Five Years and Counting: My Work on the Animal Commission and Beyond

This month, Commissioner Torres is celebrating five years on the SF Animal Commission.  photo: AdobeStock

It’s time to break out the sapphire and the silverware! That’s because this month I’ll be celebrating my five-year anniversary on the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare (just kidding about the trad anniversary items).

During my time on the commission, I’ve previously served as secretary and am currently serving as chairperson. And while this volunteer gig can be frustrating and demanding at times, I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to participate in city government in this way and am looking forward to applying for another term next year.

During these past five years, I’ve written about my experiences on the commission and shared my feelings regarding many of the issues that animals face in our city. Still, there is so much more I would like to do for animals beyond my commission service.

To that end, I recently decided to form an independent working group with three community advocates, all of whom are engaged in projects to help and protect animals in our city. Here’s a peek at some of the things we’ve been up to.

One of our group members is Ren Volpe with SF Shock Free, whose work to ban shock collars is already supported by the commission. An accomplished organizer, Ren is sharing her knowledge with our group, and we are looking at ways to support her and take her hard work to the next level (Ren’s also a regular Bay Woof contributor).

Another advocate in our group, Diane D., adopted a dog with medical issues that went undisclosed during the adoption process and caused the dog to pass away a short time afterwards. Especially heartbreaking was the reason Diane wasn’t provided these vital medical records: the organization where she got the dog felt that any additional medical documents would cause the adopter to feel “overwhelmed.” Fortunately, Diane has since turned her pain into action and started a petition to create change. She’s now working on legislation that would require complete medical information for any animal adopted or acquired in the city of San Francisco to be provided to the animal’s new family.

Kat Alvarez is someone who came before the commission earlier this year to speak about an older dog in her neighborhood who was kept outside for long periods of time and who appeared to have medical issues that were not being addressed by the current guardian family. Unfortunately, even though the living situation for this dog was not ideal, it still fell within the current legal requirements for animal sheltering. Not wanting another animal to experience a similar scenario, Kat is now working to revise some of the current animal guardian legislation in our city. As with any change, there will be challenges – but if anyone can make it happen, it’s Kat.

Meanwhile, the Animal Commission continues to delve into such important issues as the treatment of horses at Golden Gate Park and safety concerns at the San Francisco Zoo. I recently was able to visit the zoo along with a representative from SF Zoo Watch and two advisers from the Joint Zoo Committee, which was an eye-opening experience. Commissioners hope to have an agenda item concerning zoo issues at one of our next meetings.

During our last two meetings, commissioners continued our discussions about horseback riding services in the city. We voted at our August meeting to send a letter recommending that the Department of Recreation and Parks establish animal welfare standards and a plan to enforce them before proceeding with the RFP (Request For Proposal) process to resume horseback riding services in city parks (the city had already terminated its contract with the previous service provider in May after accusations of animal cruelty and overworking its employees). The attending commissioners voted unanimously in support of the letter, and we received an overall positive response from the city officials to whom it was directed. If horseback riding is to continue in San Francisco, the commissioners hope that extra attention will be given toward the safety and general well-being of all animals involved.

That’s it for this month. As always, we appreciate what everyone does to help the animals in our community, and we look forward to hearing your concerns at our next meeting.

See you at City Hall!

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The next meeting of the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare will be held at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, September 12, in Room 408 at City Hall (1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102). Information concerning remote access to meetings is available on our website. Agendas for upcoming meetings are published 72 hours prior to that meeting.

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Please be aware that the views and opinions expressed in this column are those of Commissioner Torres and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare.