To improve pandemic-affected dog-licensing rates, Lucas County’s dog warden is considering whether to stop fining dog owners for the first occasion an escaped dog is returned, provided the dog was licensed and wore its tag.
Current Lucas County rules require payment of a $25 fine for allowing a dog to escape before an owner may retrieve a lost pet, and that applies for first offenses, even if the dog was licensed.
Kelly Sears, the director of the Lucas County Canine Care and Control, said she hasn’t “completely decided” if she’s going to recommend that the county commissioners waive the fine for licensed dogs’ owners for the first time the shelter recovers them.
“I’d like to do that,” Ms. Sears said. “But first we have to see if our budget is going to allow that. We’ll probably know within the next month or two.”
Lucas County Auditor Anita Lopez said the first-time fine is “the single most important” barrier to more licensing. Dog owners may reason, she said, why “buy a dog license if you’re only going to end up being penalized more if your dog accidentally got out of the back yard.”
Michelle Healey, the shelter’s office manager, said the shelter’s $3,029,737 operating budget includes $57,600 in estimated late dog-tag penalties, most of which comes from first offenders. The shelter has no data distinguishing first offenses from repeat offenses, she said to explain why a specific dollar amount was unavailable.
License fees are the main source of the county shelter’s operating budget, which pays for such things as food, shelter, veterinary care, and capturing strays, Ms. Sears said.
All Ohio dog owners are required by law to license their dogs with their counties by Jan. 31 each year for a fee of $25 per dog. Three-year licenses are available for $75, along with a $250 life-of-dog option.
The deadline was pushed back to June 30 last year as a state pandemic-relief measure, which reduced late-fee collections.
Dog licensing has dropped significantly during the pandemic, which Ms. Sears attributed to pandemic restrictions and financial uncertainty, while the share of three-year and permanent licenses has gone up. The convenience of not having to renew a license each year surely explains the latter trend, she said.
Dog owners who fail to renew licenses on time are first sent reminders. Those who still do not comply are sent court summonses, Ms. Sears said.
The Lucas County Auditor’s Office implements the licensing program while the dog shelter runs “Lucas County Loves Dogs” — a rewards program started in 2010 by the county for those who license their dogs. Participating businesses offer discounts to dog owners who display their pets’ licenses in a special key fob.
Licensed dogs are far more likely to be returned to their owners, the shelter director said. Under Ohio law, unlicensed strays can be held for as little as three days, but shelters must hold licensed dogs for at least 14 days to give owners time to claim them.
But a dog wearing no license tag on its collar is still going to be a problem, Ms. Sears said, and owners also must report changes of address or phone number promptly.
Another factor discourages dog licensing, Ms. Lopez said: microchipping.
“Dog licensing has competition.... You can get your dog returned without being fined by the dog warden,” she said before noting that personalized dog tags available at pet-supply stores also are cheaper than licenses.
She credited Steve Serchuk, a local real-estate agent/developer and animal advocate, with helping prevent licensing numbers from dipping even further during the pandemic through his work as chairman of the Lucas County Dog Warden Advisory Committee, which created Lucas County Loves Dogs.
County officials are forbidden by law to use tax dollars to promote individual businesses, she said, so Mr. Serchuk’s effort to promote the program has been essential, the auditor said. Ms. Sears also helps by “actively promoting” the program — the first shelter director to do so, she said.
Mr. Serchuk said he had recently donated $20,000 of his own money to reinvigorate Lucas County Loves Dogs.
Dog owners can more than offset licenses’ cost by capitalizing on merchant discounts, Mr. Serchuk said, while for the participating businesses the program provides “who get low-cost, target marketing directly” to about 50,000 dog owners in the county.
“By licensing more dogs, they never become stray and they get returned home — which means fewer will get killed and fewer will have to be adopted,” Mr. Serchuk said.
Lucas County’s unlicensed-dog population is hard to count, Ms. Healey said, because because nobody takes a dog-owner census, but. Ms. Sears said it’s probably in the thousands.
The best way to ensure a dog’s safety is to license it, Ms. Sears said, because dog pound can be “a scary place” for even a well-behaved dog, and acting scared and aggressive in that environment during a dog’s evaluation can result in euthanasia.
Shelter records do show most who buy dog licenses later renew them, the warden said, and in that regard Lucas County appears to compare favorably to its metropolitan-area peers.
All licenses may be purchased at the auditor’s office or the county shelter at 410 S. Erie St. Annual licenses also are available at a number of vendors around Lucas County, for which a list and map is available at www.lucascountylovesdogs.com/discounts.
First Published January 15, 2022, 10:17 p.m.
