Loading...
Section 1B.3 shall be implemented and enforced by the Animal Care and Control Department with the support of the Police Department in the exercise of its ordinary law enforcement duties, and the support of other City agencies as appropriate. The Animal Care and Control Department may issue rules, regulations, or guidance consistent with this Article 1B to further the purpose of the Article.
(a) Any Person who violates Section 1B.3 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. The penalty upon conviction shall be imprisonment in the County Jail for a period not to exceed one year or by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both fine and imprisonment.
(b) The City Attorney may maintain an action for injunction to enforce Section 1B.3, to cause the correction of any such violation, and for assessment and recovery of a civil penalty for such violation pursuant to subsection (c).
(c) Any Person who violates Section 1B.3 may be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000 for each violation. Each Wild or Exotic Animal in each Performance shall constitute a separate violation. Such penalty shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the City and County of San Francisco by the City Attorney in any court of competent jurisdiction. In assessing the amount of the civil penalty, the court may consider any one or more of the relevant circumstances presented by any of the parties to the case including, but not limited to, the following: the nature and seriousness of the violations, the number of violations, the persistence of the violations, the length of time over which the violations occurred, the willfulness of the Person charged with the violations, and the assets, liabilities, and net worth of the Person charged with the violations. The City Attorney also may seek recovery of the attorney's fees and costs incurred in bringing a civil action for injunction or civil penalties pursuant to this section.
In enacting and implementing this Article 1B, the City is assuming an undertaking only to promote the general welfare. It is not assuming, nor is it imposing on its officers and employees, an obligation for breach of which it is liable in money damages to any person who claims that such breach proximately caused injury.
Nothing in this Article 1B shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any requirement, power, or duty in conflict with any federal or state law.
If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this Article 1B, or any application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions or applications of the Article. The Board of Supervisors hereby declares that it would have passed this Article and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, and word not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any other portion of this Article or application thereof would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.