[nagdu] Fw: THE BAY CITIZEN. When the Dog Isn't Yours, But the Fine for Its Waste Is.

[Ed Meskys]

Subject: THE BAY CITIZEN. When the Dog Isn't Yours, But the Fine for Its 
Waste Is.


THE BAY CITIZEN. When the Dog Isn't Yours, But the Fine for Its Waste Is.
NY Times Friday, 2011_02_11
By SCOTT JAMES. Scott James is an Emmy-winning television journalist and
novelist
who lives in San Francisco.sjames at baycitizen.org. Scott James is a columnist 
for
The Bay Citizen.
The law in San Francisco is clear: you must clean up after your dog.
But now the city has punished a woman for not picking up the waste of a
stranger's
dog -- a pet she had never met.
It is a tale that could happen only in a city that has an extraordinary
affection
for dogs, attached residential buildings and a government that, some 
contend,
seems
to suffer lapses in common sense.
There are no dogs in Diane Archer's apartment building at 18th and Guerrero
Streets,
but several weeks ago dozens of piles of animal waste were discovered on the
property's
flat pebble and tar roof.
It was like Grey Gardens up there,' Ms. Archer said.
Ms. Archer, a writer I have known for years through the local literary 
scene,
has
been a resident and manager of the building on behalf of elderly owners for 
11
years.
The roof can be accessed from an adjacent apartment building, and soon after 
the
waste was found, a tenant in Ms. Archer's building witnessed a dog crossing
over.
Ms. Archer complained to Cass Smith, the neighboring building's owner.
Mr. Smith said he ordered his tenant to immediately cease. I'm pro dog,' he
said,
'but not at the expense of anyone else.
When the problem continued, Ms. Archer went to the police, who she said
recommended
asking the Department of Public Health to intervene.
On Jan. 13, Irene Sanchez, a health department investigator, toured the 
roof,
took
notes, and promised action.
I was relieved to have someone who was going to have an impact on the
situation,'
Ms. Archer said.
One week later, a 'Notice of Violation' letter arrived in the mail -- not to 
the
dog's owner, but to Ms. Archer's building, which was 'hereby declared to be 
a
public
nuisance. If the waste was not removed immediately, the fine would be $163.
Ms. Sanchez said that animal feces could spread disease and that Ms. 
Archer's
building,
even though it had been victimized, was culpable. I didn't see the dog,' Ms.
Sanchez
said. We don't know whose dog waste it is.
But it took only a matter of minutes -- by leaving a note at the neighboring
building
-- for The Bay Citizen to find the responsible dog. Her name is Jane, a
50-pound,
shepherd mix with long black hair -- a rescue dog sometimes cared for by 
Howie
Correa,
a tenant of the neighboring building.
I feel bad,' Mr. Correa said. It wasn't something I knew was a problem.
He said Jane, who belongs to his girlfriend and visits only occasionally, 
was
apparently
sneaking up to the roof.
Animal waste can be a contentious issue in a city of 815,000 residents where
dogs
are so popular -- about 150,000, according to the local S.P.C.A. -- that 
they
outnumber
children (118,000). Controversy goes back decades. In the 1970s Harvey Milk, 
the
city supervisor, captured the political zeitgeist by advocating for tough
pooper-scooper
laws, helping set in motion a national trend.
Complaints about dog waste remain common, but Sally Stephens, chairwoman of 
San
Francisco
Dog Owners Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for responsible 
dog
ownership,
said she was surprised that the city had penalized someone who does not own 
a
dog.
It's extraordinarily unfair,' Ms. Stephens said.
Eileen Shields, the health department spokeswoman, said that the city lacked 
the
power to force one building owner to clean up another's property -- and that 
the
city itself was not about to get its hands dirty.
It might not seem fair, but someone has to clean it up,' Ms. Shields said. 
They
think
the health department is going to come out and clean dog poop?
Ms. Shields said this was not the only situation where the city punishes
victims:
owners of buildings vandalized by graffiti also face fines if they fail to 
clean
their properties.
That provided little solace to Ms. Archer, who went to the roof and removed 
the
waste,
one plastic-bag-wrapped handful at a time, to avoid the fine.
In the meantime, Mr. Smith, the landlord, said he had warned Mr. Correa. If 
it
happens
one more time,' Mr. Smith said, 'he's going to be evicted.
For his part, Mr. Correa said that Jane's rooftop excursions were over, and 
that
he and his girlfriend were considering finding a farm for the dog so she 
could
get
out of the city and have a better life.
All involved said they were exasperated, and all wished they had settled the
matter
privately, now regretting that the city ever became involved.
It has been Kafkaesque,' Ms. Archer said.