LUCY is dead. There is nothing that anyone can do now to save her. An innocent life has been unethically and horrifically taken as the result of an unlikely combination of a string of unethical acts on the part of a vindictive neighbor, a hardened police chief, a deceptive city attorney, a floundering mayor and city council, an irresponsible and unqualified head of the local humane society, a governor who is more concerned with politics than ethics, and a judge whose own rigid residual attitudes towards authority overshadowed his own principles of decency and fairness.
Although Lucy is dead, the individuals responsible must be reminded constantly of their role in this unethical killing of an innocent creature so that they never, never repeat this again. Please read on to find out why.
To be sure, the goal of tens of thousands of compassionate individuals through out the word was to save Lucy herself because she did not deserve to die. The issues are not only humane but they are legal too. Lucy's case presented everything that is wrong about these dangerous dog laws and the way they are enforced. If we could have saved Lucy, many other dogs would have been saved too. From the time that the petition for Lucy started on December 17th to the time of her death, it is estimated that more than 60,000 dogs across the country were euthanized under the dangerous dog laws and animal control laws. Perhaps a few of them were so-called vicious dogs that stood no chance of rehabilitation (48 of the 49 Vick dogs were not vicious and adoptable). Most of the dogs had no one to care for them as Lucy so richly did; some didn't even have names or anyone to whisper "You were a good dog" to them as they were killed. If Lucy t made it, there would have been hope for some of those other dogs. But Lucy did not make it, and so now some would say that this is proof that there's little hope for the other dogs, other animals, even for us. So this is why it is important that our callous politicians learn that when it comes to matters of life and death, our dogs and animals do matter. They also must learn that when the people speak, they must listen. That goes for Arnold Schwarzenegger too, who prides on calling himself "the people's governor," but by one simple act of omission on December 20, 2007 , he proved that he is just like so many of the others.
(2) What You Can Do Now.
Some estimate that more than 20,000 dogs alone are dying each day in animal shelters across the country, being put to death by so-called Humane Societies. Saving Lucy would have saved many of them. But we did not save Lucy. However, we cannot let her die in vain. Here are some suggestions as to what you can do to make sure of that.
A- Write to those people who participated in the process, whatever their role. Write to Chief of Public Don Johnson, City Attorney David Kahn, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian Walsh, Mayor Otto Lee, the members of the Sunnyvale City Council, and the two officials at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley (Christine Benninger, president, and Beth Ward, head of shelter operations) who betrayed Lucy, and politely express your sadness and anger at their involvements, especially how each and every one of them passed the blame to the others. This will not help Lucy, but it will permanently impress upon the minds of each of these individuals about the consequences of their unethical actions in Lucy's case and just maybe it will help other animals --- maybe even people --- in Lucy's situation. The contact for these individuals is shown below.
B- Look around in your own community at what is going on with the unwarranted killing of dogs under your own dangerous dog acts and animal control acts and take what action you need to stop the unwarranted killing. For instance, for years, in Washington D.C., the Humane Society, which runs the animal shelter for the DC City government, said that their policy was to adopt out ALL dogs who are favorably evaluated for adoptability. Many, many people gave a lot of money each year to the Humane Society as the result of this "No-Kill" policy. It was only this year after the former well-regarded executive director of the Humane society abruptly left that it came out that for years their unwritten policy has been to NOT evaluate pit bulls for adoptability. Therefore, every pit bull or pit bull mix (as if one could define that so precisely), mothers, puppies, old dogs, pregnant dogs all alike, are killed immediately if no one claims them in the brief period specified by law. (I have ceased my large contributions to that Humane society until that unethical killing stops and will do other tings to help bring it to a halt.)
Public Contact Information For Those Responsible for the unethical killing of Lucy.
Sunnyvale City Attorney David Kahn
Sunnyvale City Hall * PO Box 3707 * Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3707
phone: 408-730-7464; fax: 408-730-7468
email: dkahn@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us, cityatty@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
Honorable Judge Brian Walsh
Department 18, Old Courthouse
191 N. First Street * San Jose, CA 95113
phone: 408-882-2320
Sunnyvale Mayor Otto Lee
PO Box 64457 * Sunnyvale, CA 94088-4457
ph: 408-730-7473, 408-739-8887; fax: 408-730-7699
email: otto@ottolee.org
Executive Assistant to Mayor/City Council: council@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
Sunnyvale City Council
P.O. Box 3707 * Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3707
main ph: 408-730-7500; fax: 408-730-7699
Christopher R. Moylan, Councilmember: 650-723-9518, cmoylan@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
Amy Chan, Sunnyvale City Manager: 408-730-7480, citymgr@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
John N. Howe, Councilmember: jh2@aol.com
Dean J. Chu, Councilmember: CouncilDeanChu@yahoo.com
Melinda Hamilton, Councilmember: mhamilton@ci.sunnyvale.ca.us
Humane Society Silicon Valley
2530 Lafayette Street * Santa Clara, CA 95050
main ph: 408-727-3383; fax: 408-727-7845
email: comments@hssv.org, pr@hssv.org
Phone: 408-727-3383,
Beth Ward, Director: (ext. 858) bward@hssv.org
Ms. Christine Benninger, President, cbenninger@hssv.org
(Note: Both Ward and Benninger both said that Lucy tested ZERO on a scale of ZERO to TEN for aggression towards humans, but went on to say that because she was a pit bull, the HSSV was not willing to take the chance to let her out because of the risks to any child who may be walking a dog near Lucy. In the opinion of many, of all the people in the chain of people responsible for Lucy's killing, Ward and Benninger alone betrayed the animals whose welfare they are charged with protecting.)
Department of Public Safety
Chief Don Johnson (the individual who, as chief of both police and animal control, initially signed the order to destroy Lucy)
Department of Public Safety * Public Safety Headquarters * 700 All America Way, Sunnyvale CA, 94088-3707,
408-730-7100 (General Number)
Note: the name of the careless and vindictive neighbor in the 400 block of Bryan Avenue in Sunnyvale who owned Bobbi and whose behavior led to both the death of her own beloved dog and Lucy's death is purposely omitted here.
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