A San Francisco animal rescue group says the failure by Pacific Gas & Electric Company to supply adequate power to its new shelter in the Mission has likely resulted in dogs being euthanized that would not otherwise have been.
Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, which estimates it has rescued more than 10,000 dogs since its 2007 founding at CEO Sherri Franklin’s house, moved in late July to a newly renovated building at 750 Florida St.
But after the site abruptly lost power Aug. 1, the shelter has been without sufficient electricity to operate, Franklin said.
“Dogs are basically dying because we haven’t been able to reach a conclusion with PG&E,” she said. “There’s no urgency in how they work.”
Late Tuesday, after The Standard began reporting this story, PG&E sent workers to Muttville to implement a temporary hookup. But Muttville COO Laurie Routhier noted that the current supplied by the temporary fix was “below what they agreed to provide and what we need to have a full rescue operation.”
On Wednesday morning, PG&E said Muttville’s electric demand previously went beyond the load limit.
“The higher-than-expected demand overloaded PG&E’s circuit twice, damaging PG&E’s equipment and causing potential safety and reliability issues for surrounding customers,” a spokesperson said.
Local animal welfare groups say dogs are likely already being euthanized because of Muttville’s inability to take in high-risk animals from kill shelters.
Carol Lacey of The Kern Project, a Marin County rescue organization that brings dogs from the Central Valley to the Bay Area to connect with new homes, said her staffers have stopped bringing dogs to Muttville. The project used to send three to five dogs a week to the shelter.
“Shelters will euthanize for space, and the senior dogs are the first to go,” Lacey said. “If we are not able to move the dogs to Muttville, then we cannot save more dogs from the kill shelters or take in the ones we save directly from the community.”
Donell Randolph, community programs coordinator at Oakland Animal Services, called Muttville an invaluable resource.
“They have taken over hundreds of dogs from us over the past so many years,” Randolph said, estimating that about 95% of the organization’s small, older dogs are sent to Muttville. “I have probably eight dogs right now waiting to go there.” On its website, Oakland Animal Services said it considers an animal’s “age, temperament, behavior and health” in determining which animals to euthanize.
The outage has also affected Muttville’s community programs, including those for senior citizens and children.
“We were having cuddle clubs for senior citizens, especially those that are isolated and would come to our old building,” Franklin said. “We haven’t been able to have one in a month.”
Muttville board member Joyce Polhamus, an architect in senior living and healthcare facility design, spoke plainly about the outage’s broader impact: “If a shelter is holding a dog, a senior dog, waiting for Muttville to be able to take it — how many weeks can they hold out before they say, ‘I gotta euthanize it?’”
The power issue has forced Muttville to cut its weekly intake from 20-25 senior dogs to 10 or fewer, Routhier estimated.
“There’s a direct relationship with PG&E’s delay and what we can do to rescue the dogs that need us the most,” she said. “Senior dogs are often the last to be put up for adoption and the first to be euthanized.”
Tamar Sarkissian, a PG&E spokesperson, said the utility is working on a long-term fix to supply adequate power to the shelter.
“PG&E has been working with Muttville on this project since 2022, providing guidance and the steps the customer needed to take to ensure power was turned on in a safe and timely manner,” Sarkissian told The Standard in an email Monday.
Franklin, who noted that Muttville spent four years planning and renovating the new building and, at city and state officials’ urging, incorporated solar panels and other green technologies, said the urgency of the situation led her to pursue a temporary solution, signing a deal with PG&E over the weekend. But the temporary fix supplies only 57 kilovolts of the 75 needed to efficiently run the shelter.
“We won’t be able to open, even on these terms, until mid- to late next week!” she said in an email. “I worry that they would consider this over. It is NOT.”