Being a dog might be pretty cool — the long runs, the sniffing of butts, the licking of one’s own — but being a dog owner in San Francisco just became less cool, as in more expensive.
And we are not talking about pricier Alpo.
Hikes in a host of fees associated with pet ownership were approved on Tuesday. The fee hikes were proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom and approved by the Board of Supervisors at its full meeting today.
Many fees doubled.
Starting July 1, it will cost roughly $100 in fees to adopt an animal, be it clawed, pawed or hooved (there are provisions for that in city law), from the Department of Animal Care and Control. This includes a $55 deposit for spay/neutering and a $30 redemption fee (yes, a dog is like a Coke can).
Several services provided by the agency are now defined — and price-tagged. There’s a fee of $20 for dropping off a dead animal at Animal Care and Control, there’s a $25 fee if you drop off a live dog you want dead, and there’s another $25 fee if you must surrender your animal to authorities; $40 if the agency must come and pick it up.
Licensing a dog is more costly, too: a one-year license now runs $50 instead of $24, and a three-year license is $140, up from $66.
Exactly how much Newsom hopes to rake in with this measure is unclear. Dog lobby, you lost this one.
Photo: Tails
