Pet (peeve) licensing

The city of Spokane’s increase in pet licensing fees earlier this year came and went with little public debate or objection. That could be because the increase was small (50 cents for a spayed or neutered cat and $1 for a spayed or neutered dog) or because half the dog and cat owners in Spokane don’t license their pets. The number of unlicensed pets in Spokane County is estimated even higher.

Cat and dog licensing is mandated by city and county codes. Failure to comply in the city of Spokane carries a $100 fine. In Spokane County, the penalty is $200. Nicole Montano is an animal control officer at SCRAPS and responsible for enforcing the ordinance.

“Licensing is not a priority to some pet owners,” she said, adding that “85 percent of the complaint calls I respond to involve animals without licenses. There is a fine, but I rarely impose it with the first discovery.”

Instead the owner can purchase a license in the field from Montano.

“The excuses I hear most often for failure to license are ‘I thought we were current.’ Or ‘I just haven’t made it down there yet,’ ” said Montano. “The weakest reason I have received for not licensing is ‘I shouldn’t have to license my pet.’ I have imposed the $200 fine twice, both times to the people who used that argument.”

Licensing fees for unaltered animals at both SpokAnimal and SCRAPS are higher than those for altered pets. When the Spokane City Council was considering a fee increase this spring, it used a study of licensing structures in large cities throughout the state, like Tacoma, to determine Spokane’s structure. “The different levels of fees are intended to encourage spaying and neutering.” says Gail Mackie, director at SpokAnimal.

Each year the “extra” puppies and kittens from unwanted litters are dropped at local shelters for the staff to manage and maintain. Another wave of animals comes when families not prepared to care for an animal surrender it to the shelter.

The cost of a license includes a $3 surcharge to fund vouchers for the spay and neuter program. The program has been in existence at SpokAnimal since 1996. Vouchers are available at SCRAPS or SpokAnimal.

“It’s a dollars-off coupon,” said Mackie. “Pet owners can take their pet to any vet and have it spayed or neutered. The only requirement to getting a voucher is that the animal be licensed.”

There is a strong correlation between unaltered and unlicensed animals. About 65 percent of dogs and 85 percent of cats that are impounded for running free and cannot be traced to an owner, are not spayed or neutered.

Licensed pets that leave their homes once usually get a quick trip back home without seeing the inside of the shelter.

Montano said, “I always try to return the animal to the owner immediately, before I bring it in. It is less stressful to the animal and cheaper to the owner. It is only when people are at work and I don’t have a secondary contact number that I have to bring the animals back to the shelter with me.”

The animals that can’t be traced back to an owner at the time they are picked up are impounded in the shelter that has jurisdiction over the area they were found. The Humane Society doesn’t have a government contract to pick up strays but they often receive them.

“Of the 5,000 animals we took in last year, 800 of them were unlicensed strays,” said Dianne Rasmussen, the Humane Society’s volunteer and outreach coordinator. “People either find them and bring them to us or leave them in the drop cages outside the building. Sometimes that is as much effort as people want to put into getting the animal off the street. We encourage people to take the strays to SpokAnimal or SCRAPS but when they won’t we take them and ask for a $25 receiving fee.”

County and city codes mandate that dogs with no owner information be held for 72 hours. Unidentifiable cats are not required to be held for any specific length of time. Those dogs with traceable identification are held for five business days in the county and 10 business days in the city from the time contact is made with the owner.

Only 35 percent of the dogs and 3 percent of the cats impounded are ever picked up again by original owners. When the holding period expires, the animals are put up for adoption. If they don’t get a new home, they are euthanized when the shelters run out of space. The three local shelters handled 20,000 animals last year. About 9,000 of those were euthanized due to lack of space and 70 percent of those were considered adoptable.