Thank you Jonathan. I think Karen is appropriate. The email is good - and quite dispassionate, considering the bias you are describing. On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Jonathan Harris < jonathanharris@earthlink.net> wrote:

Sorry I didn't get to this until today. Please check it over and decide who we want on point for doing interviews (assuming we want that). I thought it was Karen, and also assumed Marcy and Teresa would be OK about doing them. But if not, or if we want other voices instead or in addition, please advise!

Thanks for the good work you all are doing!! Jonathan

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To: KTVU News

Re: "Debate Rages Over Proposed SF Pet Sale Ban"

Your news report on Thursday's San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission (ACWC) meeting contained a number of inaccurate and misleading characterizations.

Reporter Amber Lee was careful to use a qualifier when she referred to "so-called" [breeding] mills, apparently deferring to breeders' frequently expressed insistence that such cruel facilities do not exist and their concern that these terms are inflammatory.

Yet her statement that the debate pitted "animal rights activists" against "pet store owners" was itself an inaccurate and potentially inflammatory characterization. Those who spoke in opposition were in reality a mix of pet sellers, breeders, industry trade association and corporate representatives, as well as private citizens. The ban was first proposed by a member of the ACWC, and its supporters have come overwhelmingly from grass-roots rescue organizations such as Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, Save A Bunny, and Cavy Spirit (a rescue for guinea pigs and hamsters). Their concern is animal welfare, not animal rights. Please be more careful about about such characterizations.

Perhaps a more accurate description would have been to say, "The debate pitted local animal welfare advocates and grass-roots rescue groups against pet store owners, breeders, and corporate spokesmen for the pet industry (including representatives for both breeders and manufacturers), several of whom came from out of the area to try and stop this proposal. Private citizens with pets testified on both sides of the issue."

Your segment also devoted substantial footage to pet stores, as well as quoting and/or interviewing their owners at some length. It would be helpful to your viewers to hear the perspectives of rescue workers from some of the groups who support the ban: Teresa Murphy of Cavy Spirit, Marcy Schaaf of Save A Bunny, and Karen Watkins of Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue all would be happy to talk to you, I am sure. Not only can they give you a far clearer explanation of the proposed ban (and the new compromise proposal) than I heard in your report; they also are extremely knowledgeable about the situation on the ground, having watched the crisis in unwanted small animals and birds develop over many years, working in the trenches, doing rescue. Please keep them in mind as this story develops over the coming months, as I imagine it will.

Thanks for your attention and your interest in covering this story.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Harris

Pinole, CA