Does your dog have a license?

I saw a notice that came in the mail reminding us to renew our dog’s license. What is the purpose of the pet license? I can understand having a license to operate a motor vehicle, or to practice medicine. The state has a responsibility to ensure that those extended the priviledge of driving a car or stitching up patients more or less understand what it is that they are doing and are held to account by the government.

But a license to exist as a pet? After all, I noticed that the license is in the dog’s name, and not ours. The license is hers. She carries it around with her everywhere she goes. I do the same thing with my drivers license.

I suppose it’s a good thing to have a registry of pets centrally located in the event one’s pet turns up lost and finds its way into the pound. That’s worth paying for.

Could it possibly be that a dog license in the county is nothing but a …. TAX? A tax on pets? I can only imagine the first guy to think up taxing our pets driving around thinking, there must be thousands of dogs in this town. Hmmm.