Subject: PACCA -- Philly NEWS dog Licenses and info

Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004

Licensing requests are coming
By Stu Bykofsky
stubyko@phillynews.com

THERE ARE an estimated 150,000 dogs in Philadelphia, and while the
law says all dogs must be licensed, only 7,000 are - about 4 percent.

An estimated 143,000 are outlaws, including Cheech, my Wonder Dog.

After I adopted her from a rescue group 11 years ago, I ignored
getting her licensed because I was told I'd either have to go the
SPCA or the Municipal Services Building, where I'd have to wait in
line for hours to buy a license. Fat chance.

If I'm not in good company flouting the law, I am at least in massive
company, but there's change coming.

Under a law passed in September, veterinarians are required to report
information on dogs they have vaccinated against rabies to the Health
Department. The department will develop a database of immunized pets
to help return lost dogs to their owners and for use in dog-bite
cases.

Actually, the information collected will be outsourced to Texas-based
PetData, Inc., which handles pet licensing for Dallas and
Jacksonville and other cities. That contract will be signed within
three weeks, city Health Commissioner John Domzalski told me.

After creating a database, PetData will send out a mailing asking
owners to license their dogs.

The first vet I called for reaction, Dr. Howard Wellens, of the Queen
Village Animal Hospital, said he got a letter announcing the plan,
but there was no follow-up. (I didn't choose him at random. He's
Cheech's doc.)

His office does "a couple of thousand" immunizations a year and
Wellens doesn't know how he's supposed to forward the paperwork.

PetData supposedly will arrange that.

"It would be nice for dogs to be licensed like in a real city,"
Wellens said sarcastically.

In other jurisdictions, the American Veterinary Medical Association
told me, vets are required to provide such records.

The program will be "very helpful in dog-bite incidents in our local
parks" where the bite victim must take the word of the owner that the
dog is up-to-date on its shots, said Dr. Claudia Casavecchia, of the
Society Hill Animal Hospital.

The licensing issue connects with the Philadelphia Animal Care and
Control Association, about which you've read in recent weeks. Among
its many problems is funding.

The fee for a neutered dog is $ 8. Cheech is neutered and I am mailing
in my $ 8.

If the owners of the other 143,000 dogs sent in $8 for their neutered
dogs ($ 16 for unneutered), that would send roughly $ 1.1 million to
Environmental Health Services, which oversees the PACCA contract.

If that money were received and turned over to PACCA, it would be
like a 50 percent budget increase.

That's how Councilman Jack Kelly, who called for last week's hearing
into the PACCA House of Horrors, sees it. Licensing "should be a
dedicated funding source."

Domzalski said it's possible a restricted account could be created,
but he didn't want to commit himself to it now.

Why not? I think of lot of dog owners would be quicker to write that
check if they knew the money was used to help homeless animals.

Opening another front at last week's Council hearing, Councilman Jim
Kenney asked if pet shops could be brought into the mix. "If the goal
here is to get the dog licensed," he said, "it could be facilitated
in cooperation with the pet store" at the time of purchase.

Good idea - even though advocates urge you to adopt an animal from a
shelter rather than buy from a pet shop that may get its stock from
puppy mills.

License fees are $16 for unneutered dogs, $8 for neutered dogs, 50
percent off for people 65 and older. You will need paperwork to prove
the dog is neutered and immunized.

The license form is available from PACCA, at PACCA PetsMart
locations, from the Environmental Health Services Office at 321
University Ave. License applications can be downloaded from the
Health Department Web site at: http//www.
phila.gov/health/units/ehs/html/animal_licensing.html.

Thanks,
Lisa Scarduzio
annievoncherished@yahoo.com
http://www.dvdpa.org
http://www.DobermanArt.com
http://www.rescueboard.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PACCARESCUE/

"It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see
the problem."
--G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936),
Spay and Neuter or Save a Shelter dog today!

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Nov. 24, 2004