The True Costs of Pet Licensing
I had an interesting conversation with Rick Johnson of the Humane Society this afternoon. They process the pet licensing applications for the cities in Cowlitz County. The deal, at least for Kelso, is that we split the licensing fees with them for performing that service. That all makes sense, but did you realize that an animal license for Kelso is $9.00? That means that the Humane Society gets a whopping $4.50/license for having to manage the licensing.
Our family just added a puppy, and I’m going to meet with Mr. Johnson to get our dog licensed this Friday. While I’m there, I want to see what’s involved in the process that earns them the $4.50. I can’t believe that amount is enough to cover their processing costs, which I think include sending out notices to all owners for renewal, in addition to the initial issuance costs.
The upshot is that the council is probably going to end up considering a proposal for an increase in the licensing fees. I’m pretty much against increasing fees and taxes, but if they show that the Humane Society actually loses money on issuing a license, I think the cost would have to go up. Does $20/yr seem reasonable?
