Unlicensed dog could cost $450

Not registering your dog in Palmerston North is about to get expensive.

About 1200 dogs - some 16 percent of the city's known dog population - aren't registered and the city council is about to hit owners with letters asking them to pay up or face a $450 bill for outstanding fees and fines.

Anyone who didn't pay that bill could expect followup through the court system, which would incur still more fees.

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Defaulting owners would be told they now owed the council a 50 percent penalty on the fee they owed. (A general registration costs $97. Registering a desexed animal costs $75; preferred owners who pay their bills on time are charged $58, which drops to $49 for desexed dogs.)

If this wasn't paid within a fortnight, a $300 fine would be added.

So how will they pay? I guess the dog disappears?

I'm just wondering if having a fee is a good idea. If there were NO FEES to register a dog, you'd get more compliance, and the city would save them going and collecting the fees...

I just don't understand how councils can jack up the price beyond inflation !

"We've run out of patience," Mr Jameson said.

He estimated that about half the city's 1200 unregistered dogs might now not be in the city. Dogs died, people sold or gave them away, or they shifted outside the city council's area.

Collecting $450 fines for half the 1600 unregistered dogs would bring in $270,000. This money, like all fines, would go towards administration costs, offsetting the amount of rates money that has to be collected.

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My question is... why do gangs need dogs in the first place? you'll answer- to protect their drugs.
Imagine if they didn't need to protect it because the market fell out (no profit)?...