Let’s admit it, all license and registration fees are a cash cow for those government departments and wayward institutions who dreamt them up. They serve no purpose other than to draw in money for doing nothing. They are the ultimate leveraged income.
Few dogs will ever be a menace and a drain on council resources that need to be muzzled and chained but don’t be fooled by the dog pictured above. It’s just playing possum and may pounce at any time ready to tear out your tender portions.
See my website for more details;
https://mark4council.com.au/ scroll down the page to Item 21.
I realise there is a cost to the community to pick up abandoned or dangerous dogs but the arguments against charging fees for every single service the council performs are much the same as those for not charging fees for boat ramps as explained in my earlier post.
https://mark4council.com.au/uncategorized/free-boat-ramp-fees-why-should-that-be-so-controversial/
As a society we can’t expect to charge residents for every miniscule service they receive and ignore the larger fees they already pay like council rates and other taxes. Don’t be fooled council rates are a tax, not a fee for service.
Most people who have a dog have it as a companion that becomes an even greater joy in retirement as other things in life diminish in importance. They would no more give up their beloved pet than they would a family member. As the cost of living erodes the buying power of their fixed income, the never ending license and registration fees eat into what little they have left.
My idea is to have a single one-off registration fee that would be for the life of a dog or until the owner decides to move out of Onkaparinga. If your dog lives 15 years imagine the savings.
I have no set idea of what fee would work but I have suggested perhaps $150 for a large dog and $110 for a small dog. We must be practical and realise this system would cost something to set up initially.
But this fee would include a $50 deposit which would be refunded a resident’s dog were to pass away or if they moved out of Onkaparinga. Without a deposit we might find in a few years we have 100,000 dogs registered!
Maybe at some point we might question why we need registration fees at all but then quite a few people think we should register cats. I say get government out of people’s lives.
Let me know if you think a lifetime single fee to register dogs is a good idea.
