Live Animal Markets are Horror for the Animals! Stop it!

jeffrey.a.ross@sfgov.org, erica.derryck@sfgov.org, districtattorney@sfgov.org, ACC@sfgov.org, kat.brown@sfgov.org, rebecca.katz@sfgov.org, richard.lee@sfdph.org, mitch.katz@sfdph.org, health.commission.dph@sfdph.org, hocfarmersmarket@gmail.com, amy.brown@sfgov.org

TO:
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris
Commission of Animal Control & Welfare
Department of Animal Care and Control
San Francisco Department of Public Health
Market Managers


Dear Madams and Sirs,

I like to tell you my comments regarding San Francisco's live animal vendors. I am dismayed the District Attorney has failed to prosecute merchants functioning in violation of state law. I understand a poultry exemption, listed exclusively under California Penal Code section 597.3, is cited as justification to do nothing - even as birds are routinely confined without water or shade, squashed upside-down in closed bags, thrown to the ground from trucks, and crushed inside filing-drawer size cages.

California Penal Code sections 597(a), 597(b), 597a, and 597t outlaw cruelty to all animals. I hope the District Attorney's office prosecutes violators and seeks maximum penalties as defined by complete law.

So I respectfully urge the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare to direct Animal Care and Control and the DA to uphold cruelty laws. Additionally, please ensure enforcement of the California Food and Agriculture Code. Section 26602 requires those transporting poultry to bring proper records or face arrest without warrant. Why doesn't this Code apply to consumers who move live birds on public transit or inside car trunks for use in slaughter, religious sacrifice, or animal fighting?

I call upon the Department of Public Health to investigate live animal markets from a human safety perspective. Animals are ferried into restaurants, buses, rapid transit trains, and shared dwellings - often kept
alive to be "fresh-killed" prior to meal preparation. Please impose regulations such as San Francisco's Health Code 050: "No live bird or fowl shall be kept or allowed in a food facility."

Lastly, I ask market management itself to consider the potential for personal liability in cases that involve illegal actions by their vendors. Unethical and law-breaking vendors should be banned from markets.

Cruelty is cruelty. Wrenching animals by their feet or wings is cruel. Audible cries of distress from animals indicate suffering. California law 599b identifies "animal" as "all dumb animals" and California Penal Code 597(b) specifies that "every person who causes any animal...to be tortured, tormented, deprived of necessary sustenance, drink, or shelter...is for every such offence, guilty of a crime."

San Francisco's live animal markets are disgraceful, but city officials have an opportunity to set a humane precedent. Thank you for your prompt attention to this disturbing matter.

Sincerely,