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City and County of San Francisco
Commission of Animal Control & Welfare Archived Meetings

Meeting Information


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DRAFT

COMMISSION OF ANIMAL CONTROL AND WELFARE

Mailing Address: 1390 Market Street, Room 822

San Francisco, CA 94102

Voice Mail: (415) 252-3817

MINUTES OF MEETING -July 12, 2001

1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL

    1(a). Chair Elissa Eckman convened the July 12, 2001 meeting of the Commission of Animal

Control and Welfare to order at approximately 5:35 p.m. at City Hall, Room 408, San Francisco, California.

Commissioners in attendance: Chair Elissa Eckman, Vice Chair Cheryl Bentley, Secretary June Wilson, Jack Beslin, S.F.D.P.H.; Carl Friedman, Animal Care & Control, Sgt. Bill Herndon, S.F.P.D., Catherine Tchen, Sherri Franklin, Frederick Hobson.

    The meeting was convened at approximately 5:35 p.m. Commission Chair Eckman presided during all aspects of the meeting. All 9 Commissioners (or their lawful designates) holding valid appointments being present, the quorum requirement of Section 6 of the Commission’s "Rules and Regulations" (50% of those eligible to vote) was satisfied.

2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:

    The June 14,2001 meeting minutes were approved at this meeting with minor corrections. Comm. Hobson requested that the minutes be amended to include his comments that the name change did pass in the Public Health & Environment Committee and that he, Bentley and Tchen were concerned with the attempt to kill this item (Note: The full Board voted to return the name change proposal back to this commission to allow the 3 commissioners who did not vote on this matter, an opportunity to do so.)

3. CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT

    3(a). The Chair explained that she had published 2 agendas, the second agenda included items that were not publicly noticed according to the Sunshine Ord. Therefore, the first agenda must stand. The Chair also stated that there has been a big rise in dog fighting recently mentioned on TV and in newspaper articles.

    3(b) The Chair stated that we have now got funding of $10,000. Comm Friedman stated that the funding is in the Dept of Administrative Services and also gave suggestions on how to handle this funding. Comm. Bentley suggested that we write a letter to the Finance Committee and Supervisor Peskin thanking them for the funding and the Chair also thanked Comm. Bentley for all her hard work in helping to get this funding passed.

    3(c) The Chair thanked city attorney Rosa Sanchez for all her hard work in completing the Rules and Regulations of the Commission.

      3(d) Status of letters sent to the Board of Supervisors:

1. Nothing has been done yet about the live animal markets. Supervisors are all busy with the budget.

2. Funding for ACC: Comm. Friedman stated that they can still provide the same services as they did for the previous year.

3. Still working on the removal of trees.

4. Comm. Hobson is still working on the elimination of fares of animals travelling on MUNI. Comm. Bentley stated that she went to a hearing with her parrot and was not allowed in with her pet. Comm. Hobson stated that he has been allowed in with his parrot and that Barbara Taylor has her little dog with her at all times.

5. No answer yet about letter sent to the Board re UCSF lack of cooperation with city’s resolution concerning animal testing.

6. No answer yet regarding a dog license fee increase.

4 COMMITTEE REPORTS

    (a) There are some minor details to be ironed out regarding the distribution of the crime stoppers (anti dog fighting) posters but they should be out very soon. Supervisor McGoldrick expressed interest in getting the posters up. The Chair thanked Comm. Herndon for all his work in helping with the posters.

    (b) Fur Ban Ord.: Comm. Franklin stated that it was difficult to get meetings with the Supervisors to enlist their support on this measure. They have 3 supervisors signed on and need one more to get it on the ballot..

5 OLD BUSINESS

    (a) There was considerable discussion on the Name Change with no one coming to an agreement and it will be discussed further at the next meeting. Four of the public were in favor of the name change.

6 PUBLIC COMMENT

Eric Mills spoke about ostrich meat eating, plus Pasadena, CA has ban rodeos and circuses, whale hunting, and the live animal markets where he is trying to get all concerned together to get the Kuehl Bill moving forward.

Dr. George complained on the increase of license fees for dogs for responsible owners who do license their dogs. Cats should be licensed also. The money from licensing should not go into the general fund.

The SF/SPCA supports dog licensing increases and that the extra money will not go to the general fund. They are opposed to cat licensing at this time.

Lisa Victorie of SF Dog said that she hoped that this commission would respond to the draft dog policy of Rec & Park. She walks several hours a day with her dogs and is against having dogs on leashes. She begged. ACC to be a forerunner and to be an advocate

Wendy McClure of SFDog urged the commission to take a good look at draft dog policy as it will affect thousands of dogs in this city. She is appalled that Rec & Park did not include this commission as one of the stakeholders as we should have got the policy months ago and as public comment is up 13th August, she suggested we ask for an extension.

Francine Polensky echoed Ms. McClure sentiments

Florence Sarrett asked how many commissioners had read the dog policy, only 2. There are now 17 parks where dogs can go off leash. Several parks are unusable and covered with foxtails. The new draft policy provides 18 or 20 but in order for a neighborhood park to receive a new dog pen, first, the community must apply for the pen. The pens will be fenced and in some cases of the small parks, the pens will be quite small, min. 8000 square feet (size & 1/2 of a tennis court) and they do limit the number of dogs to 20 at one time. Many dogs crowded in a pen invites dog fights so no dog owners would apply and non-dog owners certainly wouldn’t like to see their park defaced with a tennis court surrounded by a cyclone fence, so they would not apply either. I predict that that will leave the 17 existing ones available She suggests that this commission write a letter to Rec. & Park to delay the community input another 30 days asking them to modify their restrictions

Comm. Friedman responded to Dr. George that the dog license money goes into the Animal Welfare Fund. He did not like asking the Board for extra money for license as it’s the responsible dog owners that pay. For the last 8 years, they have tried to take over the dog licensing for the estimated 125,000 dogs in the city and county. At last count only 11,000 were licensed. If a dog is lost, a license helps, find the owner. If a dog is licensed, people know that it has had its rabies shots. Extra money will help them with their resources. They do include cats and other animals. Supervisor Leno wrote some new dog legislation, "why are only 11,000 dogs licensed" enforcement is one issue but Comm. Friedman thinks its more education and more people would get their dog licensed if it was made easier. He thanks the SF/SPCA for helping too, not mandatory but making it available for their customers. In order to get resources, he wants to get someone in the parks, not for giving citations for having a dog off a leash but to educate them, but the Board has not given it top priority so he came up with a small increase in licenses and we will get enough revenue to get community outreach. Eventually, with money they get, they can take over the whole administration from the tax collector’s office and if he can get a 75% compliance rate, watch out SPCA, he’s going to do some fantastic things. Together he means.

Elliot Katz spoke about a show at the Arts Commission where they threw chickens and feces into the audience. Comm. Friedman said that the manager told him that they were rubber chickens. ACC and Health Dept. are looking into it.

Comm. Hobson said that the Chair didn’t include on the agenda, a time for calendar items where commissioners can suggest that something we request be put on the agenda for the next meeting. He wants us to do a follow up on the Rec and Park and also a recommendation to the Board that they adopt a resolution to encourage people not buy any cosmetics tested on animals. First, it was decided to have a special meeting about the draft dog policy, then it was decided that Comm Franklin and Wilson will draft a letter to the Rec. & Park.

7 ADJOURNMENT

    The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m., motion by Comm. Eckman, seconded by the Comm. Wilson

Dated: 24th July, 2001

June P. Wilson, Secretary