Salivating over the possibility of new revenue, City Hall officials will soon begin hounding dog owners to get licenses for their pets–but will be sending notifications only to those Chicagoans conscientious enough to vaccinate their pets against rabies.
City Clerk James Laski said Monday his office is poised to send letters to some 70,000 Chicago pet owners, demanding they pay up for dog licenses.
Amid a city budget crisis, Laski said he also hopes to double the charges for dog licenses to as much as $20.
But because the city will use vaccination records to find dog owners, some veterinarians fear the new policy could create a disincentive for pet owners to give the rabies vaccine to their dogs.
“It cannot be emphasized enough that rabies is a fatal disease,” said Dr. Joanne Carlson, president-elect of the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association. “It is encroaching more and more on Cook County.”
Carlson said her group is not supportive of Laski’s proposal to work with vets to distribute dog-license applications.
Although Cook County rolls count 80,000 to 90,000 vaccinated dogs in Chicago, city officials said only about 17,000 dog licenses have been purchased this year, Laski said. And the city’s Department of Animal Care and Control estimates that there are 600,000 dogs in Chicago.
“Half the people don’t even know they are supposed to get a dog license,” Laski said.
Technical difficulties prevented city officials from tracking down dog license scofflaws sooner, but those problems have been solved, Laski said.
“We’re there now,” he said. “Beginning the first of the year, we will work in earnest. I guarantee you that we will at least double, if not triple or quadruple, our numbers from last year.”
Chicago dog owners pay $5 to register a neutered dog and $10 for a dog that is not neutered.
Pet owners over age 65 get a 50 percent discount, and there is no charge for registering guide dogs for the blind and disabled.
It was only three years ago that the city last raised fees, which were $2 for neutered dogs and $5 for non-neutered dogs.
Still, city officials said it costs less to get a dog license in Chicago than in any other of the 15 biggest U.S. cities. They cite license fees of as high as $100 for “unaltered” dogs in Los Angeles.
The increase in fee amounts would make dog licenses in Chicago more expensive than in New York, Philadelphia or Boston, but cheaper than in Seattle, San Diego and San Francisco.
The clerk’s office is working with the city Law Department to put teeth into a dog-license ordinance. There is currently no fine for violators.
Laski said he wants to give scofflaws a month or two to fork over the fees. Those who still don’t comply could face a fine of $50 to $100, he said.
“I would think there has to be some sort of message sent that if they do not comply with this, there are consequences,” Laski said. A pilot program that involved sending letters to 500 owners of unlicensed dogs yielded positive responses from more than half of them, officials said.
Carlson, of the veterinary association, said officials should focus on promoting vaccination rather than punishing responsible owners who make sure their dogs are inoculated, she said.
An “astronomical” number of dogs in Chicago are not vaccinated, Carlson said.
Pet owners interviewed Monday seemed unhappy about being called upon to help plug the city’s budget shortfall.
Jon Martin, a bond trader who jogged in Lincoln Park with his rescued chocolate Labrador, Baloo, said getting a letter from the clerk could spur him to buy a license. It’s just not very high on his priority list.
“I think if it’s $10 anyway, I probably will. It’s just more of a hassle,” Martin said. “But it sounds to me like the city is increasing its revenue through inappropriate sources.”
Along Lake Shore Drive near Belmont Avenue, a group of dog owners expressed skepticism.
“The price is not the issue,” said real estate agent Mary Kay Caloger of the Lakeview neighborhood, who strolled with her Pekinese, Mu-Shu Magoo. “People are either going to get their dogs licensed or not, and it’s not the $10 or the thought of the fine that’s going to make them do it.”
