Cat Licensing

Jay Bangle

Cat licensing is based on the premise that “what is good for dogs is applicable to cats”.  Cats have become the more popular pet species over the last couple of decades, and local animal control issues have looked for ways to continue to acquire enough funds to continue to provide the services they do.

At the risk of being facetious, one has to point out that cats are not dogs.  Their housing, care and habits are very different.  So, animal control ordinances designed to protect people from nuisances that may work for, dogs, will not necessarily work for cats.  Let’s look at these things one by one.

Roaming Behavior

Domestic cats are small, territorial carnivores capable of scaling tall fences but rarely do they cause the property damages that roaming dogs can cause.  They are solitary hunters, sticking close to “their” home range.  Domestic dogs are pack animals that work with others in their pack to satisfy their needs.  For dogs, the needs of the group outweigh the needs of the individual.  Individual cats can live unassisted by humans, individual dogs cannot.  This is why there is not the large number of feral or unowned dogs as can be seen in cats.

Licensing is based on an animal being owned and an individual taking responsibility for that animal.  While being owned almost always true for dogs, it is not true for nearly half the cats.¹   The largest number of cats in shelters are ferals who were born without any planning or assistance by humans.  Who is supposed to pay for these licenses?  In general, it will be the kind old cat lady up the street who is feeding and caring for the neighborhood cats.  Unable to afford this, she will stop.  And the cats will suffer for it.

Rabies

            Licensing is also a vehicle for requiring rabies vaccination in rabies prone states. Despite a very low incidence of rabies in cats, they are considered a common vector for disease transmission.² The risk of injection-site sarcomas and allergic reactions in cats to the vaccine may cause a reluctance of the owners of exclusively indoor cats to vaccinate annually when risk of exposure is minimal.

Owned Cats

Attitudes are changing for owned cats.  Where once they were put out at night, to fend for themselves, more and more people are getting the message that “indoor is best”, and do not allow their owned cats to roam.  This is great.  Education has worked.  But why should an owner have to pay a fee to animal control for no services?  Owned cats that are lost, are very rarely picked up by Animal Control and returned to their owners.  According to a survey by Kat Albrecht of the Missing Pet Partnership, 53% of indoor-only cats that escaped were found in a 1 house radius of their home.  Of all cats turned in to shelters, only 2% are reunited with their owners^3[i]  In light of this, cat licensing clearly is simply an unpopular pet tax which generally goes into the general fund and does nothing to help resolve animal control issues a community really faces. Furthermore, cat licensing has little to do with reducing euthanasia rates when the return rate is so small.

As licensing fails in its stated purpose of reuniting owners with lost pets, fewer people are willing to comply with such laws. This can have a domino effect of fear. Lower income pet owners or people over local limit laws may not seek even routine pet care for fear of identification and subsequent confiscation of their pets. Managers of feral cat communities will not claim the cats once license fees and fines become a fixture in the law, and may stop caring for those feral cats as a result.  This is a lose-lose situation for the cats and the community.

Conclusion

            Cat licensing hurts cats, conscientious cat owners, and feral caretakers while doing nothing to cure the underlying problem.  Animal control should be funded by the municipality, and focus on irresponsible animal ownership.  They should not punish responsible pet owners of any species.  Animal control should focus on controlling the feral cat population with TNR whenever possible, working with the community in an atmosphere of cooperation, not condemnation.