Dog Licensing Changes This Year in Southold Town

As of Jan. 1, the has relinquished dog licensing duties and is leaving those duties to municipalities like

In the past, the has been the entity to provide dog tags, issue license renewals, and maintain a central dog-licensing database. At Tuesday's Southold Town Board Meeting, said that by making the switch to municipalities, it give local communities the ability to set up their own fees and provide dog programs that are better suited for the environment the animals are living in.

“It's probably a good idea," Russell said. "I had heard an estimate today, that about 70% of the dogs in this town were unlicensed. The state hasn’t done a very good job of administering that.”

The new law stipulates that a dog must be licensed at the age of 4 months or older, and the owner must provide proof of a rabies vaccination or letter from a veterinarian stating that a vaccination would threaten the dog’s life. All persons adopting a dog at the animal shelter must continue to obtain a license from the Town Clerk. The law establishes a validity period of one year, at which point the owner will need to renew the license.

The fee for the license will be $10 for spayed or neutered dogs and $15 for un-spayed or neutered dogs. An animal control surcharge is also required — $1 for spayed or neutered and $3 for un-spayed or un-neutered. Service and guide dogs would be exempt from licensing. The civil penalty for violating the new law is $10 for the first offence, $20 for the second and $30 for the third.

At Tuesday's meeting, Dawn Bennett of Cutchogue voiced her concern about the ability of Town officials to enforce the licensing of dogs.

“How can you enforce that, when you have no record of the dogs?," she asked board members. "The only people who are really registering their dogs are the people that adopt them from the town, because that is required.”

Southold Town Clerk Elizabeth Neville responded the Town plans to reinstate a system of "dog enumeration."

“We used to do dog enumeration years ago, and that’s how it will be enforced now.”

Dog enumeration is essentially a census for dogs. If a dog is found to be unlicensed during the enumeration process, a surcharge of $15 will need to be paid at the time the application is filed.

Councilman Vincent Orlando added that licensing "will really be on the honor system at first, and then as a dog is loose and is caught by the police or the , and then the owner comes to pick it up, and it is not licensed, they will be required to do it.”

Supervisor Russell said that the town was in the process of negotiating a new contract for the animal shelter, and that it “has dog control provisions in it, that hopefully will get more of those animals on the radar, to get the license.”

In 2010 approximately, 720 dog licenses were issued for the Town of Southold.