License Fees

Money for pet tags should benefit animals

It’s the stuff of old movies, TV comedies and comic strips. Getting a license for your dog or cat, we mean.

The whole practice has been spoofed over the years in all sorts of media, often showing a dog and his owner hauled off to “doggie jail” by the “doggie cops” for failure to pay for a license. Sometimes the focus is on the harried pet owner, stuck at a city hall window for hours filling out paperwork just to get the tag that makes his animal legal.

All in good fun. What most here in the Twin Cities don’t know, though, is that a license is still required by ordinance on both sides of the state line.

The tags are $10 for animals that have been spayed or neutered and $30 for those that have not. The fee is the same in both Texarkanas. Proof of current rabies vaccination must be presented and the metal tag must be worn on the collar at all times.

We wonder how many local dog and cat owners are in compliance? We don’t imagine there are that many. Nor do we think there will be a rush to get the tags—and pay the fee—anytime soon.

In fact we imagine most people would question why anyone should have to pay the city to own a pet—especially when the only benefit seems to be avoiding a fine on the very remote chance you are caught.

We wondered as well where the money goes. Does it go to the animal shelter? Animal enforcement? The general fund? We imagine many more pet owners would be willing to obtain a license if they were assured that all the fees went to the local animal shelter to care for lost or abandoned pets. If the money goes to the cities to do with as they please? Not so much. Well, on the Texas side the license fee money used to go into the general fund, but the city says there is now a special fund where the money is allocated to animal control and care, including the shelter.

On the Arkansas side, the money goes into the general fund, but the city notes that the shelter gets money from the general fund.

In our view, all money from these fees should go animal care. We would encourage Texarkana, Ark., to set up a special fund to that effect as well. And we would urge both sides of the city to let the public know the license fees would be benefiting animals instead of the city from then on.

The pet-loving public might just respond with more dollars to aid animals.