Conflicting Views over Dog Licensing
The new RSPCA report, ‘Improving dog ownership – The economic case for dog licensing’, suggests that an annual dog licence fee of as little as £21.50 could help reduce the number of strays and help tackle irresponsible dog breeding.
According to the RSPCA, owners would face a cost of less than 42p a week per dog and help provide huge improvements to dog welfare and dog control services and deliver resources to improve dog welfare worth in excess of £107.4 million.
The report makes three points in its conclusion:
- The government should establish a dog health and welfare strategy underpinned and funded by a dog licence scheme. This would fund resources to tackle the issues, such as strays, injuries caused by dog bites and the prevention of disease, as covered in the report.
- The scheme could be set at £20-£30 per dog annually, with discounts for selected dogs (e.g. assistance dogs, neutered dogs) and people (e.g. pensioners).
- Microchips would be used to identify the dogs, with details entered on a national database, improving dog ownership and reducing numbers of unwanted dogs.
“The dog licence would achieve three important goals. It would raise money for dog welfare, increase the numbers of responsible dog owners by getting people to think before they get a dog and start to reverse the surplus of dogs on the market by providing incentives such as reduced fees for neutering dogs.”
“The RSPCA believes that Britain has slipped behind other countries which have started to tackle and solve the problems of dog over supply and only the introduction of a dog licence could ensure we catch up.
“In countries which have a dog licence it is seen not as a tax, but as an important part of owning a dog. In Britain we know that a dog licence is welcomed by two out of every three dog owners, more than 70 per cent of who are happy to pay
However, in response to this new report, the Dogs Trust has reiterated its belief that a dog licence would not benefit the UK.
Clarissa Baldwin, Chief Executive of Dogs Trust says: “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.”
She makes reference to Northern Ireland, where the dog licence is still a requirement but only an estimated one-third of all dog owners currently have their dogs licensed. She also states that Northern Ireland has the highest number of stray dogs per head of population of any part of the UK and the number of dogs put to sleep in the region represents 34% of the total UK figure.
Clarissa adds: “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.”
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