A 65-year-old licensing fee for pets in Northlake has been abolished by the Northlake City Council.
The fee had likely been in place since the city incorporated in 1949, said Mayor Jeff Sherwin, who remembers getting a city dog license when he was a kid growing up in Northlake.
While there could be thousands of dogs and cats in Northlake — Sherwin estimates 3,000 — almost no pet owners were paying the $2 fee.
“We only sold 13 in the first month and a half of this year,” Sherwin said.
The city’s challenge was enforcement. With 3,000 houses in town, figuring out what households had pets was problematic.
“Unless you go door to door, it’s not practical,” Sherwin said. “It’s not an enforceable ordinance.”
Enforceable or not, it meant a line item in the budget, front office staff selling licenses and other paperwork. So the city council ended it. Those who have already paid in 2015 will get refund checks from the city.
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“I don’t know if we’re a trailblazer in this area, but to me, it is an antiquated thing,” Sherwin said. “It’s a matter of streamlining and getting stuff off the books that’s not working.”
Residents of Northlake and elsewhere in Cook County still have to get rabies shots, which is enforced by the county government. And the city recommends either tags or microchips in case the pet gets lost.
The owners of “dangerous” dogs — meaning they’ve bit or attacked someone — are still required to get a license from the city, although those number no more than 50, Sherwin estimates.