2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 April 9, 2009
5:40 PM
1. Call to Order and Roll Call
Present, Commissioners, Sally Stephens, Pam Hemphill, Angela Padilla, Philip Gerrie, Laurie Kennedy-Routhier, David Gordon DVM, William Herndon – SF Police, Vicky, Guldbech – ACC,
Absent, Commissioners: Andrea Brooks, Bob Palacio – Rec & Park
2. General Public Comment
Richard Fong - Speaking on Chinatown live animal markets. SF lacks a Game Warden. Fish & Game conducted sting operation. They found poached ducks; crabs, lobsters for sale to the public.
Kiska Icard – Communications Manager SPCA – SPCA supports California AB 233. Enlightened approach to homeless animals. Allows deduction of up to $300 from State income tax for adoptions expenses from shelter and rescue groups. Local governments spend apx. 250 million annually on sheltering 800,000 cats and dogs that are abandoned each year. Increasing numbers are being surrendered. Bill will incentive more people to visit shelters. Encourages people to write representative to support AB 233.
3. Approval of Draft Minutes for March 12, 2009
3. Public Comment
Tina Ahn – Corrects name and title as “SF/SPCA Director of Development and Communications”
Cynthia Cox – Corrects statement, “Wasn’t here to talk about statistics. Every animal that is killed when healthy is a failure.”
Public Comment closed
Minutes approved unanimously with minor corrections.
4. Chairperson’s report and opening remarks
A) Comr. Stephens – Reported on March 30, 2009 Joint Zoo Meeting, JZC. Agreed to report back to ACWC as appointed person. Noted a lot of give and take between audience and Commissioners. Attendance down due to weather. Zeppelin flying over zoo freaked out many animals. Especially primates. Carl Friedman contacted company to request not flying over zoo. South American Aviary shut down due to leaky roof. May have money to fix but details unclear. Audience member questioned bringing in baby hippo forEurope. Majority of time spent on animal transactions. Questioned source of frogs from address on Capp St. Discussion ongoing whether to open lion house. May meeting will be held at zoo.
Comr. Padilla – Who sets agenda for JZ meetings? What influence can we have on what items are placed on agenda to improve condition of zoo animals?
Comr. Stephens – Not clear yet. Trying to answer the question of the advisory roll .
4 A Public Comment
Richard Fong – At previous Commission meetings discussed water situation for various animals such as the polar bear and the grey seal. Wants to bring up in the advisory capacity to fix their situation to improve water quality.
Mark Ennis – Commends Sally on bringing up health issues such as pneumonia . Also commends Sally for questioning procedures for bringing in animals to the zoo. Concern over bringing in new hippo from Europe. Should not bring in more animals while current animal conditions need improvement. Focus should be on black rhinos that reside there. Ongoing issue at JZ meetings is how deaths are reported without listing the cause. Necropsies are slow to come in. Tried to recommend a system to report cause of death as available. May JZ meeting, held at the zoo, will have a report from the Vet on cause of death. Before death report was “pending”. No one knew cause of death.
Comr. Stephens – They said vet would give reports at the May & November meetings.
5.Status and tracking of letters of recommendation, requesting action by the Board
A) Update on foie gras resolution, commending restaurants that stopped selling foie gras.
Comr. Gerrie – Resolution was adopted by the Board on March 24 and signed by the Mayor on April 2nd. A story in the Chronicle mentioned that the Mayor’s sister, Hilary Newsom, president of the Plumpjack Group, had foie gras completely removed from their restaurants.
Comr. Stephens – It got some attention in the media. It was one of the few things the Mayor and the Board agreed on.
Comr. Padilla – Frequents a popular restaurant , Salt House, on Mission st. It still serves foie gras, especially at lunch. Intends to write a letter to them about that practice. Will tell lawyer friends not to patronize . If anyone wants to picket , go to Salt House.
6. Unfinished Business
Discussion only of no-kill policies. Presentations by rescue groups and Dr. Kate Hurley.
Comr. Padilla - Two guest speakers tonight. Kim Durney from Grateful Dogs and Dr. Kate Hurley from UC Davis.
Kim Durney – Administrative director of Grateful Dogs for 6 years. For ten years previously volunteered in SF’s animal shelters. Has no shelter so needs to foster every dog . Last year rescued 180 dogs. Eighty % from ACC. Budget was $130,000, 95% went directly to rescue expenses. Average expense per dog was $700. Average adoption fee was $200. Income is from donations and fund-raising efforts. All volunteer staff. Has been accused of making a profit. Takes dogs that are rejected by SPCA and would be killed by ACC. Average stay is 3 to 4 months in foster homes. Grateful Dogs is oldest all-breed rescue group in SF. Founded by Michelle Parris in early 90’s.
Perception that SPCA has a no-kill policy. Disagrees. Basic question is what purpose should a private animal shelter serve compared to a public shelter? It isn’t forced to operate as an open door shelter . What is its obligation to the community? Believes it should be to save every savable animal. Terms “adoptable” and “unadoptable” are meaningless. Rescue groups take animals deemed unadoptable. Should be savable vs. unsavable. Every animal , not suffering, or a danger, is worth saving. That should define no-kill. Term “euthanasia” should only apply to animals suffering or a danger. Need a no-kill ordinance to define what no-kill is. Shelters should not be able to kill savable animals.
Steps to no-kill . 1. Promote spay/neuter. Need print, radio, and TV ads and PSAs promoting spay/neuter. Need low-cost spay/neuter services. 2. Keep animals in current homes. Need behavior hotlines. Make it easier for pet owners to find rental properties. 3. Need better medical and behavioral evaluation. Only criterion should be “is animal savable?” SPCA picks and chooses what animals are savable. Leaves hard cases to rescue groups. Rescue groups bring up savable numbers making ACC and SPCA look good.
Common argument against no-kill is it results in warehousing of animals. Answer is foster care. Develop foster care programs. Need rigorous adoption process to make sure animals are placed in good homes. Ultimate goal is adoption , but don’t want to sacrifice quality just to increase adoption rate. Grateful Dogs Rescue has rigorous adoption standards. Need media campaigns to adopt shelter animals and the virtues of less-than-perfect animals. Shelters need committed group of volunteers. They need to listen to what volunteers have to say. Need outreach to inform public of backyard breeders; importance of spay/neuter; regular vet care; and microchipping. Shelters need leadership. No-kill must come from shelter leadership and legally mandated standards. If leadership argues against mandating no-kill, time to replace them.
Comr. Padilla – I hear your comments directed towards the SPCA even though your experience was primarily at ACC. How do you see the partnership between ACC and the SPCA?
Kim Durney – Would like all groups to sit down together to work together. So far, views of agencies have been far apart . Need comprehensive effort between shelters and rescue groups and overall coordination between the two.
Comr. Padilla – How much money , time, and effort should go into saving any one animal? In my rescue group we become concerned when expenses exceed $1000 for medical and $3000 for behavorial modification . We question if we should have considered euthanization in the first place. Do you have $ limit? A time limit to measure how savable a dog or cat is for a shelter?
Kim Durney – It is different for a shelter who has staff on hand versus rescue groups that have to pay out-of-pocket. The question should be, “Is there medical intervention that can make a difference?” We don’t have fixed $ limit.
Comr. Routhier – SPCA has commitments and programs far beyond that of rescue groups. Commends SPCA for its work. Wants to know what should be cut from SPCA budget to save individual animals staying in its shelter for long periods of time. Remembers when commitment was made to save every savable dog from behavioral perspective. Had 9 full time staff just for that program. Was during dot.com time, so had enough funding. Fell in love with one particular dog, Suzy, was in shelter for three years. Other animals may have died due to money spent of Suzy. Wants to know how to decide which dogs die and which live.
Kim Durney - Volunteers can help SPCA.
Comr. Routhier – Current volunteer is huge compared to paid staff. They make all SPCA’s programs doable.
Kim Durney –Was Suzy put into a foster home to work one on one?
Comr. Routhier – No. She would have been better off with a rescue group.
Kim Durney – SPCA should have foster care program.
Comr. Routhier – SPCA does have foster care program. Primarily for kittens and some dogs. Not sure where resources are for these programs. Cites example of a problem dog, named Suzi, who was in foster care for three years, she did not improve. Unsure if foster care is the most humane solution to dogs with behavioral problems.
Kim Durney – Every possible alternative should be applied before deciding to end an animals life.
Comr. Routhier - It is complicated to make that decision. There is no villain. Saddened to hear public villainizing the SPCA. SPCA has improved . Wonders if it is due to new management. Villainization of SPCA is not accurate .
KimDurney - If there is to be a no-kill policy, it needs to come from shelter leaders. Difficult to make progress without their support. We have a public and a private shelter.
Where does responsibility lie? Should rescue groups be taking the tough cases? Animals deserve a chance. Unsure if they are getting all of the chances at the shelters.
Comr. Routhier – Maybe just a philosophical difference. Worked with respected person, who developed assessment standards, who wanted to work towards putting SPCA out of business in that their outreach programs would be so comprehensive that everyone would be able to keep their animals safe and healthy. So that there wouldn’t be any homeless and abandoned animals. Do all of that before putting resources into behavioral rehab.
Kim Durney - Said it would take time. Not overnight. Done in phases. Might take 5 or 10 years.
Comr. Routhier - Will we get there if we cut programs at SPCA and boost behavior rehab?
Kim Durney – Doesn’t know what programs would have to be cut.
Comr. Routhier – Doesn’t know either. SPCA has limited resources.
Kim Durney - Emphasis should be on animals in this community.
Comr. Routhier – Philosophical difference will always exist. Point is how do we work together? Wants to work with Grateful Dogs. Doesn’t want them to get burned out. Doesn’t believe it is through legislation.
Comr. Hemphill – Struck by the fact that 90% of Grateful Dogs rescue dogs are intact. Recently in Houston. Heard PSA’s for spay/neuter. Doesn’t hear that in SF.
Kim Durney – Doesn’t mean that 90% of all dogs in SF, just the strays. Would like to know how that is happening in Houston. Also wants all vets to talk about spay/neuter with clients. Don’t think they do.
Comr. Gordon – All vets do that. Has not worked with one that hasn’t. Thinks many intact dogs do not receive vet care.
Kim Durney – Would like to know who is responsible for PSA’s. Would like any PSA’s to also include regular vaccinations and vet care.
Comr. Gordon – Doesn’t see many problems in SF from diseases that vaccinations can prevent. Doesn’t know if due to vaccinations of most animals or SF’s isolation being surrounded by water on three sides.
Comr. Padilla – Would like SPCA to partner with rescue groups to provide at-cost spay/neuter for some number of cats & dogs. Has to drive to Sonoma, Oakland, and Pacifica to receive at-cost spay/neuter. Peninsula Humane Society, PHS, provides service sometimes for free. SPCA missing opportunity. PHS sends spay/neuter van to ACC and Pet Camp twice a month. SPCA should take the lead for free and low-cost spay/neuter.
Comr. Hemphill – Can spay/neuter be done by a vet assistant?
Comr. Gordon – Not by law. Also, spay/neuter of big dogs is a big deal. Vet costs have increased a lot in recent years. Average per hour fee for surgery is $1000. A spay/neuter of a large dog takes about an hour yet only costs $250. So, already subsidized. Doesn’t know why costs have gone up so much. We need a dedicated spay/neuter facility in SF.
Kim Durney – Would like to see spay/neuter van go into under served parts of the City and offer services for free.
Comr. Stephens – How have you found the best way to get more foster homes? A big media campaign?
Kim Durney - Word-of-mouth has worked for us. Better than Craig’s list. Word-of-mouth includes dog-walkers who have many connect ions . Possibly, City’s volunteer group. First-time fosters fall in love with their foster, adopt him and never foster again.
Comr. Herndon – Hear Avanzino’s first no-kill talks. Issue has been rehashed. Issue comes down to economics. Has cat with abdominal problems. Vet tests cost $1200 so far with nothing found. More tests coming. Case today at vicious dog hearing . One dog attacked another. Hospital bills will be $4 to $5,000 . Owners couldn’t afford it. Had dog euthanized. Programs could be cut. Money shifted. Frustrated with hearing blame on how programs now work. Bottom line is how do we allocate the funds.
Kim Durney – Some dog restrictions of landlords is by size.
Comr. Herndon – That goes back to State law that said you couldn’t be breed restrictive. Landlords then said no dogs over, say, 20 lbs. Unwise, because many big dogs are better suited to live in apartments. Point is, you solve one problem it creates another.
Comr. Stephens – Peer-reviewed study in 2005 showed tenants with pets did no more damage than tenants without. Most damage done by tenants with children. Any pet-damage was almost always covered by the deposit. Education out-reach to landlords may be helpful. Economics is a big factor. Maybe most expensive cases should be covered by those with deepest pockets.
Kim Durney – Yes we get the hardest cases. If we don’t take them, they will die. We have no facilities. Have to wait at the vet’s office with everyone else. That and limited foster care limits how many dogs we save.
Comr. Herndon – Shelter does take easier cases because they can adopt out more animals that way. Five easy ones vs. one hard one.
Kim Durney – Feels that burden is on rescue groups to handle hard cases.
Dr. Kate Hurley – Has worked in animal shelter for 20 years. Graduated UC Davis. First person in the world to do residency in animal shelter medicine. Spent three years visiting shelters in U.S. Wanted to find out how to prevent animals from dying when they lost their homes. Afraid to talk tonight. To take on this issue about trend in animal sheltering because it is sad. Trend is about talking about no-kill , focusing on no-kill, in context of distrust, based on premise that people that work in shelters and in positions of leadership are not doing their best. And that they must be forced to do their best through legislation. I give freely of my time. I do good and I’m trusted to do good. Don’t believe we can solve problem without trusting one another. People that are doing this work must be trusted to be doing their best. During residency, visited many shelters, some euthanizing, some no-kill. Nearly all who worked in the shelters cared. Some were burnt out. Some needed education. Concern about mandate is that we need to force people to do the right thing. As former ACC officer, rarely wrote tickets. Was much more effective by informing them of what the right thing was. Wants to take what is positive in no-kill mandate but leave what will cause inadvertent suffering. Worst thing is to assume there is a simple answer .
Questions, when hearing about commu nities that have had success with black and white solutions. Look at them over a period of time. Often, a nuanced approach emerges. Instead of no-kill for all healthy animals, programs develop to relieve suffering and allocate resources humanely. Carrying capacity is limited and can dwindle if misused. From Global Development Research Center; common fallacy is to equate existing and unused spaces as having ability to support human life under modern conditions, criteria is rather not land area but carrying capacity. The ability of an area to sustain a population within natural resource limits and not degrade that environment for future generations . When carrying capacity is exceeded the environment is degraded and can support fewer numbers. This applies to shelters and those that try to save more animals than they can do well. They over extend themselves and can’t do any of it well. Biting off more than they can chew leaves them accomplishing less.
Shelter performance goals – 1) ending euthanasia of adoptable/treatable animals; 2) easing health and comfort of animals; 3) protection of public & animal health; 4) providing adopters with appropriate pets & positive adoption experience; 5) education of public and protection of animal health and welfare.
Shows photos of healthy cats that had been in shelters for extended periods of time or in small cages exhibiting abnormal behaviors. Shelter managers did not have resources to rehabilitate. No other animals were helped by keeping those cats. Admitting more animals than could be placed resulted in animals suffering and a lot of money spent. Policy also applies to dogs. Not a slam on no-kill. Doesn’t have to be a part of no-kill. Shows photos of dogs. One dog in shelter for twelve years. Describes that dog lunging and barking at potential adopters who left the shelter without adopting any animal. Dogs left in shelters for too long become unadoptable. Dogs have an expiration date. Quotes from Tompkins County shelter. Has twice as many cats as they can handle. Concerned overcrowding will lead to disease. Upper respiratory problems and canine distemper . Welfare and health for animals in shelters only means preventing these problems. Focusing just on ending euthanasia can hurt all the goals. Can keeping all cages full meet the goals of the no-kill mandate? Relates situation to grocer stacking cereal boxes. If only boxes are displayed that there is room for versus putting more boxes out, stacking the boxes in the aisle, does not make shopper want more. Too many boxes stacked hide the appeal of individual boxes. The grocer has to spend more time keeping the stacks neat and neglecting being at the cash register. People are walking out without buying anything. Cereal has an expiration date. It goes bad. People will not buy from that store again. Grocer takes some boxes home to relieve crowding but doesn’t resolve situation. Moral is no matter how many cages are filled, euthanasia is driven by how many animals go in and how many go out to permanent homes.
Shows graph from local shelter. One line is staff and volunteer hours. Easy to attract volunteers when animals are nicely housed and healthy. Another line is total number of hours needed to give every animal 10 minutes of care a day. Sometimes they needed 4 times as many hours as they actually had. Line on bottom shows actual time available per cat. Sometimes as low as 2 1/2 minutes per cat. Increasing inventory means less care for each animal. If animals brought in, that need special care if sick, will need more care at the expense of healthy animals. If shelter has too many animals to care for, it will take away from recruiting volunteers ; clever media campaigns; communicating with vets in the community. Fewer animals in inventory means less disease. Fewer animals frees up staff to talk with customers. Answer the phone. Allows more resources for prevention so fewer animals coming in. Bottom line is no matter what happens in a shelter, foster homes, or rescue systems, animals entering must equal animals leaving. Any program considered must consider how will this drop intake or increase absolute number of adoptions. Given competing programs; promote media campaign for spay/neuter; or increased volunteers; or increased rehabilitation; or a more robust foster program. Which one will increase adoptions, or decrease intake , with finite resources?
ACC euthanized apx. 900 animals last year. Could we have provided long term care for those animals in a sanctuary? Average life span is 10 years. If that number stayed the same it would equal 9000 animals. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary nations largest. They had budget of 9.4 million in 2005. They cared for 1500. Math equals 56 million caring for 9000 animals. What does long term care look like? It must equal a minimum acceptable adoptive home. We have the idea that more adoption is the simple answer. That we are just not trying hard enough. That there are enough homes in the U.S. to accommodate the adoptive pets. This was subject of my masters thesis. If we could understand why someone purchased a dog versus adopting from a shelter we could solve the problem. Stood in front of pet stores and asked people, “Why did you buy your dog there instead of adopting from a shelter?” Advisor, Dr. Phil Kass, asked what will happen to the dogs which were bred for sale? Thinking was that as demand goes down for bred dogs fewer dogs would be born. Had marketing theory. Half of the people adopt their dogs from shelters or rescue groups. The other half from breeders and pet stores. Problem is can not redirect one group that wants specific breed or type of dog to shelter animals. Like asking cola drinkers to switch to Odwalla. Another big source of animals is from friends & relatives. Those animals may wind up in shelters. Cannot adopt our way out of euthanizing cats, wind up getting more cats in. ACC’s 900 animals are older and harder to adopt. They are not puppies and kittens.
Cites Nathan Winograd’s statistics that ACC impounds 7.5 dogs and cats for every 1000 residents versus 15 per 1000 national average. How to shrink pie? Educate. Microchip. Reduce strays. Reduce owner-surrendered animals. Top 5 reasons for owner-surrender are: too many animals; too little space; cost; lack of time; and last reason, aggression with dogs and house soiling with cats, which are harder problems to fix. First four are relatively easy to fix. Last one is hard for owners and shelters to fix. Focus on spay/neuter. If one litter is prevented, five lives are saved. Prevent one animal from house soiling, one life is saved but may take five times as much work. If you want to save the most lives do the work that has the most payoff. Using Nathan’s numbers, if you take in 7000 animals , there are 7000 that were not taken in. This is a problem with a mandate that focuses on “no-kill” versus “no-intake”. You don’t get credit for the 7000 that were saved , not needing to go into the shelter. What is significance of educated pet-owners, dogs that get lost but have a tag or a chip, litters that never happen due to low-cost spay/neuter? Would be better to mandate policies and programs that keep pets with their owners.
Shows graph of Clark County, Nevada, animal intake population over several years in relation to spay/neuter program. Intake numbers go down as spay/neuter go up. Euthanasia rate climbs as intake rate increases. Intake decreased. Euthanasia decreased. Adoptions eventually go up after 7/8 years. Euthanasia also increases as does intake. Shelter numbers increase and deaths increase due to overcrowding. Overall, graph shows effect of numbers when focus is just on animals in the shelter versus preventive programs. If focus on ending euthanasia at cost of other goals, e.g., health and comfort of animals, is that fair?
Cites save-rate numbers. What is considered a no-kill rate? Around 90% save-rate. SF takes in 7.5 animals for 1000 residents and has a 80% save-rate. Washoe County takes in 39 animals for 1000 residents. And has 90% save-rate. SF has double the save-rate compared to Washoe county. Numbers can work out to 31 per 1000 euthanized in Washoe Co. versus 15 per 1000 in SF. Yet doesn’t feel like victory in SF. Animals easiest to keep out of shelter are easiest to place. Population that doesn’t know about spay/neuter is harder to keep out of shelter and harder to place, such as pit bull mixes. Takes more and more work to place difficult animals. Tend to forget all that has been accomplished. Need to hone in on what types on animals are left. Not just numbers. Additionally , what does it mean to bring wanted puppies in from other counties when none are being born in SF?
Need volunteers that love animals. Must have hope for those animals so spirit of volunteers can be fed. Visited shelter in Yolo County that had distemper outbreak in outdated shelter run by prison inmates. Sees need for work to be uplifting everywhere. Visitor experience must be positive for them to adopt from shelter. When experience is fun they may volunteer. Hard luck cases are hard for public as well as volunteers and staff.
A community in balance has programs that has all the competing ways to help; care for animals in homes; humanely, while in shelters; move out quickly to well-educated owners, making sure of a good-safe match. Balance all of that with other needs of a community. The homeless. People with AIDS. Kids. The environment. Need to think, what is best for all beings. Simple answer doesn’t allow that. Who will do this work? Will lazy, uncaring people do this? Need talented, creative, passionate people to work in animal care and sheltering. Need for them to work together not distrustfully. Not forced to do the right thing.
Comr. Stephens – Given limited resources, what should we be focusing on?
Dr. Kate Hurley – Do a careful analysis of why animals are suffering and dying. Never just look at numbers, in and out. Look at what is happening while in the system. Look at how many square feet of space each animal has and how many minutes of care. Compare reason why animals are suffering and dying in your community and in other communities. When know why, then think about programs will effect the biggest reason, how will programs address the biggest problems. Compare programs. See what groups spay/neuter media campaigns need to reach and how best to reach them. HSUS contacted groups that had intact pets and test marketed messages to see what spoke to them. Happy to help SF puzzle out these issues.
Comr. Padilla – Hearing that more focus should go on preventing animals from entering system in the first place rather than stopping of the killing. Want to hear how you and Nathan differ. All the ways you describe to keep animals from entering the shelter are encompassed in the no-kill movement.
Dr. Kate Hurley – Don’t differ. Spend my life trying to stop animals being killed due to homelessness. Differ in practice and nuance. No-kill mandates focus on the killing not on reducing the intake. Not a fan of warehousing. Doesn’t place more animals. Communities should be accountable to all three things; intake, warehousing, and killing.
Comr. Hemphill – What about other animals in shelters? Only hear of cats & dogs.
Dr. Kate Hurley - Have most examples of cats & dogs. Same problem for other animals such as rabbits. Need to solve problem by making more people want more bunnies or decrease circumstances that cause people to give up their bunnies.
6. Public Comment
Jolene Johnson - Concerned of possible conflict of interest of one of the Commissioners. Not good to express personal comments about employer while employer is present. Supports discussion on both sides of the issue. Doesn’t believe it is divisive. Work takes a community dedicated to saving animals not just running adoption business. Proof that more can be done is that rescues are taking unwanted animals and finding homes. Adoption Pact of 1994 stopped short of requiring a home for all treatable animals. Savable animals that need a little behavioral or medical treatment are currently not being saved. Recommends passing Nathans’ “Companion Animal Protection Act”.
Lana Bajsel – Heard that lack of funds is reason for no-kill to exist. See money spent on lavish buildings. Resources are there but money not being spent appropriately. Better that animals be warehoused with possibility for adoption than be dead. Better animals be stressed than be dead.
Jennifer Kratz – SPCA volunteer - Describes her close relationship with her geriatric foster cat . Does behavioral training . Describes how she interacts with a 5 year old feral named Billy. Switched from a private vet to the SPCA vet hospital. Gives tours on new facility. Learned that all profits from SPCA hospital subsidize low and free care for SF residents. To say that one cat is OK to be saved because it is in county vs. out-of-county is not fair.
Catherine Brody – SPCA volunteer – Has been doing call backs to people who have adopted cats. Response has been, almost always, very positive of the SPCA and their new cat.
Laura Massa – former SPCA volunteer/ current ACC volunteer – Stunned by medical professional comparing animals to merchandise, to cereal boxes. Best and brightest have left SPCA.
Mark Ennis – As human population grows, so does the companion animal population. We should look at original purpose of shelters – as housing facilities. That model cannot hold current population. Need to rethink how animals are housed in shelters. Perhaps give vets a tax break if they spay/neuter at low cost. Need to be creative in coming up with solutions.
Cynthia Cox – Appalled by comparing animals to cereal boxes. Appalled at Commissioner arguing in favor of SPCA. Not against taking out-of-county animals. Just take SF animals first. Supports remarks of last speaker to be creative.
Holly Stempien Fink – Animal Services Director SF/SPCA – Need to work together as a team. Has to sign euthanasia decisions. Hardest thing to do but best for the animals.
Tina Ahn – Director of communications SF/SPCA – Dedicated paid staff and of volunteers. Works with rescue groups. Has finite resources . All privately funded. Adoptions of 4200 animals in last fiscal year, speaks well of the work done. Had 150 foster volunteers. Had 40,000 visits by AAT volunteers. Had 100’s of kids that go through humane education program. 400 to 500 volunteers that give time annually. Want to continue good work with the community. Doesn’t think mandated legislation is the way to go.
Kiska Icard – Communications Manager SF/SPCA – Has worked at SPCA for twelve years. Tells story of fostering two difficult-to-place dogs. Doesn’t believe SPCA is only concerned about stats. She and others at SPCA care about the animals.
Public Comment closed
7. General Public Comment
None
8. & 9. Future Commission Meetings and Task Allotments
Comr. Stephens – On going discussion on no-kill planned for May. More rescue groups will speak.
10. Adjournment 8:35PM
Respectfully submitted by
Philip Gerrie
Commission Secretary