Animal licensing insanity in my town

[njnovice]

So I attempted to get the dogs licensed, and the price they told me was wrong. I overpaid by a dollar. They called me with their mistake and I said, "Keep the dollar and send me the tags." The town sends the whole thing back to me. I've got a lot going on, and licensing the dogs was not a priority. Animal control comes out here and says I have to get them licensed. Now, the town wasn't accepting the vet records for Mick and wants the actual rabies certificate. The vet keeps saying she'll send it out, and never does.

 

So today, I get certified mail from the town issuing me a summons for an unlicensed cat. My cat has been licensed for years with the town. So, I guess this buys me more time to get the dogs licensed, before I have to appear in court and prove my cat has a license. The kittens don't need them yet.

 

On edit: And when the ACO came out here, he said that Sinead didn't have the proper health certificates to travel across state lines (she's from NYC). She has a NYC rabies tag. What else was she supposed to have? I've never heard of "health certificates" to bring dogs into other states (barring Hawaii's quarantine).

[SecretBC]

I must say, I'm sure a lot more people would license their animals if the great majority of municipalities didn't make it such a giant pain in the butt.

 

Last year, my city started to let the local vet clinics sell yearly licenses. This is quite handy and makes sense since they have all of the info for rabies vaccinations and proof of spay/neuter right there. I find it much easier to make it to my vet clinic than to City Hall during their (rare) hours of operation.

 

My vet was also great about working with me to license Secret under my parent's name and address -- seeing as my town has a stupid limit of two pets per household. I figured it was better to license Secret under a different owner than to not license her at all.

[njnovice]

I must say, I'm sure a lot more people would license their animals if the great majority of municipalities didn't make it such a giant pain in the butt.

 

Last year, my city started to let the local vet clinics sell yearly licenses. This is quite handy and makes sense since they have all of the info for rabies vaccinations and proof of spay/neuter right there. I find it much easier to make it to my vet clinic than to City Hall during their (rare) hours of operation.

 

My vet was also great about working with me to license Secret under my parent's name and address -- seeing as my town has a stupid limit of two pets per household. I figured it was better to license Secret under a different owner than to not license her at all.

 

I wish it could just be done at the vet office here. Makes life so much easier. The town limit here is five animals (I'm at 6...thanks to the recent influx of random kittens), but my cat is actually licensed to my mom's house. He ended up staying there for awhile, and while he was there, she took him to the vet and then just got him licensed with the rest of her pets.

[Lewis Moon]

Last year, my city started to let the local vet clinics sell yearly licenses. This is quite handy and makes sense since they have all of the info for rabies vaccinations and proof of spay/neuter right there. I find it much easier to make it to my vet clinic than to City Hall during their (rare) hours of operation.

 

 

I must say, that seems entirely intuitive and reasonable...probably saves a bunch of money too. I have no idea why anyone would run it any other way. I may lobby to try to get my county to do it the same way!

[geonni banner]

So I attempted to get the dogs licensed, and the price they told me was wrong. I overpaid by a dollar. They called me with their mistake and I said, "Keep the dollar and send me the tags." The town sends the whole thing back to me. I've got a lot going on, and licensing the dogs was not a priority. Animal control comes out here and says I have to get them licensed. Now, the town wasn't accepting the vet records for Mick and wants the actual rabies certificate. The vet keeps saying she'll send it out, and never does.

 

So today, I get certified mail from the town issuing me a summons for an unlicensed cat. My cat has been licensed for years with the town. So, I guess this buys me more time to get the dogs licensed, before I have to appear in court and prove my cat has a license. The kittens don't need them yet.

 

On edit: And when the ACO came out here, he said that Sinead didn't have the proper health certificates to travel across state lines (she's from NYC). She has a NYC rabies tag. What else was she supposed to have? I've never heard of "health certificates" to bring dogs into other states (barring Hawaii's quarantine).

 

Yup, been there, done that. Moved once with my licensed dog from Los Angeles County to the adjacent county - don't remember what it was called. Got my dog a fresh rabies shot, sent in my papers and was told that the dog could not be licensed in two counties at once. Meanwhile, LA County. sent me a notice of expired license and dire predictions of the outcome if I failed to license her. I sorted out the license in the new county, and sent a letter with xeroxed forms to Los Angeles Animal Control, saying that I had moved out of LA County. They sent me another nasty-gram with threats of animal seizure and huge fines. So I sent them another letter with more xeroxes and basically told them to get their heads out of their butts. A couple of weeks later I received two letters, one which renewed their threats, and one which told me that they were very sorry but my license application for LA County was refused on the grounds that my dog was no longer a resident of the county. (!)

 

BTW, Hawaii now has a program in place that lets you bring in a dog or cat without going through quarantine, if you get two rabies shots in a specific period. The dog mus also have a certification of health from a vet withing 10 days of traveling.

[sea4th]

Sounds like the ACO in your town has way too much time on it's hands. So when are you going to stop this reign of terror and comply?

[njnovice]

Sounds like the ACO in your town has way too much time on it's hands. So when are you going to stop this reign of terror and comply?

 

Mind you, this is the same town that when my mother called up saying she had a bear outside eating her rabbits, the response was like, "Well, what do you expect us to do about it?"

 

Another bear on my street ripped apart a shed looking for bird seed...no response from animal control.

 

So...performing actual animal control duties? Not their thing. Going door to door looking in backyards and windows for pets? All the time in the world.

[njnovice]

Well, Mick is no longer a fugitive dog. Now they're not accepting the paperwork on Sinead...but at least Mick's licensed, and they have it on record now that I've made several attempts to license Sinead.

 

Oh, and as for the summons on the cats, that's going to prove more difficult than I thought. It turns out it's for the ex's cats (which she inexplicably licensed in my name). They now reside about 400 miles away or so. I offered to let the ACO come to my house to see if I had rogue kitties, but no, they want some sort of written proof these cats no longer reside with me. What if I had two cats that just ran away or if I gave them away to somebody? I hate my town.

[Woffie]

Unbelievable! Why does the government services make things harder than they have to be?

[gcv-border]

Well, Mick is no longer a fugitive dog. Now they're not accepting the paperwork on Sinead...but at least Mick's licensed, and they have it on record now that I've made several attempts to license Sinead.

 

Oh, and as for the summons on the cats, that's going to prove more difficult than I thought. It turns out it's for the ex's cats (which she inexplicably licensed in my name). They now reside about 400 miles away or so. I offered to let the ACO come to my house to see if I had rogue kitties, but no, they want some sort of written proof these cats no longer reside with me. What if I had two cats that just ran away or if I gave them away to somebody? I hate my town.

 

I am SOO glad I moved out of NJ (about 4 years ago). I lived in a town where they actually hired somebody to visit every house to check if they had dogs and how many. This was done every other year. I was speechless when it happened the first year after I moved there as I had never heard of such a thing before. I lived in that town for 7 years - therefore had 3 visits. Luckily, my one dog (at that time) was licensed before each visit so I do not know what would have happened if the opposite was true.

 

Jovi

[njnovice]

I am SOO glad I moved out of NJ (about 4 years ago). I lived in a town where they actually hired somebody to visit every house to check if they had dogs and how many. This was done every other year. I was speechless when it happened the first year after I moved there as I had never heard of such a thing before. I lived in that town for 7 years - therefore had 3 visits. Luckily, my one dog (at that time) was licensed before each visit so I do not know what would have happened if the opposite was true.

 

Jovi

 

Okay, I actually was reading an article somewhere yesterday, that doing a dog census every other year is NJ state law, and it's meant to keep rabies under control. Apparently, they want to take the law off the books, because rabies isn't a problem in dogs anymore and only a handful of towns with nothing better to do bother with it anymore.

 

I had no idea we had a dog census law. Just one of the many things that NJ likes to waste money on.

[bc4pack]

Okay, I actually was reading an article somewhere yesterday, that doing a dog census every other year is NJ state law, and it's meant to keep rabies under control.

 

Hmmmm....wonder if they realize that having a dog count does nothing but drive people 'underground' and cause people to hide dogs cause they may be over the 'limit'?

[njnovice]

Hmmmm....wonder if they realize that having a dog count does nothing but drive people 'underground' and cause people to hide dogs cause they may be over the 'limit'?

 

It's NJ. Electing competent, intelligent people is not our strong point here, and that goes for both political parties. LOL

[powerfulgazelle]

A little (lot) OT, but I have never heard of an actual dog census before. Wow.

 

Here, we jokingly refer to the county's once-a-month testing of the storm/civil defense sirens as the "dog census". 1st Wed of the month at 12 noon, they set the sirens off in all the various patterns...and all the dogs in the neighborhood speak up to be counted by the time they're finished---even the dogs who don't usually bark/howl.

[Christina]

Well I sure know about the health certificate deal. I took in a litter of puppies from West Virginia, brought them up to my town in Connecticut, and immediately had animal control on my back for bringing animals into the state without a health certificate. I was sent to court and it only took a few eye rolls for my case to be dismissed. At least somebody in the legal system is reasonable.

 

Don't get me wrong- I understand the idea behind health certificates and licensing. On the other hand, they really do not make it easy. I had to jump through hoops to get the puppies from the West Virginia shelter as it was (this includes driving, absolutely exhausted, for twenty-four hours straight with six kittens, eight puppies, and a mom dog loose in my very small car- if you ever want to talk to somebody about improper planning and impulse rescues, I'm your gal). I can't imagine what would have happened if I had to stop and get health certificates on all the animals I had with me.

 

This year, my town sent out notifications that they would be searching homes for unlicensed pets. I have absolutely no plans to allow the animal control officer to enter my house. We have no animal limit in my town, and I occasionally have foster animals moving in or out of my home, so I'm not entirely sure what they would accomplish by snooping around here. Not to mention that it violates a rather important amendment. I did ask the town clerk last year what I should do about my foster dogs- whether they all need licensing or if I can just keep them as is. They were supposed to call me back to let me know. Guess it isn't necessary because I never got a phone call!