OGDEN — Ogden city has a warning for residents who don’t have their cats and dogs registered: Time’s up. You won’t get any more warnings.
The city is asking that all residents legally register their pets. Beginning April 1, the city will drop its current policy of first giving a warning to those not in compliance and will begin to immediately issue citations.
“In the past, we’ve been very forgiving of this violation and just issued warnings to residents who failed to register their pets,” said John Harvey, director of administration with Ogden Police Department. “But next month, we aren’t going to issue any more warnings, and we’re going to start giving actual citations for all unlicensed pets.”
Harvey said that when the police department and animal control merged earlier this year, a quick look at pet ownership data in the city revealed that more than 50 percent of pet licenses issued by the city had expired.
“For whatever reason, we just had a lot of people that weren’t renewing their registration,” he said. “And that can become a problem for us in many different ways.”
Harvey said only cats and dogs require registration, and the city will soon contact more than 5,000 pet owners using an automated phone call system, reminding them to register their pets.
“We want to get the word out early so that we won’t have to issue any fines,” Harvey said. “Fining people isn’t something we want to do, but licensing in the city limit is the law. We want to encourage responsible pet ownership and make our city a safer place, not only for residents, but for their pets.”
Animal licensing in Ogden is $10 for altered animals and $30 for unaltered animals. The fine for an expired registration or for failing to register a pet is $85 and increases with each subsequent violation.
Registering can be done online at www.ogdencity.com and at an upcoming rabies clinic March 23 at the Weber County Animal Shelter at 1373 N. 750 West.
Reduced-cost rabies vaccines will be available for $15 and ID microchips for $25. For additional information, call Animal Services at 801-629-8244.
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