3. Plan B - Overview

Plan B

Overview

Currently Shiawassee County pays approximately $26,000 annually for outside sellers to sell dog licenses. The Humane Society is seeking to also sell dog licenses and that would increase that figure.

The state legislature has provisions in the dog law of 1919 to help alleviate the dog licensing burden on the treasurer’s office. That entails the possibility of renewing at the expiration of the dog’s rabies vaccination, either for a one year or a three year dog license. That would spread the workload over the entire year and theoretically reduce the workload to 1/3 by using the three year license option. The 1 year or 3 year must be a choice of the dog owner and not all would be eligible, nor would all choose that option. Many would.

The CDC has recently declared the U.S. “rabies free”. Sounds rather hollow with the state of Michigan issuing warnings about bats carrying rabies and a rise in the number of cases reported. A very real threat and this is no time to let down our due diligence.

This is a good time to require other household pets to be vaccinated. Namely cats and ferrets. There have been several cases of rabies reported in cats.

The three year dog license can provide a jolt to the county revenue that could easily finance the needed computer/internet based systems to relieve the burden on the treasurer even more. Currently the dog license records are not readily available. This needs to be corrected and a computer based system would certainly do that.

Licenses are available by mail and could be available over the internet as is done in several other Michigan Counties. Clinton County being one of those and printouts from their website are enclosed.

Going to a three year option, adding cat licenses and ferret licenses requires a change (amendment) to the Shiawassee County Animal Control Ordinance during the 60 days prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. That also requires a public hearing. Expect some complaints about cat licenses. They always do, but our animal control shelter takes care of about the same number of cats as they do dogs. Cats, more specifically cat owners, have been getting a free ride for quite some time. It is time they paid their fair share.

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