Dear Pet Lover,

Your letters to judges, newspaper editors, and legislators, your attendance at court hearings and city council meetings, and your donations and the other support you have given to Voices For Pets have truly made a difference in the lives of animals this year. We want to mention just two examples of the impact your care and involvement has had.

First, it is hard to imagine a more satisfying and just outcome than that of the case of Puppy Duke. Severely beaten by 16-year-old Justin Nicholson, Puppy Duke's veterinary bills were paid--by you. In response to your letters to the editor and to the court, Puppy Duke's family was permitted to attend his attacker's hearing and speak on his behalf. Also due to your response to Puppy Duke's savage beating, Judge Lois Haight responded by opening up the juvenile court hearing to the public and the media. Noting the many letters the court had received demanding justice for Duke, and in the presence of about 20 Voices For Pets supporters, Judge Haight sentenced Nicholson to the California Youth Authority for five years, ordered that he receive therapy, and had the foresight to also order that he obey a strict curfew upon his eventual release.

Second, because of the killing of family pets in body-crushing traps placed in residential neighborhoods throughout the Bay Area, Voices For Pets took on a campaign to have these traps banned. In July 2000, we sent a packet to all of the mayors, city council members and county supervisors throughout the nine Bay Area counties asking that they consider banning body-crushing traps in their city or county. We sent them a model ordinance and the State Attorney General's opinion stating that they could ban these traps if they chose to, and asked that they do so. In August, the City of Pinole voted unanimously to research and prepare an ordinance outlawing these traps, and on November 21st, Pinole became the first city in the Bay Area to ban body-crushing traps in their city. On November 15th, the City of Berkeley Citizens Humane Commission voted unanimously in recommending these traps be banned in the City of Berkeley, and sent to the City Attorney a Voices For Pets packet and a copy of the City of Pinole ordinance. We have also received words of encouragement at the county level in both Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and have formed partnerships with other animals groups throughout the Bay Area to be of help to them in getting these traps banned in their own cities and counties.

Voices For Pets takes on more and more cases each year, with many disappointments, and also increasing successes.

Without your active support, we wouldn't be able to report successes like these. A big thank you to you all.