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Woman Arrested for Not Renewing $35 Dog License
Being a busy mom and surgical nurse, Becky Rehr of Kalamazoo County, Mich., kept forgetting to renew the license for her family’s 11-year-old springer/border collie mix. She finally turned in the paperwork on June 18 but a few days later received an arrest warrant from the local government. Not renewing a dog license is a criminal offense in this corner of southwestern Michigan.
While running errands with her 14-year-old daughter, Rehr swung by the sheriff’s office to show Johnny Law her $35 receipt and clear up the trivial matter. She was shocked when they took her mug shot, fingerprints, and tossed her into a holding cell at the county jail.
“They frisked me and put me in this intake cell with all these inmates in orange jumpsuits,” Rehr said. “I was pretty nervous.” It took three hours before CSI: Kalamazoo released her on a $100 bond so she could return to her daughter who had been waiting in the family car.
Her co-workers at Bronson Methodist Hospital “think I’m kidding,” said Rehr, who is a surgical nurse. “They think there’s no way this is how we’re spending our tax dollars.”
Criminal charges for not renewing a dog license are allowed under the Kalamazoo County animal control ordinance.
Steve Lawrence, director of Kalamazoo County Animal Control, said the agency seeks arrest warrants about “four or five times a month” for people who haven’t renewed a dog license. The county has 32,000 licensed dogs.
“We’re not looking to punish people,” Lawrence said. “We’re just looking for people to get their dog license.”
“Government” is just another word for the dog owners we arrest together.
Today, Rehr was hauled before a district court judge for her slow renewal of the dog license, a crime punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $100 fine. Beforehand, she had called several lawyers for advice; some said she should hire an attorney to fight the case while others counseled her to plead guilty and pray the court cleared her record sometime in the future. Her only previous legal violation was a speeding ticket.
After her story was published in the Kalamazoo Gazette — and later picked up nationally by the Associated Press — the County Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the case and the judge agreed. Publicizing the petty excesses of local bureaucrats embarrassed the County enough to do the right thing.
Rehr shared the good news via an email to the local newspaper. “No court and total dismissal!!!!!” she said. “I don’t have to go to court and I get my bond money back. I’m free!!!!”
No word yet if Kalamazoo County will revisit their ridiculous criminal code or fire their power-mad personnel.
Published in Law
From the American Medical Veterinarian Association website:
I don’t know if that is what’s going in this case.
(My county is next door to Kalamazoo County. People in Kalamazoo look down on us.)
It’s stories like this that make be shake my head when people say that police shouldn’t have the discretion to decide which laws to enforce.
It’s a tax. A tiny one by most standards. And the response was disproportionate. If they want to charge her interest, ok. But it would have to be a much smaller town to make this a criminal matter.
These blow ups, are they a response to police feeling increasingly powerless? I notice that the over the top responses are usually in response to the official being “dissed” over a trivial matter. Dog licenses. Selling loose cigarettes. Is this a way for the cops to say “I didn’t sign on for this?” Is this protecting or serving? No one signed onto the cops hoping to be in charge of dog licenses. They’re disgusted and it looks like they’re losing it more often in response to having to ride herd on petty matters.
Hey Fawlty, I had an overdue library book a few months back. Should I just say it’s OK if the police swing by, cuff me and take me to jail? Love the police state, do you?
What really is the purpose behind criminal punishment for non-payment or late payment of a dog license fee?
If the issue is that they really, really want her to pay the fee, just add a sizable penalty for late payment. She’ll be sure to pay it next time. Additionally, the government makes money instead of wasting scarce resources processing her and keeping her in jail.
I suspect, however, that they do it just because they can. They like exercising their power and they don’t care whom they hurt.
I posted a comment on Julie Mack’s original story as follows:
“How about giving us some background about when and why Kalamazoo County made this a criminal offense, and giving us information about how it compares with other jurisdictions?”
Back in 2003 I had an unpleasant e-mail exchange with her concerning an article she wrote about Hillary Clinton. She probably doesn’t remember me, though.
I am surprised they did not kill the dog and take her children.
Is this the same? As I say, maybe there is a good reason for the law to be what it is. Maybe not. “Police state” is a bit premature.
I tend to be unusually — and unfortunately — literal. But in this case, I thought Basil Fawlty was being facetious. And I thought it was hilarious. If you were serious, Basil, I apologize.
The argument in favor of dog licenses is to make sure dogs are vaccinated, and support animal control services. Some cities require certain types of dogs, like pit bulls to be registered with the city on top of licensing. That seems kind of a useless double dip, unless it required liability insurance be obtained also.
Proof of rabies vaccination should be all that is needed to be a responsible pet owner, and you get that from the vet.
I know a social worker who thinks people should get licenses to have kids. Seriously.
Licenses for children. I could get behind that, especially if you had to have proof you could afford a child before having one. I am tired of paying for others screw ups.
Like I say, you can’t have a welfare state without a police state.
I think this is the same sort of law that allows governments to issue arrest warrants for people who don’t pay their parking tickets. Not saying it wasn’t stupid, just comes from the same logic.
I find this story encouraging. This community has taken it upon itself to stop cracking down on crimes that target minority groups like assault. I have long called for affirmative action policing and actions like these help to alleviate the disturbing levels of arrest inequality that exist amongst the races.
That would depend on whether your fellow citizens had passed a law making it a criminal offense to refuse to return an overdue library book; how many warnings you had ignored telling you to return the book; and whether you had also ignored a warrant that had been issued for your arrest. Think of it as broken windows policing.
So it’s a criminal offense not to license a dog? A misdemeanor means you go to jail.
It’s not broken windows policing. It’s broken policing. This is an administrative law, not a criminal law, and it’s a revenue generator. That’s why they did it, because a) they could do it, b) they’re not likely to get shot at for doing it, and c) the proles will start coughing up their licensing fees now that they’ve made a public square example of one “citizen”.
And there’s little recourse for the jailed, other than to sue, which I would do, because it’s all that seems to get the attention of the local petty dynasties – when their insurance premiums spike, they start changing behaviors.
Watch what you say. I’ve got a gal in Kalamazoo.
From the OP:
I should have been a police officer in Kalamazoo. It must have been nice working in a city that had solved their crime problem and all that was left to do was look for people that had not renewed a dog license.
There was a stack of warrant cards in the roll call room. I never saw one for failure to renew a dog license. Our warrant cards were boring. We were stuck with looking for individuals with warrants for Aggravated Assault, Armed Robbery, Parole Violators, Burglary, Sex Offenses, and the most boring of all Homicide.
What the hell is the point of a dog licence in the first place? I’ve had dogs and I think I’ve gotten licences for all of them, but who even checks? At least the prosecutor and judge did the right thing here.
There’s that snarky remark about not voting for this so-and-so [insert name of your most despised politician] for dog catcher, well maybe they should have taken that to heart in Kalamazoo. ;)
There should be a Constitutional amendment to ensure that the right to keep and dog bears…er…keep and bear dogs, without any stinkin’ licenses, shall not be infringed.
We’ve had our dog for five years and he’s never had a license. Occasionally, I will ask my wife about it, and it has become a family joke. It never occurred to me that we might be fined, much less arrested.
The point of the license was probably to make sure your dog had been vaccinated for rabies, if your dog was found by someone the dog could be returned to you, and if your dog had bitten someone it was a means to hold the owner liable for any medical costs to the injured party.
Um, in Georgia, you have to get a dog tag showing proof of vaccination. You don’t have to pay an annual fee and somehow the state is not overrun with packs of uncontrolled dogs.
It also sounds like Georgia is not overrun with packs of uncontrolled bureaucrats.
For a legal system to be supported by the community it is necessary for even the innocent to believe the crime they are accused of deserves the punishment associated to it. In this case, I doubt many people would buy into jail time for a late or even missing dog license. Passing laws such as the one represented begs mass derision of that law and if enough such laws exist, the Law. Not a good idea. Basil Fawlty says that the mentioned law was passed by the community. I rather doubt that and would surmise that the absurd thing was passed by a city council that was looking for a revenue generator. In truth, such people should be voted out of office but sadly, most are not. My own guide in local elections is to vote against the incumbent – always.
Bingo! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.
Next you’re gonna boast about how she’s the toast of Kalamazoo.
You seem to be under the impression that the rule of law is still a thing. Didn’t you get the memo from the Supreme Court last week?
In any case, I used to think like you, that “following the law” is a commendable value in itself, no matter the law in question. But there are far too many laws in this country, at every level of government. It’s been said that the average person is breaking several laws per day without knowing it. The vast majority of people pick and choose which laws to obey and which to ignore all the time (and even prosecutors do this when they use their discretion or make deals). And since many laws are fundamentally unjust (such as this one), whether they are morally right in doing so should be judged on the specific merits of the law in question.
And if the community dislikes what the city council hath wrought, they should vote it out of office. But it’s so much easier to just “forget” to comply with laws you disagree with.
How do you know this law is fundamentally unjust? There’s much we don’t know about the law or the case, no?