A letter to the editor in the morning paper got me thinking about dog licenses. (Also feeling sympathy for the letter writer, but I’d sympathize with anyone who’d lost their pet or been suspected unfairly, let alone both.)
Return home to find in the mailbox a notice from City of Toronto — a pet license request. A warning that Big Brother “has reason to believe that you have an unlicensed pet …”
Our beloved 13-year-old German shepherd died two months ago. She was licensed.
Toronto: broke, filthy, crumbling, violent. But the Pet Gestapo is looking out for our safety.
What’s the idea behind dog licenses, anyway?
They began as a source of money to reimburse farmers whose livestock had been killed or injured by dogs. A law passed in Virginia in 1752 says, “dogs frequently ramble from home and destroy great numbers of sheep”. That can’t be much of a problem anymore, at least not in urban areas. So, why do governments go on collecting dog license fees?
The City of Toronto’s website says license fees help it provide food, shelter, and medical care for strays, return lost pets, and “provide public education programs”. These services weren’t expected back in the days when some people let their dogs “ramble” and others worried about the safety of their sheep.
Toronto doesn’t say whether it has any funding for these services besides license fees. Some jurisdictions – Pennsylvania, for example – don’t.
None of this excuses the city if it’s neglecting problems like violent crime while focusing on unlicensed pets. It doesn’t excuse bureaucrats from thinking of possible reasons an aging dog’s license isn’t renewed.
The point is just that, while dog licenses are a nuisance, there always has been, and probably always will be, a purpose they can serve. So, they’re not going away.
The excuse given for a dog license is to help support, feed, and shelter the animals at the pound, along with vet costs. However think on this. Veterinarians donate their time and care to the pound pro bono. Volunteers work the shelter, so there are no employee costs. Major animal food chains donate massive amounts of food each month to animal pounds. So again, just what “costs” are they trying to offset?
Well, there are the animal control people (is that what we’re supposed to call dogcatchers now?). I don’t think anyone would do that pro bono. But, even if that need disappears, there’s always going to be something they can point to saying that dogs in general cost society money.