Pet Licensing Fees

[Ksyrup]

Seems that Tallahassee is considering licensing pets and charging a fee to do so. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with something similar, and whether it has been shown to work in their community.


Pet-licensing fees proposed


Animal shelter to submit plan to city

By Todd Wright

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


Lori Anderson calls her house a zoo, and no, she is not referring to her four children staying in her home.

The Andersons have three Boston terriers, a Pomeranian, a ball python, a blue and gold macaw and a cockatiel. Whew!

"We've always had animals. I love them, especially my dogs," said Anderson, who had just returned from taking the newest member of the family, a 7-week-old terrier named Fiona, to the veterinarian for vaccinations.

The prospects of a fee for Tallahassee residents to own a dog or cat have the Andersons concerned that they may be taxed for what they consider members of their family: their pets.

The Tallahassee-Leon Community Animal Service Center is looking for a way to implement a pet-licensing fee for the city, which would require pet owners to register their animals with the shelter. Shelter officials think the move could help decrease the number of unwanted animals that show up on the shelter's doorstep each year by holding pet owners accountable. The city is considering one-year, three-year and lifetime fee schedules.

Dr. Gilles Meloche, director of the shelter, said discussions on how much the fee should be and how to implement the program are just beginning.

"We have a big problem in this community to control our pet population. There are too many animals coming to the shelter and not enough people to adopt them. We have to reduce that," he said.

The idea of a licensing fee has been bounced around before, most recently during budget discussions in September. Raoul Lavin, the city's budget manager, classified the pet-licensing fee as "low priority" and said the city is not expected to reap much financial benefit from a program until 2008. He said the city would need time to develop a public education program for pet owners, which could encourage pet owners to comply.

In the city's 2003 annual resident-opinion survey, 70 percent of 809 respondents said they would support a licensing fee.

"This is all still very preliminary. We don't even know if it will work here," Lavin said.

Busiest time of year approaches

Meloche thinks a fee is needed.

He estimates that there are more than 120,000 pet dogs and cats in the city and 200,000 countywide. Meloche said because of the rural conditions near and in the city, those numbers could be even higher. The animal shelter receives more than 10,000 animals annually and, at any given time, 500 homeless cats and dogs call the facility home. As the summer months creep closer, the shelter is bracing for its busiest time of the year when as many as 60 animals a day are admitted.

Because of the number that fill the shelter, animals, especially dogs, are euthanized to make room for the next wave of animals in need of a home. Meloche said about 100 cats and more than 200 dogs are euthanized in an average month, but he noted that the shelter has not had to kill any dogs to free up space in the past six months. Dogs have been euthanized for other reasons, such as if they've been classified as dangerous animals.

Many of the animals are the result of pets that have been let loose in the neighborhood and breed unwanted puppies and kittens.

"I don't see how people can do that," said 19-year-old April Hammons, who has several pets. "Pets are part of your family, and you wouldn't throw family out in the street."

Targeting, tracking owners

Meloche said the licensing fee is designed to target pet owners who refuse to spay, neuter or vaccinate their animals.

Cities that do have licensing fees usually charge two separate rates, one for spayed and neutered animals and a higher rate for those that are not. Before issuing a license to pet owners, animals must be vaccinated properly and a microchip is placed under the skin of each licensed animal, which basically serves as a means to match owner with pet. Meloche said the city already partners with private veterinarians to provide discounts for pet owners who want to spay or neuter their pet.

Richard Ziegler, the county's director of animal control, said the licensing fee is most effective for tracking down owners.

"We are not overwhelmed with stray animals running the streets. I think the city and county have done an excellent job of keeping it to a minimum, but it is difficult to find the owners of the pet," he said. "By using the ID tag, we can find the owners and keep from going to the shelter."

Doing the right thing

While acknowledging that the shelter is overcrowded, Anderson considers a licensing fee a penalty for pet owners doing the right thing. She said she spends $70 per year on each of her pets to have them properly vaccinated and rarely allows her dogs out of the yard.

Anderson does have one of her terriers spayed and doesn't plan on neutering her two male dogs. Under state law, Fiona is not old enough to be spayed.

"I don't feel that I should have to pay when I am a responsible pet owner and my pets don't run around the neighborhood," said Anderson, who also said she would pay the licensing fee if the city started it. "Why should I be taxed because I like pets and get enjoyment out of them?"

---

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
After agreeing on a plan, animal-shelter officials will make a proposal to city commissioners, who will make the final decision. The commission could hear a proposal as early as September, but no firm timetable has been set.

[Butter]

I thought dog and cat licenses were common practice. Guess I'm sheltered.

We have this practice here in Dayton, OH. I'm not sure what you mean by the program being "successful" though. It seems as though we don't have many stray animals running around, so if that's success, then we've achieved it.

[albionmoonlight]

I'm pretty sure that Chapel Hill had the same thing. On the one hand, you could argue that the government should not be taxing everything under the sun. On the other hand, Chapel Hill had a very well run shelter and did not have a stray animal problem.

I remember hearing about some city in California that made it illegal to have a non-fixed pet unless you were a licensed breeder. If true, that program is more intrusive than a fee schedule.

[corbes]

There are licensing laws where I live. It simply gets tacked on when you get a rabies shot, though... I think...

[JonInMiddleGA]

I don't have any real experience with programs like this on this large a scale, but in several much smaller areas I've seen it work reasonably well.

The reality is that you tend to end up licensing a relatively small portion of the pet population. And those who do play by the rules aren't generally the ones who cause much of the problems anyway.

It's essentially a way to fund some specific animal-control measures with some connection to the subject, kinda like tying gasoline tax revenue to transporation issues.

[Craptacular]

We have licensing here as well, although I don't know if the $5 or $10 per pet per year goes into the general fund or is earmarked for something animal related.

[tucker342]

We have it here also. When I lived out in the country, people would just come out and dump their pets(usually Cats) out by my house, when ever we found one, we would bring it in. Very sad. since we go to a Vet that's in a different city, we didn't have to get a license until last year when we went to get a dog at the pound. Hell we didn't even know that they had implimented a pet license program since the last time we had been to the pound back in 1990.