City catches on to online dog licensing
The company that provides dog licences for St. Catharines pet owners says compliance has gone up since the city hired it a year ago.
The online service DocuPet Inc., based in Kingston, was given a fiveyear contract last May by city council to provide dog licences to residents.
“All things considered, I think we had a really good first year in St. Catharines,” said Kevin MacKenzie, head of business development for DocuPet, Inc. “The licensing program was declining by about five per cent a year over the last few years before we came on. We’ve been able to combat that, and we’ve increased last year’s compliance by almost five per cent.”
MacKenzie said they’ve been able to do that by bringing the system online to make it more accessible and easier for dog owners in the city to get a licence. They can do it from the comfort of their own home and not have to worry about going to city hall or the shelter.
“We’ve found that 60 per cent of users in St. Catharines have moved to online licensing in the first year, which is something we’re very happy to see and something that definitely saves a lot of time for pet owners and the city as well,” MacKenzie said.
A St. Catharines bylaw requires all dog owners in the city to purchase licences. Bringing awareness to pet owners that they are required to have a licence also helps increase compliance, he said.
“Most of the time, not just in St. Catharines but really any city you go to, it’s not a bylaw most people are really familiar with,” he said. “The same people who have always been licensing continue to license, but the vast majority of people who don’t, just don’t know they are legally required to do it.”
MacKenzie said DocuPet markets the service, sends notices to $56.16
previously licensed pet owners and promotes the bylaw through social media to get the word out.
The company also has a rewards program that allows businesses of all types to offer deals to licence holders.
Under the DocuPet system, each dog gets a pet tag with a unique code that allows enforcement officers to look up the dog ’s information from any location should it run loose.
A lost pet alert system allows dog owners to go to their online account and report their dog missing, triggering an alert at DocuPet customer service and to bylaw and animal control officers in St. Catharines so they can be on the lookout. The information is shared on DocuPet’s website and social media feeds.
“Basically everyone who needs to know a pet has gone missing finds out in real time,” McKenzie said. “We share a lost pet alert on our website. There will be a big red banner displaying on the St. Catharines DocuPet website to say a pet has gone missing.”
People can also report when they find a pet.
It’s a feature like insurance, McKenzie said, where you don’t want to have to use it but are glad it’s there if you do.
So far there have only been a handful of dogs in St. Catharines that have gone missing. All have been returned safely.
Dog licensing in St. Catharines was previously provided by Lincoln County Humane Society. Three submissions for licensing services were received by the city when its contract expired.
DocuPet is operating in 22 municipalities across Canada. Since St. Catharines signed on last year, other Niagara municipalities have joined up, including Niagara Falls, Thorold and Welland’s SPCA, which also covers Lincoln, Wainfleet, West Lincoln, Pelham and Port Colborne.
McKenzie said it’s a positive sign that 60 per cent of St. Catharines licence users have come online in the first year.
“It’s in line with other municipalities across Canada and we know it’s only going to increase as years go on and we continue to market it and make people more aware of it.”