No doubt a lot of you have heard and read about changes in King County Animal Control in the past few months. Soon, the City of Auburn will be making a public campaign to encourage citizens to license their cats and dogs through the county.
Please support this plan. I encourage fellow pet owners to consider licensing their pets, especially if they’ve never done so before.
There are numerous benefits a pet license offers to both the owner and the pet, including the most obvious, a visible and traceable means of identification. However, there are a number of other equally important benefits that licensing fees support – pet adoptions; low-cost spay and neuter options; rabies and other preventable disease prevention; sheltering and emergency medical care; pet care education programs; and the services of dedicated animal control officers working in the community.
I can give you a lot of facts and figures to try to convince you that pet licensing for cats and dogs is vital to your pet’s health. But I’ll limit it to this one fact: a recent national survey has shown that only 15 percent of all dogs and only 2 percent of all cats received into American shelters are ever claimed by their original owner.
I hope many of you will consider this annual fee an inexpensive insurance policy for your pet’s safety. You insure your car or truck, your home or apartment, your belongings, your health, even your life. Thirty dollars is a low-cost insurance policy for the likelihood of a safe return of a lost pet that ends up in the care of the local animal shelter.
Lauri Marble is a South Sound resident.
=====
OFFICIALS ARE URGING dog and cat owners within the Auburn city limits to license their pets before Oct. 1 to avoid a fine from King County. The City soon will be performing door-to-door visits to help license pets, providing a license tag on the spot for new and renewed licenses. There will be no extra charge for the service through September, but unlicensed animals after that time may be charged a fee if they are not licensed. For more information, contact King County at 206-296-PETS (7387) or the City Planning & Development Department at 253-931-3090.
