A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear ACO/DCO's:
I have received the following information which I believe is of great importance to all Dog and Animal Control Officers and their job. Please inform me of what you think of the changes the State of New York are about to make to Article 7 and please, let me know as quickly as possible.
Below is information to keep you as up to date as possible on recent developments regarding the licensing of dogs in New York State. Ag & Markets has asked that you keep this information among Town Clerks for now and we would appreciate you respecting their request.
Ag & Markets has expressed a very strong desire to eliminate the statewide database and wishes to delegate authority for dog licensing to each municipality. This may sound alarming; however, our neighboring states of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts do not have a state-wide database and process dog licenses on the local level without ill effects. Although we may not have chosen this, as Clerks we do an excellent job of managing the bulk of licensing tasks already and this change includes increased revenue to cover our costs.
For the past few months representatives from the NYSTCA have been representing your interests in this probable transfer of authority and we feel that we should share what we know so far. Keep in mind this is in the proposal stages only, however, Ag & Markets is very clear that they wish to eliminate the statewide database and control of the licensing function.
A representative from Ag & Markets is scheduled to speak to this issue at the NYS Town Clerk’s Conference in Saratoga Springs, April 25-28, 2010 and the Clerk’s Association plans to distribute helpful information at the conference (such as sample local laws, samples of best practice procedures, and a list of vendors for tags).
Effective Date: The earliest effective date for this change is January 1, 2011 -- allowing us to accommodate this change in our 2011 budgets.
State Dog License Database: would be eliminated
Forms: Ag & Markets will continue to provide editable forms on their website. They will not maintain hard copies of forms.
Fees: They intend to direct ALL licensing revenues to the municipality in which the revenue is raised. No checks will be sent to the Counties or State. This added revenue will go towards the added expense of printing renewal notices, envelopes, postage, and ordering tags. They also intend to give unlimited flexibility for towns to set their own fees but revenue must be used solely on animal control-related programs. Municipalities will be able to charge fees for animal population control efforts, enumerations, and replacement tags.
Tags: We are currently gathering a list of possible vendors for tags and we hope to have some represented at the April 25-28 NYSTCA Conference in Saratoga.
Tags will be required to contain: ID number, name of municipality, New York State, and a municipal contact number.
Dog Damage Program: (checks we were sending to our counties) - will be eliminated. We will keep these funds.
Current Laws & Regulations: Article 7 will be repealed and a new law will be established under the same title. NYS will require that dogs be licensed and have rabies shots and proposes municipalities have sole propriety for the dog licensing program over which we already have significant authority.
Reporting: As we do now, we will continue to be required to maintain records of licenses and rabies but other reporting mechanism needs further investigation.
Licensing Classifications (spayed, purebred, exemptions) as of now will be up to each Town to decide classifications and exemptions (i.e. waivers for guide dogs, hearing dogs, service dogs, etc).
Time of Renewal: Towns can be flexible as to renewal periods.
Length of License: Towns can be flexible as to length of licenses.
Notification of Renewals: Towns will be responsible for sending renewal notices.
Unspayed/Unneutered Program Fee: Up to each Town to continue and how they will manage these funds. Authority to charge additional fees will only apply to initiatives related to dogs.
Shelters/Pounds: Municipalities will decide if their shelter can issue licenses for their residents. All municipalities will be required to maintain or contract out with a shelter.
Dog Control Officers: Each municipality must retain at least one dog control officer
Any questions, feel free to contact me via email or telephone.
Jack Woods
President of NYSACA
e-mail to: jbw1nysaca@netscape.net
or phone at: 315-342-7027
Welcome to the New York State Animal Control Association website!
It's a convenient way for all who want to find out more about what's going on around the state.
Who's on the Board of Directors, valuable links to national animal control and welfare organizations.
Articles and Laws and/or revisions pertaining to New York State animal control.
Also cruelty statutes, forms, or how to join NYSACA as a member.
Please keep us posted on news or problems that need to be addressed and other information you'd like to share among your colleagues.
Please let us know how we can better serve you and what we can do to improve Animal Control issues in the State of New York.
Together we can make a difference!
Respectfully,
Jack Woods
President
This site was last modified on Wednesday, January 20, 2010