Grace, I agree - the Snopes article, however, refers to epetitions, that are "circulated" (Snopes' words) via email. They are worse than useless as signatures cannot be verified - I mean, what's to stop me from adding all the names and email addresses/location from my address book to such a petition?

The email address set up to receive all these "petitions" has usually crashed from the load long before you get to send your quota of '500 signatures' in.

Having said that, groups like Care2 and The Petition Site use a very different method - one must go to that site to sign the petition, and should some authority question the petition, it is quite easy for the petition creator to verify that all participants attached their name in a valid manner.

The petition 'form' seen here shows all the verifiable information - no pesky email circulating. http://www.change.org/petitions/view...animal_cruelty

But yep - email petitions are crap.