on some of the petitions created through the site that did make a difference. For example, one petition helped Illinois resident Jake Grys get his home renovated on the ABC show, ”Extreme Makeover.”

Jessica Matthews writes a weekly Web column for The Times-Tribune in Scranton. Write to her at jmatthews@timesshamrock.com. © The Times-Tribune 2009.

Sign up for Text Alerts

Sign up for e-mail newsletters