maybe something like the car registration thing would work.....when u buy a car u fill out the new owner slip you dont have to pay for that....so when you buy a dog from a breeder or a get one from a rescue home u would fill out a slip in the same way. It might work at least there would be a register of who owned dogs.....just a thought

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Exactly. If a breeder sells a dog to someone without a license, then they get a massive fine and banned from breeding and their own license withdrawn.

That's a great example (car registration stuff).

It could work very well in conjunction with microchips too.

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When you buy a dog from a breeder (A Kennel Club registered dog that is) all you do is fill in the change of ownership form send it back and the KC have you on record as the dogs owner. Pretty much the same as above really

Except there are only independant authorities over it. Which basically means nothing.

They are simply an independant privately owned organization charging breeders (i'd imagine) massive sums of money to allow breeders to supply piece of mind to dog buyers that the dog they are buying is legit?

A goverment system would probably be cheaper than a private one.

And a licensing system could be based on the system you speak of quite easily, as all the KC staff would already have a pretty good idea at what's going on.

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but only if its free.......even I have to admit I got Maya at 5 months and the lady gave me all her KC papers as she'd got her from a breeder and had registered her own name and it costs £15 just to get the name changed to mine so I have been a bit lazy and not done it yet and I'm a responsible owner who loves my dogs so theres zero chance of some one whos not doing doing it.

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The day the Govornment dreams up the idea of a pet licence, would be the day I gave up my pets, I pay enough of my hard earned cash to the Govornment and they do absolutely nothing, nada, apart from waste the money we already give them, instead of ploughing it into organizations that really need the funding. I think there are much more worthy things the Govornment needs to be concentrating on, licencing didn't work the first time around so I'm afraid I have no faith it would work the second time around.

Now IF I was forced to take an ownership test based on the pets I own (instead of being forced to have a licence) I wouldn't complain, I think that would be more of a step in the right direction.

Plus for instance - would this 'say for instance £45' that you quoted be payable for each pet owned? Or would it be a one off payment that covered them all?

And also, what about people on benefits? How would that work? Most people who live on benefits love their pets - say if they couldn't afford the licence?

Thanks!

Here's my thoughts, posted from another thread:

I think breeders and owners should be licenced not individual dogs.

Everyone should have to do a theory and practical test to obtain a licence before you can own a dog and in the case of people already owning dogs you should have to pass the tests or give up your dogs. Their should be graduated licences for small - large dogs meaning you have to prove you can competently handle a large powerful dog before owning one. After a certain length of time owners should have to go back to the test centre and prove they have trained their dog to a resonable standard. If they haven't they have to pay to go on a course and get it sorted out asap.

Breeders should have to pass extra tests and be inspected regularly, every pup they produce should be registered to a central database simular to the way they do with the KC at the moment. Every dog should be microchipped within a certain time of going to their new homes and if they aren't then it's investigated. The number of breeders could be limited to ensure that we don't have too many dogs ending up in rescue centres.

With todays technology and the millions of dog owners that will be paying for tests and licences I think it could be workable.

Dogs owned by idiots are as lethal as cars driven by idiots so why should just anyone get to own them. Dog ownership should be a privlege, not a right as it is now.

As with anything it won't be fool prove and not everyone will stick to it but I think it would go along way to solving some of the existing problems such as overflowing rescue centres and dog attacks.

I totally agree.....I would only think it was a good idea if it was free and with this miserable bleed u dry government and prob any other nothing is ever free!!!.....car registration is free cos they get so much tax from cars they can do it they dont get any revenue from pets so there would be no benefit for them to put it in place unless there was a fee unfortunately

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and I forgot to say if you look at the RSPCA SSPCA etc they receive no government funding at all so they obviously dont give to hoots about the animals of this country so they are never likely to put anything into place however a good idea unless they make money out of it!!!

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This is where I feel people on benefits would suffer and be forced to give up their pets, rescue centres are overcrowded enough with unwanted animals, imagine all the folk on benefits having to give up their animals because they couldn't afford the licence - that counts for probably more than half of the population!!!

And also, if these licences were to be free for people on benefits - as a hard working person, why should I have to be forced to help people on benefits keep there animals by paying for one? Now, I'm not having a go at people on benefits - just putting my point across as a working person!