This month, pet owners in Seattle can take advantage of a “license amnesty period” to bring their expired pet licenses up to date or purchase new tags for animals not currently licensed, and the city will waive late fees and other penalties.
Pet owners can purchase or renew their pet license/s online is online. Licenses can also be obtained via mail and at the Seattle Animal Shelter location (2061 15th Ave W).
“Many pet owners forget to renew their licenses. This amnesty period will allow those owners to get caught up without having to pay extra fines that could add up to hundreds of dollars,” says the team from Seattle Animal Shelter.
Fees from pet licenses help support the Seattle Animal Shelter’s lifesaving work, such as animal rescue, rehabilitation and adoption, criminal investigation of animal cruelty and providing medical care, including low-cost spay and neuter services.
Pet licenses also benefit individual pets. A pet license tells the finder of a lost pet or the shelter that the animal is owned and not a stray that should be kept or adopted out.
The tag provides the shelter’s phone number, giving a good Samaritan an easy way to help without having to find a microchip scanner. And shelter officers that encounter lost pets will use license information to contact owners immediately and many times give those pets a ride home.
In Seattle, owners must license all cats, dogs, miniature goats and potbellied pigs. One-year license fees are as follows:
- Cats: $22 (altered) and $33 (unaltered)
- Dogs: $30 (altered) and $51 (unaltered)
- Goats: $20
- Pigs: $120 for the first year, $30 each subsequent year
Find out more about Seattle pet license fees is available online.
The Seattle Animal Shelter is open Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. for adoptions and licensing.
For more information, call 206-386-PETS (7387), or view animals available for adoption online at www.seattleanimalshelter.org.
