Dog Licenses

Once the dog is licensed is it forever or does it have to be renewed?

It must be renewed. You have the option for purchasing a license for either 6 months or 1 year.

Of course it has to be renewed - and once they have your name and address plus your dogs name you must renew every year. So in six months they will have a lot of new names, renewal dollars and penalties now that you have signed in to the program.

In the unincorporated areas, if your dog is unaltered, you must also obtain a veterinarian's written authorization to keep your dog intact, and pay an extra fee to do so.

All of you are wrong. @ Santa Barbara County Animal Services you can purchase a license for 1,2 or 3 years. It is your choice. Keep in mind if your dog passes within this time you will not be refunded any money. I found this out the hard way ;(
You can license online also at
www.SBCPHD.ORG/AS

A county license can be 1, 2 or 3 years. However, the rabies innoculation must cover the entire period. If not, you can only license for as long as the rabies certificate is good. AND if your animal is intact, the license costs more than double, AND you must also obtain a Veterinarian Certificate authorizing you to keep an intact animal, AND you must pay an extra fee on top of the higher licensing fee to keep your animal intact.

All are wrong? How about in addition? Yes, of course you can get longer licenses - as long as they are within the extent of your dog's rabies shot. SB Animal Services are not keen to your love of your dog. They picked up my now passed dog last year in the afternoon; tags were lost; although he was always registered; next morning when I went to pick him up they wanted to charge me for 2 days. And were preparing his description so he could be rescued!!

A license isn't a ticket home; a license is a ticket straight into the system so you and your dog can be tracked and penalized and identified for the future, when it becomes completely illegal to own a dog at all.

Your dog's ticket home is in fact, a tag with her phone number, and a tattoo or microchip tracking to your phone number. Better yet, make sure your yard is securely fenced, your dog is on a leash when out for a walk, and your dog is well-supervised by a responsible adult.

A license tag just represents paid-up extortion fees: you pay us, and we let you own a dog. For now.

After you pay a hefty charge for the required vet (now refashioned into a Mandatory Reporter) visit and the permission slip, of course.

It is a crime to own an intact dog in the County.
Yes, owning an intact dog is against the law in Santa Barbara County.

Unless you pay a special extortion fee to the government, then go through the designated gatekeepers (and pay another fee) who will decide FOR you whether you are competent to make surgical decisions for your pets.

Licenses make it easier to track you and your illegal pet, period. Licenses do NOT "give your pet a ticket home".

This is nothing more than a sales pitch to lull pet owners into a false sense of security so they shuffle along into the corral, then BAM! The door closes and it's "game over".

And if the various special interests decide that they just don't want any more dogs in their County, guess what?

Oh, it will be done in tiny bits...like making it much more costly to own a dog. In fact it is already 2/3 more expensive to own an intact pet than a surgically desexed one.

In pieces, the license fees will become so exorbitant that the average family pet owner will never be able to afford the extortion fees and penalties to own an intact dog...and eventually,any dog at all.

Every time one of these seemingly benign and beneficial laws is proposed and pet owners don't bother showing up to say "no", the special interests gain more headway towards their goal of complete control over your pet ownership choices, your family's lives, and eventually, outlawing pet ownership altogether.

This is NOT a dog-friendly County. Don't kid yourself.

This is only the beginning.