Pet Licensing?

Uppercrust wrote:
Not sure we're our license fees go. They charge us $7 per pet plus an extra $20 for a pet fanciers license since I have 4 cats & 2 dogs. I would think with full timing no license needed, just rabies certificate, since home is we're you park it.

Ouch! Those do seem like pretty high fees!

I have lived in several states/towns that required pet licenses. Most fees were $2-4 per neutered/spayed animal, but intact animals were higher to license (~$10). I would think compliance to the licensing would be better if the fees were kept reasonable. But I also agree with the tactic of charging those with "too many" animals a higher fee, though I do not feel that 4 cats + 2 dogs is "too many"... Over 10 animals total (cats + dogs) is probably too many for the average owner, though.

With many municipalities performing licensing with a good-ole' carbon-copy paper pads and corresponding metal tags distributed at multiple vet clinics in the municipality, you DO have to wonder if it is an efficient system. Does a city employee *really* spend hours and hours transcribing that info into a searchable database? Especially since those pads might sit around the vet clinic for months, or even the entire year.... I know ours did. The city did not want them back until the end of the year. What is the point of the license then?

On the flip side, how successful would the program be if the municipality forced the fee and tag into the cost of every Rabies vaccine sold at clinics within their city limits? Would it cause a clinic to loose customers? Especially if they could just drive a few miles over to the next city/town/county and get the vaccine cheaper, without having to pay the fee??? And what about those clients that don't live in the city limits, would you then have to make sure they get charged a different fee? I would assume a license tag CAN be included into vet clinic software and then linked/uploaded via internet to the city's system (it was never done at any clinic I have worked at, but I seem to remember the software having the ability to do so). The State of Oklahoma has had something similar for years, which tracks sales of controlled substances via client driver's license number and DOB. AFAIK, it still has to be manually uploaded to their DEA each night at the close of business, but it is quick and works. Their system even recognizes incorrect info, and flags the clients account so that the clinic can attempt to collect correct info, vs. the state spending time/$ to track down the person.