All of mine are registered. I pay a small fee once a year and avoid the headache of a fine which is alot more than what the license cost. I live 1 block away from city hall so I cannot risk it. Plus if I take them to the park and a cop sees us they will ask for city tags and if you don't have it...you get fined. I see it as another ID tag because that number belongs to them and the city has all our information in their data base.

They are real strick where I live...they go door to door and if you are not home and they hear your dog you better be sure the ticket will be in the mail. They give no warnings at all. Even if you are home and open the door you still get a ticket and they tell you to get a license.

That is exactly how I feel about it! I don't understand why I should have to pay the local government for a little dog that bothers no one. He gets all of his shots on time (I won't schedule a doctor's appointment for myself when I have bronchitis b/c it is too expensive, yet I shell out $150 to a vet at the same time because he needs shots and parasite prevention meds.) He doesn't even potty outside. I do take him on walks,but he doesn't bother anyone but the birds that he chases in the field... I take care of my dog because I love my dog, not because the government tells me I have to. I just think it's kind of orwellian. If he were a big dog that pooped a lot outside (possible health risks) or a breed prone to aggression, I would probably think more about it because people do have a right to know what health/safety risks they are living near. I just don't see small dogs as such a risk.

He also has tags with his home address and my phone number, so he has external ID, although he isn't always wearing it because I don't let him wear his collar all the time. I don't think it is strictly enforced around here; I've asked around, and I've never seen the dog warden! I do know though, that they euthanize cats that aren't registered that are caught outside. They do it within hours of catching them, too. This concerns me, because if they do it to cats I wonder if they do it to dogs! I think that is the only reason I would do it- to keep them from putting him down, not to avoid a fine.
-O

My house is already wayyyy over the city limit of animals, because we rescue too many animals. I think I'll register Wobie at my grandparent's address, to be safe. I just don't want to be fined...

I'm one over the limit as well. I didn't know about the law though until I got my last puppy, so I won't be getting anymore.. but I'm registering Kenz with my dad's address.

My next door neighbor mentioned the law to me, and so far hasn't done anything, but to be on the safe side I'll just have her registered to another person. The clerk basically told me to do that and told me that they'd never be able to prove that she lives here.. so I guess it has all worked out.

I'm not sure of the reasoning behind the number of dogs one can own, but I have a good idea... My parents are 75 yrs old. My Dad spent many years prettying up their back yard so my Mom would have a nice place to sit in the evening (she has been ill for a long time). People moved in behind them with 7 or 8 dogs, every time she would go out her back door these dogs would attack the fence and bark non stop at her. So she just stopped going outside.:( Someone else in the neighborhood must have reported them because the dogs are no longer there. On the licensing note, I did notice at the bottom of my water bill last month there was a phone number to register your dog with the city.

I've never registered a dog in my life... I don't even know if thats a law here.. maybe in New York its not necessary, my Vet never mentioned it to me :confused: Or, maybe my vet registers them when she give them the rabies shot.:confused: I don't know, but either way, I am not going to start registering them now.

Licenses are mandatory here in Vancouver, BC. I got my 2 furbabies a few months ago and registered them. The licenses arrived in the mail and they were huge! Vancouver has just adopted a policy where you keep the same tag each year and just re-pay the fee. I guess when they did that, they decided to make a more substantial tag as the ones I always had for my MinPin were not that big. I emailed City Hall asking if I could just get a collar tag engraved with the info and found out that although that wasn't allowed, they did have smaller sized tags. I went down to exchange the tags and received new ones about the size of a penny! I have no idea if that has always been possible or not!

I felt the same way about bureacracy, but now in our county in Virginia, after July 1st, passed an ordinance requiring vets to turn names in so they can enforce the fee. ($3 for neutered/spayed) What that will end up doing is causing some people to avoid the vet! dumb law. But I went ahead and got it, at our local SPCA, which was hard to resist all the sad eyes there! But Maxwell actually likes his new jewelry. Red license, blue rabies, bone shaped I.D. tag. Jingle jingle jingle.

I know this much, in the state of Pennsylvania it is a summary offense and punishable by a fine of up to $300 for each unlicensed dog. Every state has different laws that i'm sure you can find on the internet, if anyone has questions I would be glad to help. I have charged people with this before. If you have an unlicensed dog and they would be lost or stolen or god forbid anything else would happen and you called authorities you would risk getting in trouble. I do it because like i said, i work in the courthouse and can't get away with it, the state dog warden will go door to door and check, and like i said more dogs are recovered through licensing than microchipping to date because of the different readers that don't read all chips and whatnot. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion! :-)

After reading this post, I went online to register Max. Not only can you not do it online, you need a vet's letter re shots, etc. No wonder nobody bothers in NY.

I may do it, but on my own time. I like things like this to be made easy, and we certainly have the technology for it. I already have the rabies tag. All they need is the number. They are so behind the times.

i didn't know it was a law in every state!!

In our area, if you have your dog vaccinated against rabies, the vet automatically informs the city. So if that is the same in your area, they will know.

I've only registered one dog in my life...that was only because he bit someone and the hospital reported it and the county came a knockin.