Theresa Penfield, Dog Control Officer
Phone: 315-529-1361
*All dogs 4 months of age or older must be licensed:
Licensing benefits dog owners in the following ways:
- Licensing identifies your dog and allows you to be quickly reunited with your pet in case he/she ever gets lost.
- Licensed dogs are held much longer at animal shelters (10 days) than unlicensed dogs, which are only held for five days before being made available for adoption or destroyed. Unfortunately, many owners of unlicensed dogs return from a vacation to find that their dogs ran away from a caretaker and were either adopted or destroyed at a local animal shelter.
- A license ensures that dogs are vaccinated against rabies, a fatal disease.
- Owners who license their dog on time will save Court costs and late fees.
- If a currently vaccinated dog is exposed to a rabies positive animal, it may be quarantined. However, if an animal’s vaccination has expired or is not valid, it may be destroyed.
Licensing benefits to public health:
- Rabies is a current threat to human and animal health. Dog licensing lowers the overall cost and health risk by making certain that dogs are vaccinated and by providing revenue for prevention programs.
- A single rabies incident resulting from a dog whose vaccination has expired costs you, the taxpayer, thousands of dollars. This money could be saved and used elsewhere if the dog’s vaccination had been current.