More on L.A. dog licensing crackdown -- and are cats next?

We ran a story in the Daily Breeze about the Los Angeles Department of Animal Control's efforts to collect more revenue in dog license fees. The story also details department budget cuts being faced by Animal Services -- among them, the department's toll-free call center is in line to be eliminated, meaning more phone calls will have to be handled by already over-burdened shelter staffers.

(Interestingly, a City Council discussion on the matter prompted one councilman, Tom LaBonge, to actually get his dog licensed.)

I asked department Assistant General Manager Linda Barth during our telephone interview if the city was considering licensing cats.

As a matter of fact, she said, Councilman Bill Rosenthal did ask the department to study that issue. But she said the department's first focus will be on getting more of the city's estimated 350,000 canines licensed as required by law. Currently, only about a third of the dogs in the city have licenses.

Daily Breeze photo by Scott Varley