To think it is long overdue that we brought in dog licencing

[Eurghh]

This is not a dog-bashing thread.

Dog poo is a massive issue in the UK - I agree some areas are worse than others, but i have lived in various places, holidayed all over, and it really is pretty bad pretty much everywhere. This country is already on its knees with paying for services out of the public fund, but SOMETHING has to be done about the huge number of people who let their dogs mess on the ground for the rest of us to contend with.

I think we need to bring back licences, which will pay for:

• dog wardens to regularly patrol problem areas, and issue fines
• a nightly hose down of pavements in problem areas and also all around pavements leading to schools
• cctv to identify people who don't pick up after their dogs
• dna database

All of this needs to be funded by dog licences.

YABU - the system is fine as it is
YANBU - please bring in licences for dog owners

Atttached to show a photo I took today which prompted me to write this, this quantity of poo is common round here, and I live in a naice well-to-do London borough.

As a single woman with a dog I already pay well over the odds on things like council tax. This would just be another penalty for me. If there are two adults in a house you pay 50% of the cost each, whereas with my "discount" I still have to pay 75%.

I do feel I pay far more than my fair share towards society already.

Who's picking up the samples and sending them off for testing? Who's doing the DNA profiling in the first place?

100% agree.

Dog ownership is a privilege and not a right.

It costs tax payers (in terms of court time, defence lawyers) and charities so much more to get really unsuitable dog owners banned than any of this could ever cost. And I mean awful neglectful or cruel owners - they don’t even bother with just crap ones.

This is something that anyone who actually cares about dogs should support.

But the people who are irresponsible and don't care, wont be the ones that are getting licenses.

Couldn't agree more.

Which is why you need decent enforcement. Fining people who don't have licences will pay for the wardens and enforcement costs.

Back when dog licenses were around, only half of dog owners had one anyway.

We 100% need this here. The lockdown labradors are a serious problem around children.

How is a dog licence going to pay for all that? It's physically impossible.

How many schools in your local area? I have 10. It would have to cover at least two people on unsociable hours wage, equipment for hosing, the cost of water, every single night on every street leading to those 10 schools. And that's just in the space of one little town.

Then dog wardens.

Cameras on every street.

People to review those thousands of hours of camera footage. As for a DNA database 😂 We can't even fund forensics for actual crimes in many cases! Yet you think a dog licence would pay for forensic analysis of dog shit?

It sounds good to the extremely naive but you're clueless to the actual mammoth cost of a service like that.

Plus who is going to enforce it? Police? They can't even deal with crime, never mind anything else.

All that would happen, even if it was physically achievable, is the responsible owners who already clean up after their dogs will be paying through the nose and the arseholes who don't care will just ignore it and the cost of trying to enforce it with said arseholes will come back on those already actually paying, who were never the problem to begin with.

But we live in a much more technological age now, so this could be easily enforceable.

Essentially, every Vet would need to include the licence number on the record and report ones that don't have one. Spot checks and on the spot fines would also work. So licences would need to be attached to collers.

Any reports of dangerous dogs or dog related incidents could involve license checks, just like car insurance.

This could be easily inforced through current channels and could be very lucrative in raising revenue.

Definitely overdue.

Actually, as a dog lover and owner, I fully support the idea of a dog licence (as well as mandatory pet health insurance). Too many people take on ownership of a dog, without considering the care and costs that come with being a responsible owner.

Having said that, human shit, piss, vomit and phlegmn is more of an issue in my area - joys of living next to a not-so-nice pub! Actually, pubs should pay more for their licences (due to the antisocial behaviours of their patrons)!

I fully support dog licencing as an owner, for the benefit of the dogs, not for the benefit of mumsnetters who think that a country on the brink of fucking recession is going to use the additional funds to employ pavement washers.

What planet.

This system already exists.
We have microchips, which means there is already a register of dogs. The chip number is also on the dog's record at the vets. They are already a legal reuirement. It is also a legal requirement for dog's to have a tag with owner details on.
Who will be carrying out spot checks?

How would you suggest the licences are policed?

People who won't pay for a licence are not going to pay to take their dog to the vet.
Spot checks by who? We haven't had a police presence in our village for years. The police haven't got the resources to walk around villages checking dog collars. I walk my dog at 7am and 10pm -who is spot checking me then? I know a few shit owners who dogs don't even leave the house and garden.
It definitely would not be easily enforced and very lucrative. Quite the opposite actually.
Those suggesting DNA testing obviously don't know how much the process costs!

My dog is no longer has insurance as she is very old, and it was getting to be over £110pm back when she was 9. I am on benefits, and simply can not afford that. A lot of people no longer insure elderly dogs anyway as the very expensive treatments will in many cases be unfair on the dog.
If I was forced to have insurance, I simply could not do that. What would happen to my dog?

100% agree.

So you could combine that system with a dog license fee, win-win. It would be even quicker to implement.

Actually you could get vets to issue new dog license tags and collect payments (combined with a direct payment system via Govt) and the Vet could charge a % fee for same day service, so government and vets make revenue and in turn vets pay increase in corporate tax for the profits they make.

Much more lucrative than some of the other hair brained initiatives the government has implemented.

Spot checks could be carried out by dog wardens, Vets, grooming parlours, licensed dog walkers, RSPA call outs, police responding to dog incidents and housing officers, with financial incentives for reports.

This is actually looking like a viable option.

How much should it be annually?

Presumably because of lack of enforcement.

It ALL comes down to enforcement, whether litter, dog crap, tax discs, pavement parking, drunkeness, shoplifting, speedng, etc. Without enforcement, there's just no point in having the law in the first place.

Housing officers? So already I see some sort of bias towards you thinking that people in social housing are irresponsible dog owners. What about people in private housing?

It's not even remotely viable 😂

Good idea, landlords could carry out checks too as part of the private renting screening process.

Housing officers include social, military, and supported living. Being ex military we often dealt with housing officers.

It actually is viable. It may not be palletable to some but its definitely viable.

Here in NI we are required by law to have our dogs licensed. Part of the license is they must be chipped. I think from memory it around £12 per year. Penalties for not having one is a fixed penalty or prosecution with fines up to £1k. There are exemptions for guide dogs or police dogs and concessions for low income housholds. It is paid to local council.

In an ideal world the dog licence idea would be great but just the same with microchipping, wearing a collar with the dogs details, picking up dog poo, getting proper veterinary treatment etc etc it would only be done by already responsible owners.

And people who own their homes?