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Planning Commission and/or City Council. In any case, all applicable federal and State agency permits, licenses, and requirements would have to be met in order for a raptor to be kept at a residence. Releasing the Hawk The applicant has stated that the hawk would never be released in her neighborhood or any other residential area. She stated that it is important to have areas that are flat, free of obstructions, and allow for visual contact between the bird and the falconer to be maintained. Staff notes that State and federal requirements do not allow falconers to release birds in residential areas. The applicant stated that the hawk must be monitored on a daily basis and that they do not attack small cats/dogs because release is never within a neighborhood where there is no line of sight. As indicated in one of the articles in Attachment 14 (article 5), hawks cannot lift into the air anything that is more than their own weight. For instance, ared-tailed hawk weighs 2'/ to 3 pounds; thus, it would be unlikely that it would attack a cat or dog. The applicant also stated that the hawk prefers to eat small rodents and quail. As conditioned, staff believes that the keeping of the hawk would not result in negative impacts to the neighboring residents or to Pleasanton residents in general. The applicant has received all applicable federal and State licenses to keep the hawk, and the hawk will never be released within a residential area. The hawk is kept in a mew that has been inspected by the State and meets all of the City of Pleasanton's requirements for a Class I accessory structure; thus, no additional permits are required. In staffs opinion, concerns have been addressed in the conditions of approval. Please refer to the Planning Commission staff report dated July 11, 2007 for additional analysis, response, and specific concerns in opposition to this application (Attachment 5). For the Council's convenience, staff has included the Findings section of the Planning Commission staff report in Attachment 6. Hawk Attacks Staff has done considerable research on hawk attacks and has talked with personnel from both the Lindsey Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek and the California Raptor Center at University of California -Davis (UCD). Staff has provided Internet articles on hawk attacks as Attachment 14 for the Council to review and consider. The articles do mention attacks on individuals in Canada and England; however, these were related to hawks that are not captured and not under the care of a falconer. These attacks were connected to habitat and natural behavior related to nesting, mating, and territory, along with some response to antagonistic human behavior to the hawk. Some of the attacks occurred on pigeons, an easy food source. One article did mention that the State of New York used falconry to control the loose pigeon population and found it to be very successful. There was an incident reported where a small dog was attacked but not mortally injured. David Kelly, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, informed staff that the California Raptor Center (CRC) at UC Davis has experts in captive care of hawks. The Page 5 of 7