S.F. Animal Care and Control dogged by heavy calls, low staffing

Volunteers at the Animal Control center socialize two pit bulls in their care Tuesday November 25, 2014. San Francisco's Animal Control agency will soon get more officers to help with the overwhelming number of calls they respond to. less Volunteers at the Animal Control center socialize two pit bulls in their care Tuesday November 25, 2014. San Francisco's Animal Control agency will soon get more officers to help with the overwhelming number of ... more Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close S.F. Animal Care and Control dogged by heavy calls, low staffing 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

When Jeff Tavano saw a small dog trying to cross busy Monterey Boulevard in San Francisco’s Sunnyside neighborhood last week, he screeched his car to a halt.

The poodle mix was within inches of traffic, so Tavano, 34, got out and ushered the shaken hound safely to the curb and called animal control.

This is where the problem lies.

“The answer I got from them was, 'We have two animal control officers on in the entire city. Can you bring the dog in yourself?’” Tavano said.

He couldn’t. “I have a small baby at home, so my hands were tied,” he said. The pooch’s fate hung in the balance.

Officials at San Francisco Animal Care and Control, the city agency that handles everything from stray pets to the enforcement of animal welfare laws, acknowledge it wasn’t the first time they couldn’t respond to a service call because of a staffing shortage. It wasn’t even the first time it had happened to Tavano.

“I’ve been in this situation a couple times because I own a dog, and when I see a lost dog, I call,” Tavano said. “It’s so surprising to me that a city that supposedly has more dogs than children is not in a better position to act.”

City officials say they do their best with what they have. But they have their limits. Among them is having just five animal control officers to respond to 837,000 people who between them own an estimated 120,000 dogs. Last fiscal year, the agency recorded more than 12,300 requests for service.

“We’re the only place to call. We are the open shelter,” said Mirian Saez, the agency’s acting director, who has been at the helm of the agency barely two months. “Our animal control officers go from picking up dead animals in the streets to picking up a dog that’s been hit and dealing with the family. … They work hard. Their jobs are really, really tough.”

Officers to be added

Saez didn’t want to comment on what it was like before she arrived at the agency in September but said the 45-person office is aggressively hiring with the hope of improving service for both pups and the public.

Five new animal control officers will be among 10 new positions added in coming months, Saez said. The money for the employees was dedicated in the city’s budget for this fiscal year.

“That will, in effect, double the number of animal control officers in this agency,” she said. “That totally speaks to the commitment of the mayor’s office and the city administrator’s office.”

The National Animal Care and Control Association of Kansas City, Mo., which helps communities determine optimal staffing levels, said there are too many variables to calculate San Francisco’s needs quickly. But Executive Director George Harding agreed, at first blush, that the city’s current numbers seem low.

'Shivering and shaking’

While San Francisco’s hiring plans are good news for the dogs, they were little help to the lost poodle on Monterey Boulevard last week.

Another person who stopped to help told Tavano to bring the animal to a nearby dry-cleaning business to see if they’d dog-sit. If animal control couldn’t help, perhaps a local merchant could.

“The dog was shivering and shaking,” said Genny Auyeung, owner of Martini Cleaners. “I’m here all day. I have a backyard in the back of the store. So I thought, 'I’m willing to keep the dog there.’”

Tavano and Auyeung made repeated calls to the number listed on the animal’s tag, but the owner didn’t answer.

“I went to Safeway and bought him a can of food,” Auyeung said. “But he didn’t eat it. Maybe he wasn’t happy.”

At the end of the business day, a call came to the dry cleaners. It was the dog’s owner. She said her pet had escaped through a gate that the gardener had left open, and a short time later, she came by to pick him up.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

What's not working

Issue: San Francisco Animal Care and Control isn’t always staffed adequately to handle calls about lost dogs and other animal problems.

What's been done: The office has always given priority to the most pressing calls. The agency plans to hire more animal control officers in coming months.

Who's responsible: Mirian Saez, Animal Care and Control’s acting director, acc@sfgov.org.

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