As you might recall, SF Animal Care and Control’s Sandra Bernal was expected to present a proposal to the City’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare last week detailing a system that would track animal abusers. The database would act as a way to prevent those who abuse and neglect animals from adopting again.
ABC7 followed up after the meeting, saying that the proposal was “well-received” by the commission, but that “some questions remained unanswered such as who would pay for the database.”
Another outstanding question: just who would the database track, only those convicted of abuse, or would it include those just investigated?
The “conviction rate (for animal abuse) is extremely low and I’m not sure if we’ll do much good if we only have convicted individuals,” commissioner Susanna Ruso said at the meeting.
The only other animal abuser registry in the US, in Suffolk County, NY, only tracks those convicted. In that case, convicted abusers are required to register in the database, in the same way sex offenders are per Megan’s Law.
Once issues like those are addressed to the Commission’s liking, the proposal would move to the Board of Supervisors for their approval.
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