San Francisco's ever-active Animal Control and Welfare Commission has renewed its push for a pet sale ban in the city - only this time, it even covers goldfish.

The idea is to put the squeeze on puppy and kitten mills that supply pet stores, and to discourage "impulse buys" of hamsters and other small pets that often wind up being dumped at shelters.

But goldfish, guppies and tropical fish?

"Most fish in aquariums are either mass bred" under inhumane conditions "or taken from the wild," commission member Philip Gerrie said. That leads to "devastation of tropical fish from places like Southeast Asia," he said.

The proposed ban, which the commission just adopted after a year of study, was expanded to cover animal breeders as well as pet stores. As you might expect, it has local merchants like Ocean Aquarium owner Justin Hau dumbfounded.

"The city is taking more and more control," Hau said. "They are very stupid."

Commission President Sally Stephens, who opposed the ban because it would include small animal-breeding operations, says it's up to the Board of Supervisors to make the final call.

"All this is, is a recommendation," Stephens said.

Sometimes the supes act on the commission's recommendations, such as when they approved a ban on declawing cats. And sometimes they don't, such as when the animal panel suggested introducing birth control pills into birdseed to solve the city's pigeon problem.

Supervisor Eric Mar, who introduced a measure Tuesday to keep big pet store chains out of the Richmond District, was noncommittal about the commission's latest proposal, saying only that the board needed to "look carefully."

On the other hand, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd wasted no time predicting that "this is another Animal Welfare idea that will end up in the dustbin of history and go absolutely nowhere."

Silverware scare: As the $2,500 (and up) guests dined on beet salad and Chicken Rollata at a San Francisco fundraiser Tuesday for Michelle Obama, waiters and waitresses in the Julia Morgan Ballroom began confiscating everyone's silverware - handing out plastic forks and knives instead.

Less of a security threat, you understand.

"Yeah, it happened to me, too ... and it's my building and my chef," said Clint Reilly, who owns the place and hosted Tuesday's event. "I just rolled my eyes - but that's the Secret Service."

Happy hunting: Former San Francisco Supervisor and current mayoral candidate Michela Alioto-Pier is in the field with a poll that could heat up the tepid race for San Francisco's top job in a hurry.

In an effort to gauge her opponents' weaknesses, voters are being asked their opinions on such things as:

-- State Sen. Leland Yee's arrest for shoplifting an $8.09 bottle of suntan lotion while vacationing in Hawaii years ago, and his skipping out on the court date.

-- City Attorney Dennis Herrera's hiring of political consultants who double up as lobbyists - including one who resigned recently after allegedly failing to report his lobbying contacts properly on ethics forms.

Most of the poll's questions, however, are about Alioto-Pier herself - like her spotty attendance at supervisors meetings and how voters would feel about electing someone who is a mom, and who also uses a wheelchair.

Alioto-Pier campaign consultant SterlingClifford would neither confirm nor deny that the polling was under way - but others close to the campaign tell us they have been at it since last week.

Cinema verité: An anti-gang movie project by students at United for Success middle school in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood ended with the suspensions of two violence "intervention specialists" working with the district and the arrest of an eighth-grader for allegedly possessing a sawed-off shotgun.

It all began Saturday when about half a dozen students and their two advisers were shooting what was billed as an anti-gang movie at Union Point Park on the Oakland Estuary.

As part of the plot, the youths were to brandish guns.

Passers-by, however, called the cops, who showed up and confiscated all the props, including what turned out to be a very real - but unloaded - .22-caliber sawed-off shotgun.

As for how the two adult advisers managed to miss the real gun?

"Obviously, it wasn't very well thought out," school district spokesman Troy Flint said.

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.