Rebecca Katz has landed on her paws.
Four months after becoming one of the few department heads to be sacked, the erstwhile director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control this month landed the same position in Oakland.
So, yes, Oakland's animal control director is named "Katz," and its zoo is overseen by a man named "Parrot."
Katz has been tasked with transitioning Animal Control from a subdivision of the Oakland Police Department to a stand-alone agency. This is a big job and she could use all the help she can get. So, enter Pet Food Express.
That chain lavished supplies upon San Francisco's Animal Control, and Katz repeatedly testified and advocated on behalf of its ill-fated expansion plans. While city officials later deemed this unseemly, Katz claims city leaders encouraged her to do so at the time.
She appears to be getting encouragement to do so again, from her new bosses. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan specifically lauded Katz's "collaborative efforts to find homes for hard-to-place animals." Katz's unabashed advocacy for her department — which, she says, cost her the job in San Francisco — was seen as a plus in Oakland.
And will she reach out to Pet Food Express? "In a heartbeat," she answers.
It's not a long reach. That company is, after all, headquartered in Oakland.
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