Hamilton County dog licenses increase 44 percent
 By
		  Norma Bennett Woolf

		Reprinted with permission from Dog Owner’s Guide,
		  © October 2001

	 

		Owners of licensed dogs will receive a message from the Hamilton County
		Commissioners this fall: even though you are not responsible for the majority
		of animal control problems in the county, you must foot the bill to the tune of
		$13 per dog and $65 per kennel, a fee hike of 44 percent. 
		
 In an era when local governments throughout the US realize that
		  animal control is a community problem that requires general budget funding,
		  commissioners John Dowlin and Tom Neyer voted on August 29 to increase the toll
		  on people who already license their dogs. 
 
		
 Citing the unfairness of taxing responsible dog owners for the bulk
		  of enforcement against scofflaws, Commissioner Todd Portune voted against the
		  increase. 
 
		
 The license increase was also opposed by Hamilton County Auditor
		  Dusty Rhodes and Ohio Valley Dog Owners Inc. and in a draft document from the
		  Hamilton County SPCA. 
 
		
 In a letter to Dowlin and Neyer dated August 31, Rhodes wrote: "As
		  you know, I am deeply concerned for the continued success of the licensing
		  program given the whopping increase. It is unfair to place the entire burden of
		  supporting a program which benefits everyone on law-abiding dog owners alone."
		  
 
		
 In testimony presented to the commissioners on August 29, OVDO said:
		  "As population has grown in urban and suburban areas and we have become more
		  aware of animal needs and community safety, the demands on animal control
		  budgets and programs - like other social services - have increased. Unlike
		  other social services, one group of people has been singled out to pay the
		  price - the dog owners who are already abiding by the law. It is unjust to
		  require them to shoulder all or most of the increased financial responsibility
		  for a law enforcement program that benefits all citizens simply because they
		  are easy to find." 
 
		
 The draft document from the SPCA noted: "The sale of dog licenses in
		  Ohio was never intended to support the entire operation of urban dog control.
		  ... At some point, the fact that the auditor's office and SPCA Cincinnati are
		  doing their best with available funds to issue as many licenses as possible
		  needs to be stated. However, dog control services are provided to every citizen
		  of Hamilton County even if they do not own a dog. To supply that service on a
		  superior basis, every citizen must be called upon to support that service."
		  
 
		
 The new rate places Hamilton County in the upper bracket of dog
		  license fees in the state. Lucas County (Toledo) is higher at $15; Seneca
		  County (south of Lucas County) matches the new Hamilton County fee at $13.
		  Montgomery County (Dayton) has a $12 fee, and Butler, Clermont, and Warren
		  counties adjacent to Hamilton County charge $10. Kennel licenses are available
		  for breeders and hunters at a fee five times the cost of individual licenses in
		  each county. Kentucky dog owners pay $1.50 per dog in Campbell County and $5
		  per dog in Boone and Kenton counties. The animal shelters in these counties are
		  government agencies and receive the bulk of their funding from county tax
		  revenues. 
 
		
The law
 
		
The situation in Hamilton County and the State of Ohio is a microcosm
		  of animal control nationwide. Here, as in most of the US, dog licenses are
		  mandated by state law, but each county sets its own rates. Dog license money
		  goes into the Dog and Kennel Fund, a budget category originally set up to
		  compensate farmers for the loss of livestock to unidentified marauding dogs.
		  Urban counties see few livestock claims these days, so they use the fund to
		  finance the impoundment and disposition of stray dogs. In Hamilton County, the
		  commissioners contract with the Hamilton County SPCA¹ to provide these
		  services. Cost of the contract increased from $542,400 per year in 1996 to
		  $607,488 in 1999-2000, then to $703,560 in 2001. The contract runs through
		  2004; increases for 2002 and beyond will be based on salary increases for
		  county employees. 
 
		
The auditor collects dog license fees in each Ohio county. In Hamilton
		  County, the dog warden was deputized to administer the license program by the
		  previous auditor, but Rhodes resumed that responsibility in 1996. Today, about
		  60,000 county dogs are licensed, up from about 53,000 in 1996. In an effort to
		  increase licensing and help reunite lost dogs with their owners, Rhodes
		  introduced "Dusty's Dogs," a 24-hour telephone hotline and Internet connection
		  that allows citizens to return a dog directly to its owner instead of calling
		  the SPCA. 
 
		
From January 1, 2001 to September 3, 2001², Dusty's Dogs received
		  6272 calls from people seeking to match license numbers on dog tags to the
		  names and addresses of dog owners in the database. Dusty's Dogs can also be
		  accessed from the auditor's website, so these calls do not represent the entire
		  use of the system. 
 
		
In spite of evidence that license tags can reunite lost dogs with
		  their families, studies⊃3 show that as many as two-thirds of owned dogs in
		  the US are unlicensed. The formula devised by the American Pet Products
		  Manufacturers Association⊃4 estimates that 40 percent of American
		  households own at least one dog and 30 percent of dog-owning households have
		  more than one dog. With 60,000 licensed dogs, Hamilton County could be home to
		  more than 110,000 unlicensed dogs. 
 
		
Who uses the system?
 
		
Like many other states, Ohio passed dog license laws in the 1920s as a
		  means of identifying dogs that attacked livestock. If the dogs were licensed,
		  the farmer could find the owner and ask or sue for compensation for dead or
		  injured sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, or poultry. If the dogs were unlicensed,
		  the farmer could get reimbursement from the Dog and Kennel Fund. 
 
		
As cities and suburbs grew and complaints about loose dogs multiplied,
		  license programs expanded to pay for impoundment of these dogs and fines for
		  failure to license increased. Some governments operated their own animal
		  control agencies and some contracted with non-profit humane organizations to
		  provide the service. Some instituted door-to-door canvasses by dog wardens to
		  sell licenses. Some found that the Dog and Kennel Fund did not cover expenses,
		  so they provided additional money in their county budgets. 
 
		
According to a study⊃6 by the Ohio State University College of
		  Veterinary Medicine, 84 percent of the 131,333 dogs entering shelters in 1996
		  were strays and only 17 percent were reclaimed by owners. Thus the expenses to
		  impound and house more than 100,000 stray dogs in the state were paid by the
		  relative few who obey the law and buy a dog license. In 1999, the Hamilton
		  County SPCA impounded 4612 stray dogs, returned 1243 to their owners, sold 462,
		  and euthanized 2907. In 2000, the SPCA impounded 4498 dogs, returned 1180 to
		  their owners, sold 336, and euthanized 2982. In the first six months of 2001,
		  the SPCA impounded 2174 dogs, returned 268, sold 139, and euthanized
		  1757⊃7.
 This shelter has a higher than average redemption rate with 27
		  percent of dogs returned in 1999 and 26 percent returned in 2000. However, the
		  rate for the first six months of this year falls far below that number at 12
		  percent. One possible reason is the increase in fines for failure to license
		  and failure to confine a dog that can bring the total cost of redemption to
		  more than $218.⊃8 
 
		
What happens to unclaimed dogs?
 
		
Different states have different holding times for impounded stray
		  dogs, but those for Ohio and Kentucky are typical. Ohio law requires that
		  unlicensed stray dogs be kenneled for three days and licensed dogs kept for two
		  weeks. Kentucky law requires that impounded stray dogs be kept for five days.
		  When the required holding period expires, the dogs become the property of the
		  organization or agency to dispose of as they see fit. Dogs that are healthy and
		  have good temperaments are offered for adoption, but if they are not adopted
		  within a reasonable length of time and kennel space is needed for incoming
		  dogs, they, too, are likely to be euthanized. 
 
		
Criteria for adoptability varies with each shelter and often depends
		  as much on available space as dog health and temperament. 
 
		
Effectiveness of licensing programs
 When states passed dog
		license laws 70-80 years ago, they could not have foreseen the pressure that
		would be placed on the system or the evolutionary change in attitude about
		community animal control as dogs evolved from working partners to members of
		the family and citizens demanded relief from dogs that roam free, disturb the
		peace by barking, menace passersby, and destroy property. As communities
		expanded and people began living in ever-closer quarters, the burden on animal
		control programs also grew, but by this time, dependence on dog licensing as a
		source of revenue was cast in stone in many areas and license fee boosts became
		the norm when costs of impoundment swelled. 
		
Through the years, however, it became evident that the majority of dog
		  owners do not license their pets and that the majority of dogs impounded as
		  strays are unlicensed. Some governments increased the fines for violations of
		  the licensing and confinement laws so that those who fail to license and
		  confine pay for the violation, but some experts say that cost increases lead
		  owners to abandon impounded pets, not reclaim them. 
 
		
"There are many reasons why licensing has an overall negative effect,"
		  said Bob Christiansen in the article "License failures: Here are the reasons
		  why!" ⊃9 from the Save Our Strays website. "The poor simply do not license
		  their pets. As a result, they run scared of authority. They are afraid to make
		  use of any services that will expose them to law enforcement. They do not visit
		  veterinarians, participate in shot clinics, use low-cost spay-neuter programs,
		  or seek health assistance for injured or suffering pets. They do not redeem
		  pets that end up in shelters and often dump pets rather than take them to
		  shelters and face possible fines. When confronted by officials that require
		  payments for fees and fines, owners forsake ownership. After all, the average
		  cost to obtain a new dog is $50-$75, or in some cases, by simply answering an
		  ad in a paper." 
 
		
Christiansen also said that dog licenses are a tax on pet owners, that
		  stray pets have a "tremendous impact on shelter capacity and are the root cause
		  of high euthanasia rates" and "negatively impact the resources of the system"
		  when they are not reclaimed. 
 
		
Some Ohio counties deal with dog license scofflaws by sending animal
		  control agents door-to-door to find unlicensed dogs. Some counties approach dog
		  licensing as an identification method so that stray dogs get back home - an
		  identification method mandated by law, and some counties make animal control an
		  integral part of the county budget. 
 
		
Notes

 
		
     
		  
  1.  The SPCA recently changed its name to SPCA Cincinnati. 
     
    2.  
		  
  2.  Report from the Hamilton County Auditor's office, September 4,
			 2001.
     
    3.  
		  
  3.  Save Our Strays by Bob Christiansen,
			  www.saveourstrays.com
     
    4.  
		  
  4.  APPMA National Pet Owners Survey 1999-2000, APPMA, 255 Glenville
			 Road, Greenwich, Connecticut 06831; (203) 532-0000. Derived from studies done
			 by the organization, the formula estimates that 40 percent of American
			 households have at least one dog. Hamilton County has about 348,0005 households
			 or 139,200 households with at least one dog if county fits the formula. APPMA
			 indicates that about 30 percent of dog-owning households have more than one
			 dog, so the actual number of dogs in the county could be as high as 175,000.
			 
     
    5.  
		  
  5.  1995 count by OKI Regional Council of Governments,
			 http://shade.gaeanet.com/oki/upload_files/1990_2030_County_Household_Projections.PDF
    
			 
    6.  
		  
  6.  1996 Ohio Survey of Animal Care and Control Agencies conducted by
			 the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in collaboration with
			 the Ohio County Dog Wardens Association and the Ohio Federated Humane
			 Societies.
     
    7.  
		  
  7.  Document from Andy Mahlman, operations manager, Hamilton County
			 SPCA, dated September 4, 2001.
     
    8.  
		  
  8.  A citation for failure to license costs $118 - the fine plus
			 double the license fee of $9; a citation for failure to confine is an
			 additional $100; and the SPCA charges board for the number of days the dog is
			 impounded. The cost of a failure to license citation will increase on January 1
			 to $126 - the fine plus double the new $13 license fee.
     
    9.  
		  
  9.  "License failures: Here are the reasons why!" Save Our Strays by
			 Bob Christiansen, www.saveourstrays.com
     
    10.  
		
 
		
Dog Owner's Guide is a Cincinnati-area publication for
		  pet and show dog owners. For information,editor@canismajor.com. To see more
		  articles,www.canismajor.com/dog