Pender County may start requiring pet licenses

So if you don't get a rabies vaccine then you don't pay the tax. What an incentive!

All counties should have pet license fees so this is a good start for Pender County. Differential licensing would be even better and is the most effective fee. It encourages spaying and neutering pets by charging less for altered pets and more for those not altered, as is the case in New Hanover County and others. Someone mentioned that hunting dogs would be excluded from the fee which is ridiculous. These poor dogs are already excluded from far too many animal welfare laws in NC!

Nice...tax the responsible pet owners to help pay for the irresponsible pet owners who just let their dogs breed & breed. Why not just add this to the list of taxes we pay already! This is just one more reason why I am moving out of this state.

I’m not necessarily opposed to a pet tax, but I do believe in equal taxation. In the article it stated Commissioner G. Brown doesn’t want the hunting dogs affected; there is a big industry here and he wants to work with them. I guess that means don’t tax the good ol’boys’ hunting dogs. If hunting dogs are part of a big industry, then the county should seize the opportunity for tax revenue. No different than vacationers paying a hotel tax, or county sales tax. Make it an Domesticated Animal Tax, which taxes all animals like dogs cats, horses, birds, etc. and exempt animals that are commercially raised for food production: pigs, cows, chickens, etc. If you disagree with the Pet License proposal by the Pender health chief, please contact our county commissioners.

This is ridiculous. It will discourage more people from adopting homeless pets further adding to the problem of too many pets in shelters and not enough people to give them a good home.

So I guess you will have to have a license for a cat, horse, bird, goat, etc. These are also pets. This is clearly another unfair tax. It is directed only at dog owners.

This is nothing more than one of those new taxes being added to supplement a budget shortfall. It is discriminatory as it applies only one segment of the population-those who own pets. These people were not the cause of the animals in the pet shelters, yet they have to pay additionally for it? Bad idea.