animal control and then the director of small business. >> good afternoon, supervisors. supervisor wiener asked me some questions around this legislation, and we have discussed it at length. i'm not sure if you are familiar with the guidelines we have had on the website for years in which we have had tried to have a sort of self-regulating system. we would toys dalk walkers who would come play with our guidelines. in terms of having leashes, picking up after animals and being responsible. i think the community, in particular the and welfare -- control and welfare commission had talked about dog walker legislation for many years due to concerns about the welfare of animals in the care of commercial dog walkers, as well as impacts on the park. as well as information we had received about animals being lost, cared foreand other things. that is how this all began. there was a real call for regulation of this, and i know there are business reasons for the regulation as well. in terms of any questions that you may have about the particulars of the legislation or animal welfare and control's position, i would be happy to answer them. one thing that has come up, and supervisor wiener is aware of this, is our resource chacks and our ability to over see and provide services related to them, in particular enforcement. people who have concerns about anything related to animals generally call us. it has an impact on our resources, which are limited. that is the one area that we have specific concerns about. i just received today a letter from the golden gate awed bowen -- audobon society. i hope there is more regulation. it is needed. supervisor wiener: thank you. we have an ongoing change with animal care and control with resources and all sorts of aerial. i made an effort in the last budget cycle to get more resources for rec and park. i have already been in contact with the mayor's office. animal re-- control needs more resources. >> that goes with any legislation related to us, not particular to this. other questions, i know there are concerns about numbers in terms of whether it should be higher or lower, consistency and so forth. our number on our website is six. i know there is a push for eight other more. i can take questions now or later. >> thank you very much. supervisor wiener: regina from the office of small business. >> thank you. good afternoon chair mar, supervisors wiener and cohen. i want to thank supervisor wiener for introducing the legislation. i think you are going to hear from many in the industry about the need to do something. and an active interest in something that will bring more consistent in terms of the industry. the commission did hear this matter on november 14th and did recommend -- i will hit on the points that supervisor wiener did not identify in terms of amendments. the commission did recommend allowing eight dogs. the commission looked at this not only from the rec and parks side, the animal care and control side, but also from the business sector side. knowing there will be businesses that will be reducing the number of dogs they will be walking, and hearing from dog walkers in a certain size threshold. the commission is recommending an eight limit and that is proim aerial around what the -- primarily around what the commission things is safe for the dogs and economically for the business as well. they allowed for a personal dog for the dog walker. many of them use that dog to help keep the other dogs in control. so we did also recommend that. and then the other point that the commission didn't discuss but as a director recommendation, as the legislation is currently written, it is making an assumption had that there is one business model for dog walkers. my recommendation is to allow that if a business wants to hire employees -- because right now as the permanent plig -- application is written, that they have a business registration form. this doesn't allow for a business model if somebody wants to hire employees. >> i did make that change. >> i'm sorry. i didn't hear that. so my apologies on that. those are probably -- and then you addressed the taking a look at dog walkers who have been already in business in terms of contracting. >> yes. i believe i accepteded all of the recommendations of the small business commission except for the number because i wanted to defer that for discussion today. i am happy to answer questions for the supervisors for information information. >> if you have data to pass on, i'm curious about the industry itself. how many registered dog walkers you think there are, how long in the ski. evans received letters from people who have six or six people to single operators. >> i will provide that. i don't have it at my fingertips right now. >> and i know we will have a number of professional dog walkers speaking. i know numbers have been given to me as perhaps 500 dog walkers. it ranges from the sole proprietyors to the larger businesses. >> supervisor cohen? >> what endity is going to be enforcing the eight doing limit rule? >> my -- checking. >> the legislation states. this covers rec and park and port property. it has responsibility to police its own property. animal care and control has the power to enforce it. primary enforcement is for rec and park. >> are we going to hear from rec and park? i would be curious to hear from them. i know they are strapped for cash, and i would like to see how they plan to do that. >> the next speaker is rec and park and i think we all would acknowledge that they don't have the staff. >> i want to make one other comment and express my thanks to supervisor wiener. his commitment to see that the departments have the resources that they need. i wanted to express appreciation for that as well. >> i actually have another question, not so much for me but perhaps for the commission. supervisor, if you could briefly go over the fees or how it will be disseminated, who will get it? flesh that out for us a bit. >> we set a maximum fee because the feet is -- the fee is what it takes to oversee the program. the first year it is a maximum of $250, and then after that a maximum of $100. the departments will have do an assessment. it would be collected by animal care and control. >> and it would go back into the management of this program? >> yes. >> if i had eight dogs and one private doing, would i pay the same price? >> if you are getting a permanent as a professional dog walker, you pay the fee, period no matter the size of your business. you have to have a permit, no matter if you are walking under someone else's business license. we kept the fee rather low so that if you are only walking a couple of dogs it wouldn't be a major impediment. >> thank you. >> next up is ms. beelard from rec and park. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for the opportunity to speak. the keep is supportive of this legislation and want to thank supervisor wiener for his leadership on it. our job as you have heard us say is to balance a variety of needs in the parks. sometimes those needs are competing. it is our job to provide a safe and fun experience for dogs, dog walkers, dog owners, non-dog owners and we feel like this legislation strikes a good balance and achieves that goal. as supervisor cohen pointed out, we are resource challenged and have had frank conversations with the supervisor about that. as he mentioned, he tried to get us an add-back for park patrol last year. we look forward to working witt you supervisors as well. one thing i would say from the park's perspective on the number of dogs, we defer to the experts in terms of what number is best. but that consistency across parks and jurisdictions we believe makes it a, user friendly, and much more easy for our staff to enforce. thank you. >> thank you. i think we have folks from the port and the p.u.c. here. if anyone is interested in speaking? if not, feel free to address anything that comes up. next i want to invite up sally stephens from the animal welfare commission and has a dogs, and martha fields. if the two of you would come out from the dog owner or guardian perspective. >> i am sally stephens. i am chair of the animal welfare control commission and the chair of s.f. dog. as a history, about eight years ago, people went to the dog advisory committee, which is part of rec and park, to get a dog walking permit. it passed the d.a.c. unanimously. the number was six they came up with, and rec and park did nothing with it. about three or four years later people went to the animal welfare control commission, and the commission at that time recommended a number of eight dogs as part of the process. again nothing has had for four years. now supervisor wiener has brought this forward. that is the history. speaking as the head of s.f. dog, we very much support the number of seven. we could live with six or eight, but seven seems like a nice compromise. there is kind of a perception that just about anybody can walk a dog. you don't know that they know what they are doing. this will elevate the perception of dog walkers. it is important as a dog owner to know that they will be out and walked. it will increase the safety for dogs. things like requiring first aid safety and vehicle protection are important for dogs. people can feel more confident when they see a dog walk ner a park. it is important that a.c.c. get additional money to administer the program if at all possible. i think as regards to having the same number versus any organization, seven and six are close enough. i don't think that is a significant difference. kind of given the history of not particularly being helpful in working with us, we shouldn't allow them to be telling us what we should be doing in our parks. thank you. >> miss stephens, i did have a question. i am a cat person. i have questions, not dogs. how much does a person pay to have your dog walked, and how come is it among dog eners? >> as common. most of us work, and you can't always -- i worked at home for a lot, so i was able to walk my dog in the middle of the day. but when i worked at home, i didn't. i go with the professional dog walkers estimate of 500 dogs in the city. people that go have their dogs in larger groups can pay less money than someone who does a dog walk individually. speaking personally, i had my dog walked by someone who did a single walk. she had some behavioral issues which that walker was able to train out of here. she was a little fear aggressive, and it worked out. i wanted her to walk with someone focused on her. at the time i was paying about $25 or $20 a day for a dog walk, and i think the largers groups should pay less. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, i am the co-founder and chair of the chrisy field dog group. we are a non-profit organization with over 600 members based here in san francisco. before i begin, i would like to thank and recognize supervisor weesh for authoring this important legislation. it has been a long time coming, and scott has had the foresight and fortitude in moving this forward. during the many years we have been working on doing-related issues, the number one concern over and again is to ensure that commercial talking walkers have the proper training and sentiment to handle the dogs correctly. it would be a good practice to have a clear set of rules in which dog walkers need to follow here in the city and county of san francisco. after speaking to various user groups, i know this legislation has a lot of support from individual dog walkers, hikers, surfers, wind surfers, kite boarders, picnickers and bikers. so there is a lot of support for this legislation from a variety of groups. so it is with great relief and gratitude that this legislation is being considered here today. as i said before, it has been a long time coming, and again i applaud supervisor wiener for moving this important legislation forward. i just from my experience working on the issues and how it works with the various counsel -- i support receive dogs. i understand why a.c.c. is coming from, but i think there needs to be a compromise between six and eight, and seven seems to be a good number. i have been working on this issue for a long time and cannot express the gratitude for having the dog walkers being professionalized. any questions? thank you. >> is someone here from the spca? yes. >> hi, good afternoon. i am the director of the adomings center at the san francisco spca. also i spent a good number of years on the commission of animal control and welfare, the dog advisory committee and would like to thank you, supervisor wiener, for bringing this forward. this has been a topic that has been discussed for many years. as martha said, it is a topic where there has been interest and support from user groups. that is unique. our main concern is the welfare of animals. we are big advocates for responsible animal care for the good of the animals and the community. the legislation that you have drafted here is really good. since we are a city that has more dogs than we have children, this is wonderful rmed to -- time to highlight the fact that professional dog walking is a skill, and advocating business licenses and things that recognize this as a professional. we have a wonderful community of professional dog walkers already who are doing wonderful things and being responsible about their dogs, the parks and so forth. this will help when there are changes or when there are people who need a little bit more so we can continue to celebrate the success of professional dog walkers in our parks. as dog owners know, we are putting our dogs into the hands of conscience us people who are skilled. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> you made a comment about the relationship between dog walkers and the parks, and i haved nod over the years that a lot of times the professional dog walkers are the ones -- they are in the parks so much, they help keep it clean. they are part of that park community. that is an important point. thank you. >> thank you. >> next i would like to invite up two professional dog walkers with whom i worked closely on this legislation. alison and nancy will speak. come up. >> if good afternoon, supervisors. i am nancy stafford, to correct some misinformation quoted in karl nolte's problem. the aspca estimates 178,000 dogs in the city. according to a 2009-2010 survey, 39% of households have dogs. currently a 2011 parade magazine said 42% of households have dogs nationwide. we have been working with various agencies eight years to establish a permitting process and are anxious to ledge mies our profession. supervisor wiener has worked extensively with the community. we support the legislation and hope the supervisors will consider favorably the amendments. i think the licensing requirement versus an education , you forgot to mention that one. >> which one was that? >> for the license. >> the grandfathering? >> no, no the dog license that all of our clients would have to have. >> thank you for pointing that out. in the original legislation it required dog walkers to ensure the dogs they were walking were licensed, but there was no punishment for it because it would be unfair to punish the walkers instead of the owners. but i have changed that to a requirement that once a year the walkers would provide the owners a sheet on the importance of licensing. >> if anyone has any questions? i believe 500 dog walkers is a fairly good estimate. >> thank. >> my name is alison, and i am with the dog walker coalition. we wanted to thank supervisor wiener so much for everything you have done. i don't know if the other walkers understand 40uf6 care he has taken in considering our needs. we really owe him a great debt of gratitude. i just wanted to touch upon any kind of irritation anyone might have with the regulations. training needs to be mandatory for new dog walkers. a well behaved group reflects well on all of us. we have been condescended two or judged by private owners due to the poor behavior of an unskilled walker. these regulations are going to benefit all of us in the long run. we will be strengthening the integrity of our profession and demanding the same respect that would be given to the skills that our job demands. i want to thank scott for allowing an internship program. classroom is great, but interning with a veteran is extremely valuable for learning the skill needed for dog walking. i wanted to touch on the numbers. seven is great. eight would be better and this is why. financial reasons certainly. we love in a tough economic time. any of us who have or are trying to start a family. that little bit of extra money comes in handy. if you are planning for retirement. we don't have any 401-k's. we also are dealing with a lot of overhead. some people don't realize that. i personally put $30 to $40 gas in my car every day. i just had a $500 bill from dog hair in one of my fans. we deal with that all the time. they are certainly things that people don't think about that. there is no car that is made for what we do. other reasons are pack cohesivenesses, keeping dogs that work well together. keeping the older dogs to teach the younger puppies. smaller groups don't allow for that. this is a big deal. to illustrate a point, i have a client who was a doctor. he was called in all day. he called me up and said could you please come and get her. i said absolutely. having eight as the number made the difference for me to go to the house and get her out for the days. thank you for listening. thank you very much for helping bring some respect and validity in what we do. any questions for me? thank you. >> thank you. we will now proceed to public comment. are there cards? if anyone wants to do public comment and has not filled out a yellow card, please do so. comment will be for two minutes. when you have 30 seconds, you will hear a soft bell. when you have zero seconds left, you will hear a loud bell, and you should finish up. natalie, kathy, crystal. i cannot read your last name. maria taylor, walter and steve. walter, you can go first. >> thank you. how much is a doggie in the window? the one with the baggley tail? how much is that doggie in the window? i do hope i can walk that dog ok y'all. >> and i know you can walk your dog on the land, the best that you can, walk your dog you can all the doggie fans. what a city plan, to walk the dogs on the land.
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