Eaton County Treasurer, Bob Robinson, announced the planned launch of a new and improved dog licensing website for pet owners scheduled for February first. The new site will provide simplified transaction services to streamline the licensing and license renewal process for dog owners online. The site is part of the treasurer’s plan to improve customer service for dog license customers throughout Eaton County.
“The new system is way more efficient, said Treasurer Bob Robinson. “We’ve listened to feedback from pet owners and have improved the site to serve Eaton County better.”
Prior to the online dog license process, local townships, cities, and villages sold dog tags using obsolete carbon forms and receipt books. None of it was automated, and each year the county treasurer’s office had to undergo annual reconciliation with each local to pay them one dollar per license for their time. This was costly for both the local and the county. Receipt books were collected from each local and tediously entered into a countywide database at the treasurer’s office by hand, taking lots of time and taxpayer resource to complete the process. Additionally, Eaton County Animal Control, under the independent direction of the Sheriff’s office, sold licenses independently. Delta Township and the City of Grand Ledge also sold licenses independently. There was no centralized database of dog licenses and the process had not been updated in decades.
“This was an ancient, expensive, and untidy system for selling dog licenses,” added Robinson.
The new system is automated and more cost-effective. Pet owners can purchase or renew their one or three-year dog licenses online with a renewal date that revolves around the pet’s rabies vaccination date. Trips to the local village, city, or township office are no longer necessary because licensing is now consolidated at the county level. This simplifies behind-the-scenes operations and provides a centralized database of countywide pet owners. It also allows renewal reminders to be sent to dog owners when licenses are due, and helps facilitate more efficient lost pet location when animals are picked up by Animal Control. In cases where folks are at their local township, city, or village office for paying their taxes or other reason, they can still purchase a dog license with hard copy forms on-hand.
“Some folks were disappointed that they could not purchase a dog license while visiting their local government office,” said Robinson, “but with in-person, online, and mail-in purchase options, and our sending of reminder notices, we have seen a 27 percent jump in dog licensing compliance in 2020. So, moving licensing to the county level has been good for pet owners and the protection of their pets, all while saving taxpayers a lot of expense and resource.”
For more information on Eaton County dog licensing, go to eatoncountytreasurer.org, email treasurer@eatoncounty.org, or call (517) 543-4262.
Submitted by Eaton County Treasurer Bob Robinson
