Did you know that the wealthy City of Irvine charges less for a dog license than the City of Santa Ana?

Santa Ana charges $24 for a dog license.  Irvine charges only $20 – and if you buy a three year license it costs only $50.  That comes to $16.67 a year – about 30% less than what Santa Ana charges.  And Santa Ana does NOT offer a multi-year discount, or a multi-dog discount.

If your dog is not spayed or neutered, Irvine charges $50 a year for a dog license.  In Santa Ana you pay double that. That’s right – the City of Santa Ana charges $100 per year for an unadulterated dog.  Even the City of Newport Beach charges only $48 for an unadulterated dog license!

I have been told by a city employee at Santa Ana’s dog license department that we have over 11,000 licensed dogs in town and perhaps double that number are unlicensed.  This is a public health issue as the license process involves assuring that the dogs have their vaccinations.

For comparisons sake, the City of Costa Mesa charges only $20 for a dog license, or $10 for a license for a dog that is spayed or neutered.  The City of Mission Viejo charges the same rates as Irvine.

Newport Beach charges a ten percent late fee if you forget to license your new dog after he is four months old.  In Santa Ana the late fee is $41 – that is almost double the original license cost of $24!

One has to wonder why the City of Santa Ana charges so much for dog licenses when the population in Santa Ana is the poorest in Orange County.

The fact is, most folks in Santa Ana need dogs for security more than anything else.  And many working families have multiple dogs that are used primarly for protecting their property.  I would like to see our city provide a multiple dog discount.

It is time to bring our dog license fees in line with what our neighboring cities are charging.  The net result of this will be that we will sell more dog licenses.  And that will improve public health as in the process more dogs will get spayed or neutered and more dogs will get vaccinated.

Here is what you can do: Click here to contact the Santa Ana City Council.  You can contact City Manager Dave Ream’s assistant, Mark Lawrence, at MLawrence@santa-ana.org.  Click here to contact Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, as the SAPD oversees our dog license department.