Licensing dogs started as part of the fight against rabies. Licensing also helps fund animal control agencies and public shelters, as most of the services we want from such officers is related to dogs...strays, bites, neglect and abuse, illegal dog breeding, dog fighting, feral dog packs, etc.



You may get your pets vaccinated because you care about them, but many people have to be forced to protect their own animals from disease (contagious by the way). Licensing is also a way to track that any one dog has gotten the right vaccinations on time over it's whole life. Rabies needs to be given every 3 years. Rabies is a threat to humans of course, but it's no picnic for the poor dog either!



Any mammal can carry and spread rabies, herps can't. Dogs tend to go to people when they are sick and can unintentionally spread disease to humans. Cats tend to go off and hide when they are sick and are less likely to bite a human, so fewer states require cat vaccinations.



My pet peeve about cats is how little we require their owners to do. Dogs are not supposed to run loose but cats? Loose cats kill over 3 MILLION native songbirds a year in this country alone. They tend to torture their prey also, as their instinct to catch and kill is distorted by lack of hunger. I've treated too many suffering birds and small animals to ever own a cat.

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