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Mayor Jennifer Hosterman won her 15-month battle to keep her red-tail hawk Ariel in a backyard cage at her Vintage Hills home after the City Council granted her request for a conditional use permit.
Hosterman, a state licensed apprentice falconer who is taking lessons to qualify for advanced licenses, has been nursing Ariel back to health after it was found wounded near the Oakland Airport. Now back in good condition, Ariel may be released within the next few months.
Hosterman, who had a large, elaborate cage built for the backyard of her home so as to keep the hawk close by, apparently ran afoul of the law by not obtaining a permit for the pet. She asked the Planning Commission for a conditional use permit, permits that have been given to homeowners who keep chickens, but planners and city staff had difficulty finding any definition of a hawk that met the fowl category that chickens, turkeys and even geese are in.
Then Dan Carl, a Ruby Hill homeowner who has been an outspoken political foe of Hosterman, asked the city’s zoning enforcement officer to require the mayor to get a permit. After a public hearing, the Planning Commission rejected her bid, so she appealed that decision to the council.
Hosterman recused herself from the nearly two-hour discussion last Tuesday, which ranged from seeking definitions of a foul from various sources to concerns that her colleagues might give her an exemption from the rules because of her position. In the end, exhausted as the clock neared 11 p.m., council members agreed to the temporary conditional use permit while city staff researches the city’s need for an ordinance that covers hawks, other birds of prey and non-conventional backyard pets that have been spotted in Pleasanton, including ostriches and screeching parrots.
Besides Carl, other political rivals also chimed in Tuesday night, including mayoral opponents Kay Ayala (2004) and Steve Brozosky (2006). Both urged the council to base their decision on Hosterman’s hawk on the facts in the case, not because she’s mayor.
Responding to concerns by several speakers that a hawk, as a bird of prey, might attack people or their dogs, Master Falconer Michael Pociecha said that in his 40 years of falconry, he’s never heard of a hawk attack a human unless someone deliberately disturbed a nesting hawk.
“Jennifer is a very good role model for this sport, which traditionally attracts more men than women,” he said. “Falconry is a highly regimented sport and regulated by state and federal laws. We take care of these birds and rescue them when they are hurt, feeding and housing them, so that we can set them free again, We need more people to get interested in this sport to do the job.”
The council actually passed two measures: the first, granted Hosterman the permit she needed to keep her hawk, and the second to ask city staff to eventually update the city’s regulations affecting backyard pets.
Hey PW, you printed
“Besides Carl, other political rivals also chimed in Tuesday night, including mayoral opponents Kay Ayala (2004) and Steve Brozosky (2006). Both urged the council to base their decision on Hosterman’s hawk on the facts in the case, not because she’s mayor.”
This is not true regarding Kay Ayala. She specifically stated that Hostermann being mayor should be held to a higher standard. Therefore she urged the council to base their decision on the fact that she is the mayor!!!!
Where do you get this softball stuff about what Ayala and Brozosky actually said?
I do hope the planners, staff & council were debating the definition of “fowl” and not “foul.”
I, for one, am pleased Ms. Hosterman gets to keep her hawk. I’ve opposed many of her positions in the past and won’t be voting for her ever. But this whole thing has been an outrageous display of political sniping, and I can guarantee I won’t vote for any candidate that has Carl working on his or her campaign.
A “trained to kill” hawk in a cage poses a threat to neighborhood dogs and cats? Please. Hawks hunt by instinct, and are only trained to not immediately eat their prey. And there are wild birds of prey all over town. I’ve seen kites nesting in the redwoods across the street, owls in the palm on a nearby court, coopers hawks diving at my backyard birdfeeder, and red-tailed hawks going for squirrels (not the dogs!) at the dog park.
I just HOPE that the mayor does not pull a fast one and eat the hawk before it is ready to be set free.
Yeah for Ms. Hosterman! I completely agree this is not about “the hawk,” but motivated purely by politics and spite.
The reference to a “trained to kill” hawk showed the total ignorance of the person making the statement. There are wild birds of prey all over town, all over the valley, all over the state. I hope anyone with fears pertaining to being attacked by a hawk never venture out of their homes, for apparently that is the only place they can feel safe.
Speaking of the dog park — perhaps one better invest in a larger, often viewed as vicious dog to protect them from the “killer” hawks.
“trained to kill” hawk.
The person who repeatedly used this phrase over and over again at every chance was consciously practicing a technique that the Republican party in particular has perfected into an art form. It is a sound bite, that in itself is mis-leading and untrue, but may have “truthiness” about it when heard by a majority of people.
The sound bite is directed at the majority, not the few that happen to be at these hearings. The sound bite gets amplified by both the newspapers as well as TV.
The majority of people are ignorant of the details of the behavior of red-tailed hawks, and when they hear this sound bite over and over again, they begin to accept it as true.
It was Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, who used mass media in the 1930s to practice this technique of repetition of a lie and is generally credited with its development.
An example the reader should personally relate to is “Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction”. Prior to March 2003 this was repeated so many times by so many of our leaders that at the time a majority of Americans accepted it as fact.
There are a plethora of fighting cocks in north Livermore that must be fed…or disposed of. Ms. Hosterman’s hawk may be the solution to the problem!!!
Go chicken hawk!!!
Clean up the environment!!!
Thanks for wasting the City’s time Dan Carl Rove and Kay Ayala. Hope things are going well down at the GW Bush fan club. This hubbub was 100% political.
Falconry, although not exceptionally uncommon, is a sport practiced by a number of people around the world. While my husband was doing a stint as a youth volunteer at Lindsay museum,he became interested in the sport and dabbled in it a bit while his family was living in the surburbs of Danville. A few years ago, he accompanied a couple out to the Delta during hunting season to watch their hawks hunt. He took videos and had a great time. The Scottish Festival that we have here in Pleasanton always hosts falconers.
There are hawks and falcons flying free and wild all over the place and I feel blessed when I see them. I just saw one with a broken wing last week and called Animal Control. I hoped that they were able to save it. I had my dog with me and we were at least a mile from home; so, I walked home as fast as I could to call them when I saw the poor thing hobbling around by the creek trail. I had hoped some kid with a new BB gun didn’t shoot it.
The whole idea that Jennifer’s hawk is some sort of danger is the most ludicrous argument. Kay and Steve didn’t get traction on this; but, some folks have believed their song and dance about protecting the hills, which is more like keeping the hills private so that no one can enjoy them…. Especially the public.
At least, finally, this “no battle too small for them” has been won and Jennifer can “do her thing” in peace.
Great. Now maybe Jennifer can get back to the business of Pleasanton and stop this crime wave of breaking into our cars.
Hawks are predators; there have been several instances where they have harassed and attacked small dogs and cats; ask anyone who belongs to one of the Chihuahua clubs in the Bay Area. Yes, they are beautiful, and we should help ensure their population stays healthy, but not at the expense of our pets. The Mayor should have contacted Animal Services so that the animal could have been treated by professionals. She was ignorant for treating this wild predator as a “pet”.
Hey Tab — You openly admit hawks are predators. You talk about them harassing and attacking small dogs and cats. How about this for a thought??? Man has harassed the hawks by continuing to build in this valley and decrease their NATURAL hunting grounds.
There are wild birds of prey all over town, all over the valley, all over the state. I hope anyone with fears pertaining to their Chihuahua being attacked by a hawk never allows the dog to venture out of the inside of their homes, for apparently that is the only place they can feel safe.
Please.