As you may recall last week I took a walk to the City of Los Angeles Department of Animal Services to get Carter’s license. Back when we arrived in April I downloaded all the necessary paperwork and sent it in, along with the $15 fee. It wasn’t until the middle of May when we heard back from the department and they informed us they couldn’t send out a license because Carter’s rabies vaccination was set to expire during the time the license would be valid. So off we went to the vet, got the documents and I walked up to the appropriate office.
When I arrived at the Department of Animal Services I had to wait for 5 minutes for someone to get to the window and help me. When the young man came by I told him I was there to turn in our rabies vaccination and receive our license. Of course he was bewildered, took my documents and went to someone else. The older gentlemen that arrived didn’t quite understand but after a minute or so go the picture. He took everything and made some copies, told me it was taken care of and then sent me on my way. Except I still didn’t have a dog tag! I mentioned that it was paid for but they never sent it. Off he went, came back a couple minutes later with the tag and I was good to go. Annoying? Not really because the older man was pleasant and nice so it wasn’t that big of a deal. It did provide me with some insight though and I left feeling the department was kind of flying by the seat of their pants.
Fast forward to this article that came out yesterday regarding an audit of the department. The short version if you don’t want to read it:
- City is losing $600,000 – $1.2 million a year by not ensuring all dogs have a license
- 123,000 licensed dogs in Los Angeles but 400,00 – 600,000 without one
- Lots of turnover at the department and they are blaming that on why things are not efficient
But here is what did it for me, and it doesn’t have as much to do with the licensing department as it does with the city. One of the councilmen says greater efforts should be made to ensure all dogs have a license, and to do it his suggestion is: “I think we should ask the Boy Scouts to get involved or hire high school kids to help us go door to door and ask people if they have their dog licenses.”
Hold on a second. You are talking about almost a million dollars in lost revenue here. And your answer is to get the Boy Scouts or high school students to try and help collect it? Look, I don’t have the magic answer here but pinning the collection of a million bucks on high school kids or boys in funny outfits?
Why not make the dogs come in themselves and sign up for the license?
So let’s say a kid goes to the door and meets the angry bit pull owner whose dog doesn’t have a license. Then what? This kid is supposed to tell them they better head downtown and pay up?
Why not have agents for Animal Control head out to the dog parks and check for tags? Someone doesn’t have one, they pay a fine and have 30 days to be in compliance. We have been at a few dog parks since being here, headed out to some trails this weekend and not once have we ever been asked about our tags.
I don’t have the magic answer and I will not pretend to do so, but I do know that getting kids to do the city’s work isn’t the answer.
