Dear Friends, we can't thank you enough for all of the support that this petition has brought to Mr. Patterson and his family. Your words have truly been a blessing! In a newspaper article written yesterday in the Peoria Journal Star, it appears that State's Attorney, Brian Towne, is aware of our petition and says there is "no chance" he is going to drop the charges. We may be seeing Mr. Patterson return to a trial soon (we will know the status at a hearing on Wednesday morning and will update you as soon as we have any information). In the meantime, a hard copy of our petition with 43,000 signatures (at the the time of printing) was delivered to his office at 8:30 this morning, and a copy was just signed for by the office of Marc Miller, Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. We currently have over 56,000 signatures at this time, with over 4,000 of those signatures coming from Illinois. The petition took nearly 1,500 pages to print and weighed 17 pounds! While this is impressive, it may not be enough to show these people that Mr. Patterson did the right thing by rescuing these birds, and that our laws need to be changed in Illinois to protect Good Samaritans. We will continue to speak out on behalf of Mr. Patterson, but we ask you to join us on another initiative; a petition directed at Illinois lawmakers that requests a Good Samaritan law be instituted in Illinois. A letter writing campaign took place a few weeks ago with a media blast this week, so the ball is rolling. We need your voices again to help push this request to the lawmakers in our state's capital. Please visit the petition link below, started by Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (the facility that is caring for the two eagles that Mr. Patterson rescued), and sign it/share it with your friends. https://www.change.org/p/illinois-state-house-enact-an-illinois-good-samaritan-law-for-wildlife We appreciate your continued support and will keep you updated on any further developments. Thank you again! Sincerely, Andie Groff