Image by Adobe Stock.
Woodbury’s biennial dog licensing requirement will end Jan. 1, based on a City Hall analysis’s conclusion that local licenses no longer match current dog-ownership realities.
The analysis also found that while ending dog licensing would cost more than $20,000 in annual revenue, it would save substantial licensing costs for metal tags and vehicle stickers for Woodbury’s Andy’s Dog Park, while freeing up city staff for more important work.
Ending the dog tags and stickers alone would save 219 – 439 staff hours over two years, according to city estimates presented at the council’s Oct. 22 meeting.
Throughout Woodbury’s mandatory dog-licensing program, tags and stickers have had to be obtained or renewed in person at City Hall, with fees ranging from $10 to $41.
“(I)t is critical to seize efficiencies and ensure programs are meeting their intended goals,” Assistant City Administrator/Clerk Ashleigh Sullivan wrote in a memo included in the meeting’s agenda.
“Periodically reviewing programs like dog licensing allows the organization to be nimble and maximize resources.”
Meanwhile, rabies health concerns that prompted dog-licensing’s origins have dwindled since the 1980s, the City Hall analysis found.
Dog rabies cases in Woodbury numbered in the 100s then, in the 70s during the 1990s, 34 in the 2000s, 6 in the 2010s and 1 in the 2020s, city figures showed.
While licensing also was originally seen as a way to help owners locate lost dogs, microchips and social media sites have since emerged as better alternatives.
Compliance with the dog-licensing requirement in Woodbury’s Chapter 5 Animals Ordinance seems to have fallen sharply as well. Only 1,725 local licenses were issued in 2024, for example, compared to 2,727 in 2014, according to city figures.
Following Sullivan’s licensing-analysis presentation, the council voted unanimously to strike mandatory dog licensing from the city’s Animals Ordinance. The ordinance’s rabies-vaccination requirement, however, will remain.