Twenty second.

Mary Johnson was the founder of of created RTN.

Yes.

Dr.

Harrison, I wanted to publicly thank you for um our meeting last week.

The meeting was very productive.

Um, from Mayor Cowell and Council members, I want to summarize just a few key points for you and ask for your support, please.

I've spoken at several of the council's public comment section sessions, asking for the council's attention to PCBs inside District D.

I'm a current breast cancer patient who is exposed to very high levels of PCBs at NC State's Po Hall.

And for the last sixteen months, my mission has been to build awareness of PCBs and the effect that they have on humans, and to ensure that my fellow citizens are not put at risk.

I reviewed the bylaws of that environmental board and saw that in Article 6, the board can create special ad hoc committees with agreement of this city council.

Under Article 6, I asked Dr.

Harrison to enact a PCB task force or committee to protect Raleigh citizens.

Dr.

Harrison suggested broadening the scope from only PCBs to focus on forever chemicals, which would also include PCBs but also PFAS.

I agree fully with her idea of broadening the focus, and I fully support it.

Research studies have said that environmental advisory boards have not been utilized enough for issues outside of climate change.

So the implementation of a forever chemical committee could have very positive outcomes, including facilitating communication between citizens and local government leaders such as yourselves, building community awareness of the chemicals and the effects they have on air, water, soil, and human beings.

Creating community involvement.

We could rally citizens around the initiatives or the projects that would come out of such a committee, task force, and building intergovernmental cooperation, which has been a large problem with this PCB issue at Po Hall.

So going forward, I hope you'll hear more about this from Dr.

Harrison.

I hope you'll support the implementation of Forever Chemical Committee under this existing board.

Don't have to invent anything new.

I also want to say that if I can be a resource in framing the focus and the goals of such a committee, I would love the opportunity to do so.

And Dr.

Harrison, I would just want to thank you for your willingness not only to meet and to collaborate, but the joy of that meeting was your creative thinking.

And that's the best part that came out of that meeting.

So if implemented, this would be a big step forward for our city.

It would also be a big step forward for protection of our citizens from a lot of toxic chemicals.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ms.

Alford.

And my apologies to Liz High, who I inadvertently skipped, so yes.

All right.

Good evening.

My name is Liz High.

I've been a Wake County resident for 10 years and a volunteer at the Wake County Animal Center for the last three and a half.

I am here to reiterate the growing concern in the Raleigh community around the retail sale of dogs in pet boutique stores.

If you have not visited Wake County Animal Center off of Newburn Avenue, I personally invite you to take a stroll through their through their adoption floor.

You will see 80 to 100 dogs available for adoption, 15 to 50 cats, and an eclectic mix of small critters, sometimes even farm animals.

WCAC is the only open intake animal shelter in this county, meaning they are required to accept every single animal brought to them.

If a person is arrested or hospitalized, WCAC cares for their animals.

If a person dies, WCAC cares for their animals.

Animals from hoarding cases, abuse cases, feral animals, animals that have bitten humans, and owner surrenders are all cared for by WCAC.

In 2024 alone, the Wake County Animal Center accepted 8,522 animals.

Even with over 4,000 adoptions, Raleigh is still clearly experiencing an animal crisis.

Does it sound like we need any additional animals bred and sold in our city?

Backyard and puppy mill breeders are so prevalent in the Raleigh area that entire rescues exist to care for the discarded puppies from irresponsible breeders.

Perfectly and perfect pups is a Raleigh-based rescue that specifically cares for disabled and discarded dogs.

These dogs are often doodle type or other niche crossbred dogs that are bred specifically to be sold in boutique puppy stores such as Pet Topia, Superstar Puppies, and Petland.

There are no consequences for breeders that fill our already stretched shelters and rescues.

Please take into account the very clear opinion of your constituents and ban these types of stores from existing in our sit in our city.

Use your connections to help persuade state legislators to ban the retail sale of dogs.

Do not let Raleigh be left behind as cities and states across the U.S.

ban the retail sale of dogs.

Eight states and over 400 cities have already banned the practice.

The Raleigh community has spoken loud and clear on this issue.

We do not need more dogs in this community while North Carolina has the second highest rate of euthanasia.