By Fernanda Santos
Even in these dog days of summer, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the
city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, traveled to a
Brooklyn park on Monday to spread a piece of welcoming news among dog
owners: They can now license their pets online.
Dog licensing is a legal requirement and violators can face fines of
at least $200. But the mayor said that only 20 percent of the estimated
500,000 dogs that live in New York City are believed to be licensed,
even though licenses are a requirement for dogs that frequent city
parks. One of the goals of the new system, he explained, is to
encourage more people to license their dogs.
“Licensing is not just a good idea — it’s actually the law,” Mr.
Bloomberg, who has two Labrador puppies in his Upper East Side mansion
named Bonnie and Clyde, said at the event, held at Hillside Dog Park in
Brooklyn Heights. (The mayor noted that sometimes, his dogs get more
attention at home than he does.)
The new online system shortens the wait time for new licenses and
renewals to 10 to 14 days, as opposed to the several weeks that it
often takes for mailed-in applications. The fee for first-time dog
licenses is $11.50. Renewals cost $8.50 if the dog has been spayed or
neutered or $11.50 if it has not.
Dr. Frieden said that although more than 100,000 dogs are licensed
each year in the city, “we hope to see that number increase
substantially.” “And having it available online, with a few clicks,” he
said, “really means there’s no excuse not to have your dog licensed.”
Mr. Bloomberg called the Web site
“a one-stop shop for dog owners.” In addition to applying for licenses,
owners can also request for a replacement of a lost licensing tag or
certificate and create a profile of their pet, with information like
its name, dominant color and breed, and month and year of birth.
As in paper applications, owners must enter their personal
information, including their address, which could help reunite them
with their dogs in case of separation.
Charlene Pedrolie, executive director of New York City Animal Care and Control,
the largest animal rescue and adoption agency in the Northeast, said
that dog licensing “has played a key role in reuniting lost dog with
their families.” In the past fiscal year alone, the agency was able to
reunite 1,100 dogs with their owners; of those, 500 were licensed,
which enabled the agency to find their owners within 24 hours, Ms.
Pedrolie said.
source - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog
