Despite available humane alternatives, authorities in Fairfax County, Virginia, announced their decision to trap and kill a colony of beavers located in a dry pond near Tysons Corner. In response, PETA immediately posted an action alert on our Web site and called our members in Fairfax County asking them to contact the Board of Supervisors and demand that it use effective humane methods of beaver control. Fairfax County and state officials were inundated with correspondence from concerned individuals about the plan to kill the beavers. The outpouring prompted the governor to assign the under secretary of natural resources to coordinate an effort to resolve the beaver conflict. In October, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution supporting the relocation of the beaver colony to another Virginia locality. The motion encouraged the Page County Board of Supervisors to pass a similar resolution stating its willingness to have the Fairfax beaver colony relocated to Page County Supervisor Elaine McConnell's farm in Springfield. The beavers now live safely in their new home.

In 1997, PETA called on McDonald's to make improvements for animals before they become Big Macs and McNuggets, holding news conferences and demonstrations around the country. After a 'Day of Action' in October generated dozens of protests around the country, McDonald's invited PETA into negotiations. Negotiations proved fruitless, so PETA launched a campaign against McDonald's in 1999 that lasted 11 months and included more than 400 demonstrations at McDonald's restaurants in more than 23 countries, as well as advertising and celebrity involvement. In September 2000, McDonald's agreed to make basic but important animal-welfare improvements, which are the only protection for chickens in factory farms because the Animal Welfare and Humane Slaughter acts do not cover birds.

For more information and a complete campaign chronology, please visit McCruelty.com.

In 1998, following an undercover investigation by PETA at Belcross Farm, a pig-breeding factory farm in North Carolina, Camden County Superior Court made history by handing down the first-ever felony indictments for cruelty to animals by farm workers. Three workers were convicted and sentenced after PETA released hours of video footage that revealed shocking, systematic cruelty, from daily beatings of pregnant sows with a wrench and an iron pole to skinning pigs alive and sawing off a conscious animal's legs.

Glenn County, California, is home to a hidden industry in which animals are suffering: animal blood-bank kennels. Dogs and cats at these kennels are warehoused for years at a time and are repeatedly "bled" to provide blood to veterinarians across the country. Animals confined indefinitely in this manner live miserable and lonely lives.

The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights states that animal blood donors should be companion animals who are taken to veterinary clinics for the purpose of donating blood. If this is not possible, the time spent as a donor should be finite and short. This was not the case in Glenn County. Yet, for years, the Butte County humane society gave dogs and cats to these kennels, even though conditions for animals at the kennels hardly met the humane society's requirements for a "good home."

PETA intervened by writing to the humane society, asking that it stop supplying animals to the blood-bank kennels. We called Butte County PETA members, asking them to attend a humane society board meeting. We also put an action alert on our Web site, asking concerned readers to contact the shelter. Local activists worked very hard on the issue as well, publicizing the problem and lobbying the shelter board. As a result of these efforts, the Butte County humane society board voted unanimously to stop supplying animals to these blood-bank prisons.

PETA began receiving e-mail messages about Susan Padgett, a breeder in Otsego County, Michigan, who had been charged with cruelty to animals after 31 dogs were seized from her home and property.

According to reports, Padgett was housing 50 or more dogs on her property in a 9-foot-by-11-foot shed. Allegedly, many of the dogs were suffering from untreated eye and ear infections and injuries, one dog suffered an untreated infection from a botched tail-docking, and one pregnant dog was emaciated. Reportedly, all of the dogs were suffering from inadequate space and improper housing.

PETA contacted Otsego County Animal Control to inquire about the welfare of the dogs remaining in Padgett's custody. We also wrote to the county's assistant chief prosecutor, asking that Padgett be required to forfeit custody of all of her animals and be strictly prohibited from owning or harboring animals, if found guilty.

In the end, Padgett was sentenced to the following: forfeiture of all animals except one, who must be spayed or neutered; prohibition from owning any animals for breeding purposes; $4,000 restitution to Otsego County animal control; enrollment in a "pet care" course; and unannounced visits by animal control to her property.