Lee:

As former liason to Public Safety and current board member (for the next couple weeks anyways), maybe I can provide a little insight from my experience and talking to the court...

The situation as I understand it is that a DCO writes a ticket for unlicensed dog. If that person pleads guilty to the violation, he pays a fine of around $20. If the person does not show up, it is a violation and they will be still be fined. If he pleads innocent, he can have his day in court to fight the charges. Judge Colby's hands are a little tied as to the punishment that can be doled out. He is not allowed, for instance, to issue a bench warrant of arrest for no shows or repeat offenders and can not force the resident to get a dog license. He can fine them and that's it. Again, this is all just my personal understanding of how it works. As for other jurisdictions handing out more severe punishments, I am not aware of this.

However, all is not lost as the DCO's can continue to ticket the offending pet owner. The thought here is that the owner would be better off just getting his pet licensed than paying the more expensive fines over and over.

I questioned whether there could be a "Fix-it or ticket" type situation where the ticket could be waived if the license is paid and I was told that it was up to the judge to decide but that would most likely be the case.

It is interesting to me is that repeat offenders choose to pay the more expensive fine over and over rather than just get their pet licensed but that is their prerogative, I guess.

Hope I understood the question and answered it!

Matt