Coming Soon: A Fine for Dogs Without Licenses

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Oct 25, 2011 10:40PM

While a dog license has always been a required accessory for Chicago pups, it apparently hasn't been enforced before now. The city is trying to bridge the gap between the 27,918 licenses it sold last year and the 560,000 dogs estimated to live in Chicago.

The City Clerk's office is launching a 90-day education campaign before starting enforcement. They're making things fun with an online dog registration contest, and the office is offering low-cost rabies vaccines at events around the city.

The dog license is just a sticker affixed to the metal rabies tag. Scoffpaws (see what we did there?) could be ticketed at a cost of $50 to $200. The licenses are much cheaper: $5 for neutered dogs, $50 for non-neutered dogs. For senior citizens, the rates are $2.50 and $5 respectively.

Much like with the city sticker crackdown, this looks like another case of the city using enforcement of existing laws to increase its revenue stream. It's good to see the city doing what they can with the tools they have before adding on a bunch of new taxes and fines.