The Dogs Trust has responded to the RSPCA's proposal to re-introduce the dog licence
Clarissa Baldwin, Chief Executive of Dogs Trust said: "Dogs Trust is adamant that a return to the dog licence would provide no welfare benefit to dogs. Dog licensing is little more than a punitive tax on responsible dog owners who already contribute estimated £451 million to the public purse through dog related tax resources.*
"The dog licence is still a requirement in Northern Ireland yet only an estimated one-third of all dog owners currently have their dogs licensed. Despite this Northern Ireland still has the highest number of stray dogs per head of population of any part of the UK. The number of dogs put to sleep in the region represents a staggering 34% of the total UK figure.
"Dogs Trust recommends that a system of compulsory microchipping, linking dog to owner is effective in returning stray and stolen dogs to their owners and which would improve the traceability of battery farmed dogs."
Dogs Trust is the UK's largest dog welfare charity and cares for over 16,000 stray and abandoned dogs each year through its network of 17 Rehoming Centres nationwide.
*Mintel research 2010
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I read through the RSPCA proposal and, indeed, their emphasis seems to be more that dog licensing be used to pay for the costs to society of dealing with problem dogs (wardens, treatment of bites) rather than dog welfare per se - they do mention the possibility of setting up a task force to deal with poor breeding practice but this seems to be more of an afterthought. I'd also be inclined to dispute their figure of £650 per year as the cost of owning a dog (excluding insurance).
I do agree that the dog license as conceived by the RSPCA would be unfair, as it would be the responsible dog owners which would end up paying. To make it properly fair you would need to make it difficult for people to get dogs without a license - in effect you'd need a kind of "logbook" as we have with cars.
I wonder if one could go a step further with the car analogue - having a "points system" whereby one's license could be revoked for repeated offences involving straying etc. A complicating factor would be that this license would have to take into account offences committed by other members of the household.
The police brought me a puppy about a year ago who had just been thrown into a wall during a domestic - his female owner was unable to bring him in as she was currently in A&E following the same incident. Had she not changed her mind and decided not to press charges there would still have been no protection for the puppy, as banning the wife/puppy beater from keeping animals would not have prevented him from living somewhere where others legitimately owned animals.