# To license or not



## SuperPug (Mar 5, 2013)

I've never licensed my dogs. My doberman wasn't licensed, my rottweiler wasn't and my pug currently is not.

Do you license? Why?

If you do not license, why not?


I decided upon not licensing my dogs because of the horrible events in which thousands of dogs were murdered because of the target on pit bulls. They found/took these dogs from their homes via the license that they were registered with.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I have to license my dogs as I have a breed that well, I need to prove they are good dogs. If you get caught without a license and no current rabies vaccination where I live then you get a fine, and I do like to walk my dogs in public arena's


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

I'm too scared not to because I am a pussy and do what the authorities tell me. Also, the vet won't treat your animal and will report it if it is not licensed. I know this because it happened to my friends dog.
But yeah, that's just awful about the pitbull thing, I didn't know they could do that. If I had a pitbull I guess I'd be very wary as well.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

I don't simply because I'm lazy.

And the way my city is... hell, they don't enforce anything(like the anti tether law that is a joke).


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## wolfsnaps88 (Jan 2, 2012)

I was watching a public access program from a shelter that was showing dogs available for adoption. I don't know why i torture myself with this kind of window shopping, but I digress. The man on that show was a dog warden and he said that some of the money we pay for licenses goes to pay for people like him. So if you lose your dog and he brings it in, that is a service for you. Also, since many people do no microchip or tag their dogs, a license can track down their owner. There is a fine here as well if you are caught without them and I have heard that they go door to door at random times to check to see if you have them.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

I believe a license also confirms a dog is yours (if anyone were to steal it)...

In my area the only way you get caught without a license is at the dog park, and they generally just give you a warning and kick you out of the dog park. No one else anywhere checks..


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## SuperPug (Mar 5, 2013)

I think I just found out Orlando doesn't require your dog to be licensed. I'm not too sure about that, so I'm still doing some googling.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

sometimes I get tired of paying for others lack of responsibility.... so YES, I'm glad the money goes to the shelter(I already designate my entire United Way donation to the local shelter every year)....

But I always think to myself when I visit the shelter... how easy this could be fixed(overpopulation of animals).

However, you can't fix stupid, and our society is crawling with the disease.


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

We don't have licenses here. Could be why we have one of the worst stray and animal over population issues in the Country.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Where are you located roughly starturtle?


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

I do, it's $2 for a cat here and $4 for a dog and I never put them on anyone but I buy them every year to be law abiding. It is not enforced, they don't ask for proof of rabies and the vast majority of the town does not comply. They are generally only used to match strays with owners if they end up at the pound. I know it is a risk with my breed but I would never ever give up my dogs to animal control, we'd leave the area and figure something out and I would rather be seen as responsible than to have unlicensed dogs. MN has laws against BSL currently.


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

MollyWoppy said:


> Where are you located roughly starturtle?


Birmingham, AL


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

SuperPug said:


> I've never licensed my dogs. My doberman wasn't licensed, my rottweiler wasn't and my pug currently is not.
> 
> Do you license? Why?
> 
> ...


We don't license. The fees are expensive: $20 for neutered animals, $40 for non. The dogs wear ID collars and are chipped; licensing them would not be of any use except to put $ in the county coffers.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

Dude and Buck were licensed because our neighborhood (military housing) required it in order for us to even have the dogs. Iorveth is not. I might license them in our new area, I might not. I got lucky because our licensing is pretty much like SubMariner's. It's really only there in case there needs to be proof of who owns the dog, your dog gets lost, etc. If we had moved to the town Nick will actually be working in they would actually have required a home check simply because I have three dogs. I would have had to apply for a freaking PERMIT to own my three dogs. Annual house checks and applying for a permit every year with the risk of the permit being denied. Scary thought.


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## Jacksons Mom (Jun 13, 2010)

Eh, I've never even thought about it, to be honest. We live in the 'country' anyway (have no neighbors). It's just not something I even thought about until my friend mentioned it to me last year about how she was renewing her dogs license tags and I was like... ohhh, is that like, legally required? lol. Whoops. 

No one has ever asked me for it. Heck no one has even asked for proof of vaccines (training classes, dog events, groomer, etc). I don't board etc. 

But maybe I'll get around to getting a license one day!


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## SuperPug (Mar 5, 2013)

I called animal servocest for my town. Turns out they dont require license. I grew up in another county where it was required amd we've only been in Orlando for a year-ish. Just never got around to looking for it xD


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

I wanted to mention that our county also mandates that cats and ferrets have to be registered too. Or, face a fine of $65 for the first offense. Vets have to report any unregistered animals they administer care to.


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## Georgiapeach (Jan 24, 2011)

I doubt if any of the southern states require licensing...states rights and all that...we also have embarrassingly high numbers of dogs and cats that aren't spayed/neutered and are turned into high kill shelters. There are many states that use states like mine (GA) as a means to obtain adoptable dogs, since their states don't have many (due to stringent spay/neuter requirements). I dream of the day that the southern states join the modern world...


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

First I would always register my dog as I am generally a law abiding citizen. However, Stanley was registered and microchipped when he was accepted into Greyhound Adoption Programme.
Different Councils charged different amounts, my council charge:
(As of today NZ$10 = US$8.26 to give you an idea of cost)
Gen Registration intact dog NZ$121 (if paid on time)
Desexed Dog $90
Preferred Owner intact (which you can get after a year if you demonstrate your property is fenced etc and other stuff) $82
Preferred Owner desexed $70
Rural non-working intact dog $65
Rural non-working desexed $55
Rural working $37

"Registration fees are used to maintain a safe and healthy environment for residents, dog owners and their pets
Fees pay for - dog control and managing the PN (my town) dog pound" (off council website)

If you are found to have not registered your dog the penalty is $300 and your dog may be seized.
You have to seek permission to own more than two dogs.
Dog pound fees first offence $105
Subsequent within 12 months $158
Sustenance for a dog per day or part of a day $15
Destruction of a dog $75
and other related costs for adopting out and neutering etc.

Therefore I am happy to pay these charges to register my dog.
Of course lots of people don't register their dogs but in my eyes it is not worth the risk, just like I wouldn't risk not having my car registered.
When I first registered Stanley I didn't have to 'prove' he was desexed and when the animal control officer apparently 'visited' me for the preferred owner status, I was home all day and nobody knocked on my door to view the property, meet the dog, see where he slept etc which is what they are supposed to do, so in my case it was a bit of a joke, but I didn't query it as I want to pay the lower rate.

PS. found out as an adult that my dad never registered our intact black lab growing up in the 70s UK, don't know why as it was only 37 pence!


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

You know, that's another thing I never looked up... Spay and neuter laws for my county. I will NOT neuter my boys as I have done the research and am comfortable with my decision. I am also responsible about making sure they don't sire litters. But, now that it's come up... Maybe I ought to look that up for my new county. Thanks for the reminder.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

I have never license my dogs. Simply because I am lazy and cheap when it comes to it. They have microchips and tags with all my information on them so I dont' worry about having to prove they are mine. 

Perhaps one of these days I will.

I was curious, these are the prices for my county.

PET LICENSE

The following fees are for dog licenses in Lake County:

Altered dog $15
Unaltered Exempt dog $50
Unaltered dog $75
Sr discount (altered dogs only) $8
Late payment fee $20

Mail a copy of your rabies certificate, spay/neuter certificate, and a check for $15 to:


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

I got Avery licensed today. Mine had expired and I knew they'd be after me soon with late fees. But because I moved he had to be licensed in the city of Syracuse, what a pain, I hate going into the city for anything. Anyways it's $10 for altered dogs and $20 for unaltered.


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## Felix (Oct 9, 2012)

I don't mainly because it's not heavily enforced in my area. I do keep him current on his rabies shots, but I did when I first got him for a couple years, and it was good that I did, he was a rowdy pup.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

I do. Always have. The reason I do is because if for some reason they got loose, I don't want to have to pay the fine or an unlicensed dog. I licensed mine last month and it was something like $38 for all three.


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

georgiapeach said:


> i doubt if any of the southern states require licensing...states rights and all that...we also have embarrassingly high numbers of dogs and cats that aren't spayed/neutered and are turned into high kill shelters. There are many states that use states like mine (ga) as a means to obtain adoptable dogs, since their states don't have many (due to stringent spay/neuter requirements). I dream of the day that the southern states join the modern world...


amen!!!!!!


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

SubMariner said:


> We don't license. The fees are expensive: $20 for neutered animals, $40 for non. The dogs wear ID collars and are chipped; licensing them would not be of any use except to put $ in the county coffers.


Does Hillsborough County not require a license? I grew up and lived most of my life in Pinellas county and we always had to get a license.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

Well I live in the country and we only have to have them if you live in town. Wyoming is always behind allot of places and I HOPE it never goes with most of the States as I hate the direction this country is going in.

Way to many laws and intrusions in our lives.


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

SubMariner said:


> We don't license. The fees are expensive: $20 for neutered animals, $40 for non. The dogs wear ID collars and are chipped; licensing them would not be of any use except to put $ in the county coffers.


Yours expensive? you must be joking, have you seen how much we pay? your fees are positively cheap as. Most things in USA are cheaper than us in little old NZ - the disadvantage of being a small country I suppose (although I do like that aspect of living here to be honest).


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## dalvers63 (Sep 10, 2012)

I license my dogs but not my cats as they never leave the house. They do check in this area and honestly, as long as the money I pay goes to the appropriate services, I have no trouble paying it.

When it comes to fees, many of you get off cheap! Depending on where you live in my area (city or county) the prices differ. For King County here is the cost:


Type Cost
Juvenile $15
Altered $30
Unaltered $60
Senior $15
Disabled $15
Service Animal	$0


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## cochon (Sep 28, 2009)

SuperPug, would you mind elaborating a little on the event you describe in your first post? Do you know when and where this happened? How did they go about doing it? Did they come when the owner was home? What right do they have to just confiscate a dog? What if the owner refused to give them the dog?

It sounds horrifying.


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## SuperPug (Mar 5, 2013)

Maybe you somehow didn't hear about it? I believe there was atleast 2 cities in America that did this. Chicago was one of them, I don't remember the other one. But they were going around town taking any dog that even looked similar to a pit bull and euthanized them all. I believe they gave them a 30 day warning to vacate the area. If they chose not to, their dog(if deemed a "pit bull") would be taken from them and killed. Doesn't matter if the dog was dangerous or not. Genetically proven to not be a pit bull. Given a behavior evaluation and passed, they killed them all. Because they decided to ban the breed. There's a documentary that was done on it, it's been posted on YouTube. I'll PM you the link to it, some may find it disturbing.


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## shellbeme (Dec 8, 2010)

Both of mine are licensed. We live in the county and have a ton of stray dogs in the area, we rent and have no fence for our yard. I am sometimes concerned that they might be attacked by one of the many strays while we are out walking and if it were to happen, don't want to be standing there like a moron when the authorities ask me for a copy of their license. Heh, I might stand there like a moron anyway but at least I'd do it legally.


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## FBarnes (Feb 17, 2013)

I dont' license but we aren't required to since we live outside the city limits. I figure it's like SuperPug says - identify, register, destroy. I have a couple of little wussy dogs and a dog that some people don't like because of his breed. For instance, I can't get alot of homeowner's insurance. There's no way I'm making him a target. And yes, I wear a tinfoil hat  I don't have any registered firearms, either, I don't answer ANY surveys except the census because they harrass you if you don't and I lie on it.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

I remember someone on an old aol board who lives in CA, her intact dog was one thing like $90.


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## thegoodstuff (May 12, 2010)

SuperPug said:


> Maybe you somehow didn't hear about it? I believe there was atleast 2 cities in America that did this. Chicago was one of them, I don't remember the other one. But they were going around town taking any dog that even looked similar to a pit bull and euthanized them all. I believe they gave them a 30 day warning to vacate the area. If they chose not to, their dog(if deemed a "pit bull") would be taken from them and killed. Doesn't matter if the dog was dangerous or not. Genetically proven to not be a pit bull. Given a behavior evaluation and passed, they killed them all. Because they decided to ban the breed. There's a documentary that was done on it, it's been posted on YouTube. I'll PM you the link to it, some may find it disturbing.


I find this very disturbing, to say the least. Did a cursory search, I dont think there is a pit bull ban in Chicago presently. Maybe there is a city named Chicago in North Korea (or Northern Ireland). 

What was the other city? I searched Youtube for the documentary but I didnt find it. Can you PM me the link?

cochon had some good questions too.

Where I live, state law requires that all dogs over the age of six months be licensed annually. $8 for spayed/neutered dogs and $19 for dogs that are not. Lived here for almost 10 years, no licences.


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## SuperPug (Mar 5, 2013)

I'm not sure if they still have the ban now(I'm no where near Chicago). I'll PM you the link to one that is on YouTube.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

Didn't Denver do some stupid assinine agressive Pit ban?

I thought I recall them doing something like that a few years ago.


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

starturtle said:


> Does Hillsborough County not require a license? I grew up and lived most of my life in Pinellas county and we always had to get a license.


They may, but the time when they sent my renewal indicating that my dog was a 2 year old cat I decided that I wasn't going to contribute to a system that obviously didn't have it's act together. So we stopped jumping through those hoops.

I'd much rather contribute to the county shelter by working through our GSP rescue group to place dogs that come into their facility.


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## thegoodstuff (May 12, 2010)

kevin bradley said:


> Didn't Denver do some stupid assinine agressive Pit ban?
> 
> I thought I recall them doing something like that a few years ago.



Yes the geniuses in Denver did that. I think some of the lawsuits against the city and the head of animal control are still pending. It is covered in the movie Beyond the Myth . Some of the cases are shocking. It really is difficult to grasp that people can be so unfeeling, so callous and so gung ho even in light of the facts. But so many people in general dont want to be bothered by the facts. 

If that was tried around here, you'd find me barricaded in my house seriously considering my 2nd Amendment rights. Im not exaggerating.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

thegoodstuff said:


> Yes the geniuses in Denver did that. I think some of the lawsuits against the city and the head of animal control are still pending. It is covered in the movie Beyond the Myth . Some of the cases are shocking. It really is difficult to grasp that people can be so unfeeling, so callous and so gung ho even in light of the facts. But so many people in general dont want to be bothered by the facts.
> 
> If that was tried around here, you'd find me barricaded in my house seriously considering my 2nd Amendment rights. Im not exaggerating.




Difficult to grasp? People unfeeling and callous?....

Nothing surprises me any more, GS. Humans have no boundaries for cruelty. None.

And yet we have no limits for kindness, either. The paradox has always dumfounded me.


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## thegoodstuff (May 12, 2010)

kevin bradley said:


> Difficult to grasp? People unfeeling and callous?....
> 
> Nothing surprises me any more, GS. Humans have no boundaries for cruelty. None.
> 
> And yet we have no limits for kindness, either. The paradox has always dumfounded me.


As cruel as humans can be now, its gotten a lot better over the last 6 or 700 hundred years. The unspeakable horrors of medieval torture were accepted as routine and sanctioned by governments. I shudder to think.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

thegoodstuff said:


> As cruel as humans can be now, its gotten a lot better over the last 6 or 700 hundred years. The unspeakable horrors of medieval torture were accepted as routine and sanctioned by governments. I shudder to think.


True. At least when monsters act like monsters now... we get it out there for everyone to see.


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

I don't, simply because Murph does not have his rabies vaccination.


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## SuperPug (Mar 5, 2013)

thegoodstuff said:


> As cruel as humans can be now, its gotten a lot better over the last 6 or 700 hundred years. The unspeakable horrors of medieval torture were accepted as routine and sanctioned by governments. I shudder to think.


I agree. Sundays we go antique shopping just to see all the neat stuff from back in the day. I've seen my fair share of the HORRIBLE "ye-oldie" horse bits and dog collars. Me and my husband lose our colors when we find one. Some of them are still used, but much less than they have been. Like really?! Why would you find it necessary to put barbed wire in a horse's mouth?!

Yet the antique hunting collars are pretty cool. I think the fashionable spike collars we have today originated from the hunting spike collars. They were used to deter bites from predators. Granted they only worked on the dog's neck. But some of the stuff is just really neat.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

Yes I do think that Denver did ban Pit Bulls. Not sure how they went about it, I do have a friend that lives there if I think about it the next time I talk to him I will ask if he knows.

It can be mind boggling how far this world has come and then sometimes seems like not so far. Always makes me crazy how something that can start out as a good thing then always ends up for the bad. Something like peta for instance or the people that are trying to ban hunting. As much as I dislike some of it I do believe it is a necessary evil.


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

thegoodstuff said:


> As cruel as humans can be now, its gotten a lot better over the last 6 or 700 hundred years. The unspeakable horrors of medieval torture were accepted as routine and sanctioned by governments. I shudder to think.


Yes I agree. I was in the Tower of London last year and my god the stuff they used to torture prisoners/traitors with was horrible and at the same time a fascinating snap shot of history. Also visited an underground dungeon museum full of the stuff including sound effects, think it was an eye opener for the kids but as they are older I think they forgot about it afterwards.


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