Dear Supervisor Mandelman,

I’ve met with you three times before the pandemic regarding many of the issues Bill Hamilton is now presenting to you. San Francisco’s Animal Care & Control continues to disregard their responsibilities for the care and control of San Francisco’s cats (my main focus) and dogs as well.

The last time we spoke I mentioned the likelihood of retaliation for my respectfully challenging regressive ACC policies. I am now a former ACC feral cat/kitten socialization volunteer who once put in as many hours as a full-time employee. Along with socializing feral, shy, fractious, sick, inappetent, and/or depressed cats, I cleaned cages and groomed cats. I trained and oriented new feral cat behavior volunteers for over a year. After ACC opened the new shelter, and volunteers were allowed back after the pandemic, I was told that “ACC was not able to reinstate [me] as a volunteer at this time.” I attribute this to my becoming brave enough to speak out against troubling policies taking place at ACC.

As a former volunteer, ongoing animal lover and San Francisco taxpayer I am deeply concerned and disturbed by the increasing counterproductive changes against animal welfare I see taking place at the very place that is supposed to be the legal guardian for animal safety and welfare.

It’s as though the ACC Mission Statement should read:

“The San Francisco Department of Animal Care & Control (SFACC) is a taxpayer-funded, selective-admission animal shelter. Since 1989, SFACC has provided housing, care, and medical treatment to wild, exotic and domestic stray, lost, abandoned, sick, injured, and surrendered animals. SFACC’s doors are open to all animals in need, regardless of species, medical, or behavioral condition, EXCEPT FOR CATS AND KITTENS. The shelter also enforces most state and local animal control and welfare laws and is the first responder for animals in natural disasters and citizen emergencies.

• SFACC shelters homeless, neglected, and abused animals and offers a variety of services to the community, EXCEPT FOR CATS AND KITTENS.
• SFACC is the local City agency that investigates animal cruelty, abuse or neglect, enforces animal welfare laws, rescues wildlife and wild birds in distress, and aids domestic animals in need, EXCEPT FOR CATS AND KITTENS.
• SFACC aims to adopt, rehome, or reunite domestic animals with their guardians and release wildlife to their native habitat, EXCEPT FOR CATS AND KITTENS.

Based on what I witnessed as a volunteer, the policy changes that continue to occur, and what I’ve heard from some current ACC volunteers, I join with others in offering the following suggestions:

• Reinstate past successful, progressive programs;
• Return to showing reverence for the ACC Mission Statement that’s been in place since 1989;
• And make some common-sense changes to move forward, rather than embrace trendy policies meant for wildly overrun shelters that euthanize animals for space.

Continuing down the path of creating and enforcing inappropriate methods is pushing San Francisco towards a devastating population explosion of cats.

With all this in mind, here are specific solutions:

• Stop making it difficult for members of the public to turn in abandoned and lost cats (and dogs). Don’t set San Francisco up for lawsuits because people start getting injured by stray animals that their municipal shelter told them to house and feed. Animals may be more likely to not get properly fed, may be abused, may not get the medical care needed because not every serious medical issue is visible.
• Bring back and fully support the past former feral cat nursing mother and kittens program that was hobbled at the start of kitten season in 2019.
• Stop changing the criteria and ages that kittens can be turned in for socialization. Stick to 3-4 months and younger, but be reasonable if older kittens are obviously tamable.
• Have reasonable/flexible time turnaround criteria within the shelter so cats can be adequately socialized for successful adoption.
• Have a more uniform way of behavior-testing cats, with a certified cat behaviorist vet or vet tech who trains cat testers. Have that behaviorist train medical staff, officers and animal care attendants to safely handle fractious cats and appropriately behave when intaking and processing cats and kittens, both fractious and docile.
• Address the fact that all these decisions are being made by Virginia Donohue, Dr. Sheri O’Neill, and Ariana Luchsinger, who have NO previous experience working in municipal shelters. According to LinkedIn, Ariana Luchsinger has dog behavior certification but no cat behavior certification. All too frequently this was reflected in the hand-tying policies she put in place over the last few years when I was a volunteer, and afterwards when a person with absolutely no experience with cats took over for Ms. Luchsinger at ACC. Are positions at ACC filled ethically through proper civil service procedures and job descriptions?
• Stop discarding valuable volunteers and whistleblowers like me, who respectfully advocate for change. Recognize that volunteers may have past professional experience or have developed skills that can be shared with paid employees. This is called teamwork.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely yours,

Elva Granat

CC: Mayor London Breed

      City Attorney