staff of the shelter uses volunteers and often uses them in ways that reduce ex-spend thank youers and reduce the need of considering to put a animal down, and they will send that home with someone like me and it will be cared for and and the pups will be born and when the time comes they will be brought back to the shelter and we will adropt them out. and this, of course, reduces expenses at the shelter and i just think that the shelter is to be congratulated for how creatively they use the volunteers and the last thing that i want to say very quickly is just thinking personally about interacting with the government, i often think about going to the dmv and how unpleasant that is. and when people come into the shelter, they often bring their children and i know that the supervisors have talked about their positive experiences.

it is a pleasant place to come. and the animals are clearly well cared for. and you always hear the laughter of children in there and much of that is due to the volunteers and what happens with the volunteers is due to the professionals that work there, thank you so much. >> thank you, very much >> i also want to thank tang and weiner for bringing this to the floor. >> i am a 36 year resident of san francisco and a volunteer for the past eight years at the san francisco, animal and control. and my thunder has been stolen. and so i will try to summarize, one of the things that i have observed for 30 years in san francisco i worked for one of staoet agency and working for that agency i had a lot of contact with the other city agencies and the thing that i have observed in the san franciscan , animal care and

control, is the stewardship. and they should be commended for that and there is no flat in their budget and they operate as best as they can despite that. you

>> the cat needed to have the teeth removes and they declined that cat, and put on death row and another one had stones and was turned down and another cat turned down. and i just, i am not and in favor of a group that cherry picks its animals especially bringing in animals from out of county, and in favor of being the only animal shelter in the city, thank you. >> i am actually an animal care

attendant at animal control but i am here as a private citizen and it is interesting all of the data and all of the statistics that have been put out and the presentation. but, let me tell you as supervisor weiner mentioned, you don't really realize everything that goes on until you visit our shelter. i have been there for six years and every day is a struggle and some days when we need to have 7 people working there are only four of us and we all have to overlook all of the animal's needs from medical issues from behavior issues, and socializing them and making sure that they are okay and they receive their basic needs, as well as providing services for the taxpayers, and let me tell you that every day that i go in, it is just, a new day, but, we do need as a new day and we don't know what to expect, on that day. and some days can be a bad day

and other days can be great days. but, we do need a lot more resources, and to provide these services to the animals as well as the citizens, thank you. >> next speaker. thank you. >> hello, my name is mike, and i am an animal control officer, and i love my job. and my co-workers are volunteers, and i love our department and we do a lot of great things, and we do a lot of difficult things. and when we don't have the resources that we need, it makes our job and our responsibilities much more difficult. thank you. >> next speaker. >> my name is jennifer and i am the founder of the rescue in san francisco and the supervise chair of the animal control and much of what i want to say has

been said and i want to lend my voice, acc had already a huge task ahead of it and then, in to the effect, when the dog licensing and the dog permit, and the dog walking permit, and rules, which, i think, added, well, to what was even a heavier burden to what was already difficult for them, the bottom line is that we cannot ask a municipal agency in charge of or animals to do the breathe stroke if we are going to tie their hands behind their backs and a no kill is a hot topic and there is no question that it is a desirable goal. but to do the better work, the agency, must must must have a competitive and better budget, we owe it to the animals of san francisco, and especially if we claim to love them as well as we do, thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> next speaker.

>> hello, my name is belinda rider i am the manager of behavior and training at san franciscan mal care and control. and i am here to please ask you to properly staff and fund our city shelter, we do a lot of the resources we have. and behavior and training, we are 100 experience funded by friends of animal care and control. we are creative with the money that we have, just two examples are the fetch program. that is a program that provides enrichment and training, and rehabilitation for any dogs that come to the shelter in terms of a custody hold, or an investigation hold. we have incredible volunteers that staff that program, and however, we also need the staff resources to over see that kind of program. we are also very creative last

year with our wolf program, and i am not sure that if you remember that program, it was collaboration between us and the mayor's office. and we worked with the previously homeless, individuals, to pair them up with the dogs that needed some behavior work. and so again, i am just pleased making a plea to fund the behavior and training department at the city shelter. we need it and that is it, thank you. >> i am a long term cat rescuer and i have trapped 2,000 cats and i have volunteered at both and i admire both organizations

greatly, however,. my pitch today, is that i do not think that acc is the right agency to expand function to go beyond its mandate. and i think that the thing that needs to happen is if the fsba for the rescue and the project non-profit to step up. and for many reasons, they are much cheaper, when a was founed it saved money, but the reason for two adoption agencies on the same street was that it was thought that they did not get salaried and you would not be able to recruit good staff without doing adoptions. this is now slipped. with high pensions and high salaries, it is cheaper and more efficient to do the things through the non-profit and more

competitive and they don't have the moral hazard of deciding what compassionate programs. and what should not. and they can see it as a regional problem, and they can take animals from out of county. and animal care and control does this. against its mandate and so, please, reduce the budget, with the reduction in the sterile cat and dog populations. >> thank you next speaker. >> well, my name is kelley, and i am a long time volunteer at animal care and control and i greatly appreciate all of the work that it does to help the animals and the people of this city. i think that it is important that it remains a city-run organization, with the clear transparency and remains open to all animals and it does not take animals from out of county despite what was previously

said. and it focuses on san francisco and i think that is very important. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> hi, my name is marcy saw and i am a director of save a bunny rescue and i live with a two cats and a lab pit mix and i discovered acc in 199 when i wanted to adopt a rabbit and i was told that they doebt have any and i had to go to san franciscan mal care and control and i didn't want to go to a place where they killed animals and that is what i found out that no kill means and no kill often does not include the small animals. i also learned that san franciscan mal care and control was the only animal place in the entire city of san francisco that worked with small animals and did any sort of assistance for them. pets unlimited and spca both

have wonderful resources and beautiful buildings, but they only work with cats and dogs, so the over 120, to 150 rabbits each year that come into san francisco either go through the animal care and control or go through the non-profit and volunteer based organization and we get no spay help at any of those hospitals and we are not able to house anybody there and we were offered a room at spca which was kind but we were told that we would need to clean the room ourselves because the rabbits are not their mission and they don't have staff to dedicate to that. so i really from my heart, want to ask you to please, fund san franciscan mal care and control, they are one of the most dedicated, authentic, and genuine animal lovers that i know. >> thank you very much. >> we do have a rule at the board of supervisors about no applause or booing, if people

approve you can do a thumbs up or down and wave our hands. and before we get to the next speaker, i have one additional card, to jennifer scarlott. >> good afternoon, supervisors, my name is angela pedia and i have lived in district eight with my wife amy who is a fourth generation san franciscan and we are passionate about this city and passionate about helping this city's homeless animals. i am the founder of northern california family dog rescue and i am also a former commissioner of animal control and welfare. and family dog rescue is an all breed volunteer non-profit organization that saves over 500 dogs a year. this year we are on track to save over 700 dogs. our mission is to help the dogs of san francisco. to that end, and to ease the burden on the acc we take as

many homeless dogs and owners dogs as are offered to us by san francisco residents. we have a capacity to help the shelter dogs and acc, however, i need to are very honest with you as much as i respect and spraoesht the work that acc does they are not easy work it as a qualified rescue group. they do not have an efficient effective way of offering at risk dogs to qualified rescue groups for rescue and even the imp overished shelters in places like merced and lake county and around the state have a better informed system of offering dogs at risk to qualified rescue groups and getting those dogs out of the shelter. i want to request that the supervisors increase the budget of acc and that you demand the leveraging of the technology resources and other probono

support to help them. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker? >> my name is kathleen mcgar and i did not intend to say anything today so i have nothing prepared, so i am speaking as a private citizen. and although i will say that i am an acc volunteer. currently i transport wild life. and mostly birds, and baby raccoons once. and to the wild care rehabilitation center. and when i started with them i worked with the small animals and i moved to cats and so i am aware of how they function, and what they have to do, what their needs are, and i do think that it is important that they get more funding, and i also think that they can do more with their the way that they...

i apologize i was not prepared to speak. i think that they can do more in-house determining how they can increase adoptions, i don't think that it is a good idea at all to have the sbca which imports animals from out of county, which i know for a fact, has denied many animals there, based on behavior issues that went on to be rehab taited that went on to be adopted and retained in homes they just perhaps were older and black, dogs, that needed their teeth cleaned or whatever. and i think that animal care and control can actually increase revenue. by adopting out their own animals, but that requires in-house, sort of a rethinking of management structures, etc.. thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> next speaker? >> and supervisor, weiner before the next speaker, i just wanted to thank deputy chief

john loftus from the san francisco department for being here as a resource as well. thank you. >> i am sorry, chief i did not realize that you were here, did you want to say something on behalf of the department. >> on behalf of the police department, obviously, we are very supportive of the animal care and control and we work closely with them and generally, along, the lines of vicious and dangerous dogs. and they have been a tremendous resource for us and we hope to continue to relationship in the future. >> okay. thank you very much and again my apologies to you. >> next speaker? >> hi, my name is andria brooks and i am speaking in support of acc work and in the supported of an increased budget for the agency. i am a castro residents and i was the director of the

advocacy for eight years and i served two terms, and on the commission of animal control and welfare and i currently direct the seniors for seniors program for the senior dog rescue. and i think that in some of my past, interactions with acc, i saw, the side of the agency that not many people get to witness along the lines of the work that they do and the health and human services and a lot of the clients that i used to case manage were very at risk, they were struggling to keep the animal and some of them would end up at animal care and control and i never worked with acc before this job, but what i found from the staff there is that they would take the time and work with myself and some of the other social workers of these individuals and really help to put together a comprehensive action plan to help the people keep their animals as long as it could be done in a safe manner. >> and time and again, with a little bit of effort, people

were able to keep their animal and keep their animals in their homes with them, it was really eye opening to me of how the staff would go above and beyond and help in ways that i really had no idea that they were helping with, and so i just wanted to mention that, and hopefully their budget gets increased thanks. >> thank you. next speaker? >> >> hello, my name is elizabeth young and i started as a volunteer at san francisco acc. and in 2007. and i was inspired by the challenges of the work that they face and all that they do to create the pigeon and the dog rescue and as a result we have saved the lives and we have impacted many more, and i want to call out the importance

of sfacc's role in this city there, and they are the only shelter that helps all the birds and rabbits and rodents and reptiles. they are the only ones and it is interesting to see that number on the chart that says wild. which includes the wild life and the others and it is higher than the number of dogs and cats and yet throughout the animal welfare community, the needs of the others are barely addressed and it is something that only in this city, sfacc and the rescues that they have inspired and partnered with, address. and so i want to call that out, and say, thank you, for doing this now, and i think that this is fantastic and i am thrilled to be here and to hear, the support, that the sfacc has. and they deserve it, and they need it. and please, keep in mind, all of the animals, that they have to serve, and in the open door, shelter, thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> next speaker?

>> hello, my name is richard pastor and i am here to speak for the shelter cats particularly, and to be very specific here. and my trade is cat behavior at the san francisco spca between 1994 and 96 and 99. and i have continued in the field in cat behavior and cat welfare at oakland animal services and in the east bay and currently with the animal shelter and i want to speak about what is killing the shelter cats and what i call the cage reactivity and when you get a animal in a gage, where it cannot express, the fight or flight, and actually expresses fight and becomes an aggressive animal and many of these cats in these public shelters, are mislabeled as ferrills and they are hising and they are spitting and my experience is that is not so. and there is a percentage of

cats that just behave badly, when you get them out of the cage it changes and they become pets, ways to remedy that, the big thing is get them out of the cages, that will mean, building a new shelter, which i say, if you got the funds to do it. but, the adoption pack between the spca it works, when i was there in the late 90s. and i used to go over there in and pick the animals and we would confront the cats that were hising and striking at us, and we gave them a chance and i want to disagree with the spokesperson from the sbca, and it actually is less stressful, because are getting them out of the cage into a walk in ken eland it is lessening it. how you could budgetary and how you could fix this, with the budget, and that you can work with, is beef up the behavior department at acc, and fix the adoption pack with the spca,

and fostering and getting them out and getting them out of the cages. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> good morning, my name is evan and i am a volunteer with a bunch of different animal agencies in the city. i am not actually an acc volunteer, i am a supporter, and i just wanted to speak with about what a few others have mentioned which is their creativity was little, and you may or may not know that they have started an adoption agency, and the little adoption site at pet food express the pet food store and out of that little shelter they had there they have adopted out over 400 cats and over 30 bunnies and i think that was a great idea and it is very successful and the people love going there and i love going there. and so, i think that they are

good at doing the out reach and they are great with what they have got and so, i really encourage you to give them more funding but i think that they can do some really wonderful things and creative things and smart things and animal good things. there was mentioned here on this note that the animal adoption pack between sfaca and sfpca is supposed to be working and it is not working well any more and in that is imports a majority of cats and dogs from outside of san francisco and declines the number that are adoptable from acc and this is well known in the animal community. they are offering to take on acc's adoption roles because they are not in nigh opinion not doing a very good job with

that right now. just like i said, please consider to keep acc a city agency and please fund it. thank you. >> thanks, next speaker? >> hi, my name is jamie ray and i am the founder and the director, of san francisco wild life rehabilitation program. and i would like to just talk a little bit about our program and also about the animal care and control. and the care of wild life does require a department of fish and game license, there is no facility at, animal care and control to provide the care for injured and orphaned wild life, and that means, that we have nothing in the city where the marin county has wild care and the human society and this is one of the few counties in the entire bay area that does not have a facility for the care of these animals, i founded this

program in 2001 because the mammals were being euthanized when the wild care had the contract for the birds they did not accept the mammals it now has the contract to take care of the birds but nothing has been provided by the mammals i founded a foster care program and we do this care and it requires high degree of skill, knowledge and professioncy to do this care, it is not like snapping on a leash, it is to handle all of the different species of animals of wild animals of different ages and medical conditions. and it requires a lot of training to get volunteers involved with this and we would like the animal care and control budget to be increased. we know how dire it is and where they occasionally have to buy medications. and they are staff we work closely with their staff and animal and control officers are phenomenal, and they go beyond and do incredible rescues. and the people say that there is a tremendous amount of wild

life and the co-existence issues that people call animal care and control, they want help on the phone how do i co-exist with these animals this is undertaking. >> thank you. >> very much. >> hi my name is jennifer scarlet iment the president of the sfpa and i am here to reiterate that we are in support of it doing the core function of law enforcement and safety of abuse and neglect and that was the intent behind the split 25 years ago in which we undertook the no kill community and we invested in the high volume and, which is the corner stone of lowering the intake, several years ago we started to

look at the number of pits bulls and we increased over 40 percent and over all of which are behavior cases we have invested in pit bull programs to prevent surrender and our vaccine clinic and programs for those areas that is not have access to fraoet services or any services. we have also started the pit bull initiative. we are responsive to the needs of the city and we are committed and it is our priority that the animals in san francisco. and also, our offer is simple and we can do more to help. i heard it that we need more help with smalls. and so we remodeling the facility in order to take on smalls and give that community more support. and or offer to you is simple. if acc needs additional help, we can help, if you would like us to shelter, we will shelter. >> thank you. next speaker.