[Though not directly part of this petition, it is relevant information you should be aware of.]

In 2016 San Francisco leaders withdrew a $55 million bond issue for the construction of a new animal shelter, anticipating its rejection by the voters. So how did a $76.4 million, cavernous, 65,000 square-foot animal shelter get built anyway — and open in 2021? (The shelter was not even "built" from scratch. It is a remodeled power station.)

It was financed by a little known municipal funding tool called "Certificates of Participation." In a fiscal year that ends with a budget surplus, a percentage of that surplus can be used for special projects, and Animal Care & Control was awarded that status one year. Thus, the City's taxpayers ended up paying handsomely for the shelter — but without their knowledge or approval.

What's done is done, but you would think, now that ACC management and staff have moved in, they would at least attempt to justify the need for a spacious new shelter. Far from it. Several volunteers and visitors report that the shelter is at least half empty and has been for some time. ACC's policy of denying admission to all stray cats and healthy stray dogs from the public surely has a lot to do with it.

Occasionally, the shelter will accept animals from high-profile abuse cases outside of San Francisco or even outside California, such as a recent horde of Beagles rescued from a research breeding facility in Virginia, but good PR for such rescue operations can't replace a humane and sane foundational policy of doing what's best for San Francisco's animals in need.