safety standards, etc.. it would also provide an upper limit on the amount of dogs. this would provide consumer protection for those using commercial dog walking services and also allow dog walkers to have that additional legitimacy. in other words, they have a permit from the city, and it is not just a random thing that you are doing. it is a profession, as we know it is. dog walkers and dog owner groups, the dog gord, and there was a process. there are two amendments that i distributed to my colleagues. i have some additional copies here. i am requesting the committee to make today. one is under the current version of the legislation, there are vehicle safety standards and equipment safety standards, and the current version of the legislation requires that animal care and control inspect each vehicle that each dog walker uses and inspect the safety equipment. in talking to the department, that is not a feasible requirement to require every vehicle to be inspected for the hu
the maximum number of dogs that a commercial dog walker could walk would be seven, which was a compromise between those at the keating six and those advocating a to. the small business commission had recommended that the number be increased to eight plus the dog walkers personal blog. this committee accepted that recommendation and made a corresponding amendment at the last hearing. so today, first, just to step back once again, commercial dog walkers provide a critical service to san franciscans. approximately one-third of households and san francisco have one or more dogs. for many people, if they do not have access to commercial dog walker, it makes it impossible or next to impossible to be a good dog odor or guardian, said this is an industry that we want to succeed. we want to cultivate it. it is important to have high- quality, professional dog walking services. we also, of course, want to make sure that we have standards around it. a significant majority of dog walkers
they are treated better than children, especially those from lower income neighborhoods. i just wonder if you could talk about how important dogs are to the people that they live with and how you respond to people who are putting that out. yes, a lot of families that have children also have dogs, so they are not mutually exclusive. i think the importance of dogs in the community, it is a source of community. people pressmen to san francisco for a job, may be out of college, their first job is here, and they do not know anybody, and they walk their dog, and they meet people. dogs can be a great way of creating community in a modern urban setting for a lot of people. san francisco as a very transient population as the a lot of people come here to get jobs and have a kid, and then they moved out to the suburbs, so the demographics of the city, you have a lot of seniors who raised their kids in the 1960 s, and now they are still here in the empty nest, so they have dogs for com