Well, there's another reason, too. If your dog gets loose and say, bites a kid, they know who to blame. I am assuming that's the main reason.

In cities, it is absolutely a liability thing. Outside of cities, dogs don't have to be liscensed. Like living within city limits? Deal with it. Or join ht erst of us, living outside city limits with unliscensed dogs.

We live inside the city limits, but don't have a license for our dog. She's up-to-date on all her shots and is never outside without a leash.
I think the license thing is absolutely stupid. What's even more stupid is that our city a few years ago actually sent people around to check and see how many unlicensed pets they could find. Yeah, there's a good use of my tax dollars! I wonder if they found enough to pay the salaries of the drones they sent on this fool's errand!
I've got to laugh, or I'll cry.

My dog is three pounds and never leaves my sight except to drop her Tootsie-roll-sized poops on my postage stamp-sized bit of lawn.

You have a lawn?
In LA?
Wow! Journalism must be looking up.

As a commercial property owner, I'm not allowed to even paint my buildings now without buying a permit. It takes weeks to get one, and we have to submit drawings and surveys of the blds....just to change the color from white to yellow. Who cares? Why is that the business of government?

I also just bought a house, which I've been renovating - new flooring, appliances, paint, etc. The typical stuff you do to update an older house. But I was supposed to have pulled a permit for this too (anything over $2000, I believe, which would be the cost of my new bamboo flooring alone).

It's stupid. We had to try to hide the work we were doing, for fear the neighbors would turn us into the gestapo. It's like we have Anne Frank hidden up in the attic, except it's just a new double oven.

Generally dog licensing fees are used to fund the dog catcher and loose dog impound and used to fund removal of animals from neglectful/abusive situations. No money coming in means these services are not provided.

That being said, I do not license my dogs but they are all micro-chipped and wear an ID tag. I also live waaaay outside of city limits.

Another reason is that licensing insures your dog has been vaccinated against diseases she can spread to people or other dogs.

Dog licensing is a reasonably sensible thing to do, given that how people care for (or don't care for) their dogs has a significant effect on others' lives. Do you object to licensing cars?

You have a lawn?
In LA?

Have you ever been to LA, or seen it in movies? Much of the city is like the world's biggest, densest suburb – I'd guess more people have yards there than don't.

They have trouble passing stuff like this in TN because we all just ignore those sorts of laws anyway.

You would think with nearly $100 trillion in federal debt and unfunded mandates these sorts of nuisance causing jobs would be the first to go but they never are. They always lay off the policemen before the codes enforcers and busybodies.

For centuries, people have owned and raised all sorts of animals and livestock without government intervention. And isn't it kind of strange that you have the choice not to vaccinate your child but not your dog?

All these rules have superficial reasons why they're needed, but these basically obscure the fact that they weren't needed before government really needed your money. Accepting these rules without question is slowly eating away all our freedoms.

We have a pet licence fee here. I never got any for any animal I've had. There isn't a dog catcher. There isn't a pound. There isn't anyone going to save my cat if he was hurt. No one enforces leash laws, leaving my yard full of piles of dog crap from the terriers two three doors down. Yet, they want fifteen dollars per pet.

I've also been fighting high vegetation laws for going on five years. They are not enforcing this arbitrary law on anyone else. The law says that grass has to be mowed: I want my next door neighbor (the complainer) to cut the ornamental grass she planted in our shared fence row. I also feel like my sunflowers/tomato plants should not receive tickets. Yet, we've paid hundreds of dollars to attorneys and fines.

I wish I could hit the city prosecutor in the face without going to jail. We went to court last night to tell them that we were moving. My husband accepted a new job in the Dallas area, that within 90 days we would be out of our house. And that jerk had the nerve to ask, "foreclosure?" As if he didn't listen to a word we said. As someone that has never been late on a payment, I was offended.

For centuries, people have owned and raised all sorts of animals and livestock without government intervention.

For centuries, people dumped their faces in the most convenient water supply, and typhoid fever was rampant.

Whoops, "faces" above should be "feces".

I, BlogDog, have had all my shots.
If I bite someone, well, it was either wanted or deserved.
I live in fear of a rabid Lucy going all Cujo on me. No, wait, I don't.

Living in the exurbs, I have a certain desire for dogs to be vaccinated and I'm afraid there are people who wouldn't do so if they weren't required to do so for their tags. Perhaps a massive fine if a dog is unvaccinated and gets rabies?

I dunno. Philosophically, I'm with you on this one Amy. Practically, I'm unsure.

In my area (southwest Washington state), animal control (funded by licenses) also scrapes up dead companion animals from the road, scans them for chips and notifies owners and/or disposes of the remains. They respond to loose/aggressive/neglected/nuisance animal calls. None of these are services that are government grabs for money. They do not respond to calls for loose/neglected livestock. Funding is not available for such calls.

My dog is immunized and microchipped without government intervention. She has never been allowed to run loose and doesn't leave my yard.

My dog is immunized and microchipped without government intervention. She has never been allowed to run loose and doesn't leave my yard.

You are a minority among pet owners. Sadly.

Not sure how practical it would be, but I'd be all for NOT charging a licensing fee to those who get their dogs the needed shots and present proof to the city. And then fining those who neglect to. Of course that would necessitate random checks of dogs, and, again, practicality and privacy issues.

The shelters I've volunteered at charge dog owners a fee if their dog is picked up by animal control. They have to pay to get their dog back, and that doesn't sit well with a lot of people ("What? You mean I gotta pay you to get my god-danged DAWG back? Haaailll naw!"). But, if any fine is deserved, I think it is this one. Your dog got loose, it cost the shelter money to collect, house and feed it. Pay the eff UP.

There was precisely one reason for dog licensing (now it's more of a license to steal) - Rabies.

In order to get a dog license (at least in CT) you need to show proof of rabies vaccination.

What's odd is that they don't require a license for cats, but they still require rabies vaccination and certification.

In Ohio the licensing fees go into a fund to pay for livestock damaged or killed by pets.

The tell is this following the dropped fine for the vegetable garden.

How dare she fight Oak Park? If she gets away with it, others will do it.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if the SWAT team busted down her door in a tragic case of raiding the wrong address if this gets dismissed. Bureaucrats can be petty, vicious little weasels when crossed.

Generally dog licensing fees are used to fund the dog catcher and loose dog impound and used to fund removal of animals from neglectful/abusive situations. No money coming in means these services are not provided.
Posted by: LauraGr

Here is a thought, lets not provide those services.

How about people with neglected pets have them put down and they have to pay the cost?

How about people can shoot other peoples nusiance pets on there property?

I tried my hand at raising goats, guys next doors dog dug a three foot hole under my fence and killed them.

I made him a deal, either he paid to replace the goats or I'd call animal services and demand his dogs death.

He paid, I also warned him if I ever caught his dog on my property I'd shoot it. Wasnt mean about it, just telling him what was going to happen. 3 day later I had to shoot his dog, he wasnt home and I wanst going to wait the 5 hours til he was or the 2 hours for animal cotrol to show up while his dog was trying to work his way into my chicken coop.

When I had my dog (RIP) I refused to buy licences because they do not make cat owners buy them, and where I live cats are the problem. I got a summons for court and did produce a licence because they said they would put out a warrant!!!

"How about people with neglected pets have them put down and they have to pay the cost?

How about people can shoot other peoples nusiance pets on there property?"

My house is 12 feet from my neighbors. There are very few people in the world I'd trust not to miss what they were aiming at, that close to my kids. And people who neglect their pets sure won't pay to have them put down, they'll just start running wild. Do you want packs of stray dogs running your area? I don't.

On a different note: A PSA announcement. Get your dogs fixed.

When my husband got our dog 11 years ago (she was a rescue), the vet told him she was spayed. She wasn't, and she died of a uterine infection this week, in part because she was so sick by the time symptoms presented and in part because we couldn't help the vets diagnose her correctly, since we thought she had been spayed.

If you're at all unsure your pet is spayed, please check with your vet. It's a simple matter of checking for the scar, and my cats' vet did it for free when we got them their rabies shots.

On a different note: A PSA announcement. Get your dogs fixed.

This. In addition to the cruelty of condemning "surprise" litters to shelters, irresponsible pet owners cost cities a heck of a lot of money (for shelter-sponsored vet care and euthanization).

My house is 12 feet from my neighbors. There are very few people in the world I'd trust not to miss what they were aiming at, that close to my kids.

Yeah. My old neighborhood had 2 dozen or so dogs, which did sometimes escape. AND a dozen or so kids who tended to roam -- we DO support free-range kids on this forum, remember? I don't think it would be advisable to implement the "shootin' dogs" policy in suburbia.

I just put a sixteen year old cat to sleep on June 1st and I never paid a penny for a license. Why would I? He never went outside except for a few times where I took him out there and stayed with him.

I don't pay for stupid government fees that are easily avoided.

Around here, most of what animal control does has to do with feral dogs and cats, and wildlife. Squirrels, raccoons, and possums can cause a lot of problems. A business owner friend of mine had about 50 feral cats rounded up from an area behind her building last week. I consider that a worthwhile government service. An argument can be made that it's a common benefit and should be funded from common revenue, rather than most of the cost being foisted onto pet owners.

In Pennsylvania, dogs are required to be vaccinated against rabies, and the rabies vaccination comes with a metal tag that has a unique id number on it, traceable back to the dog/ owner. Rabies vaccinations must be given initially, then one year later, and then every three years. Each vaccination generates the paperwork, tag, etc.

Licensing is redundant.

It would probably be cheaper - and definitely more efficient - to kill the licensing requirement/ department, and raise the rabies vaccination fee a bit to cover the dog catcher and record management costs.

In Pennsylvania, dogs are required to be vaccinated against rabies, and the rabies vaccination comes with a metal tag that has a unique id number on it, traceable back to the dog/ owner.

Sounds like a license to me!