License, please! About a fourth of pets in Valley are properly ID’d

Published 6:10 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Valley residents were already above average in pet licensing rates, and then Regional Animal Services of King County came for a visit.

Agency staff spent the past summer canvassing North Bend neighborhoods and talking to residents about licensing pets, with a  resulting increase in license sales of 70 percent more than were sold in the same timeframe, January to August, in 2013.

“We’ve found that (canvassing) is a simple but effective way to educate owners about the need to license their pets, as well as communicate the benefits of licensing,” said Cameron Satterfield, a King County spokesman.

By the end of the canvassing period, Sept. 3, North Bend residents had bought more than 200 temporary pet licenses, for a total of 645 pets licensed this year. In 2013, the city sold 649 licenses, an estimated participation rate of 22.9 percent — based on an estimated count of dogs and cats in the city, as calculated by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s formula.

That doesn’t seem like a strong participation rate, but, Satterfield says, “In general, the residents of the Snoqualmie Valley license their pets at a higher rate than in the RASKC service area as a whole.”

Snoqualmie had an estimated 19 percent participation, Carnation 23.5 percent and Duvall, 25.6 percent in 2013, while the full Animal Services area was at 21.5 percent.

The organization’s service area includes unincorporated King County and most of its cities (Beaux Arts, Kenmore, Redmond, Bellevue, Kent, Sammamish, Black Diamond, Kirkland, SeaTac, Carnation, Lake Forest Park, Shoreline, Clyde Hill, Maple Valley, Snoqualmie, Covington, Mercer Island, Tukwila, Duvall, Newcastle, Woodinville, Enumclaw, North Bend, Yarrow Point and Issaquah).

Licensing your dog or cat isn’t expensive, or difficult. The cost per year is $60 per pet, or $30 if the animals are spayed or neutered. Senior citizens get a 50 percent discount,  and the cost is only $15 for pets up to 6 months old. The process can be done online, in person at any City Hall in the Valley, at the North Bend QFC, or at the Sno-Falls License Agency in Snoqualmie.

“Still, less than 25 percent of pets in the Valley are licensed,” said Satterfield. “That’s one of the reasons we conducted pet license canvassing in North Bend this summer.”

Agents visited 1,003 homes with pets during the canvassing, which started May 3. They mainly worked evenings and weekends, when people were likely to be home, Satterfield said, speaking directly with 370 people and issuing 218 temporary licenses.

Learn more about pet licensing at http://www.kingcounty.gov/safety/regionalAnimalServices.aspx, or call (206) 296-2712.