Doggonit! City dog licensing hits an all-time low

Chicago’s bark has long been worse than its bite when it comes to cracking down on owners of unlicensed dogs, but there now appears to be no bite at all.That much was obvious Friday when City Clerk Anna Valencia revealed during City Council budget hearings that her office has issued only 4,100 dog licenses this year in a city with an estimated dog population of more than 650,000.That’s down from the already paltry 8,000 dog licenses last year, 18,000 in 2017 and 40,896 in 2013.The cost of a city dog license is clearly not the impediment.The license fee has been frozen for decades at $5 a year for spayed and neutered dogs, $50 for those that are not and $2.50 for dog owners who are senior citizens.Valencia said the problem is ignorance. The city’s regulatory leash has been so loose for so long, most Chicago dog owners don’t even know that they’re required to buy city licenses for their dogs.“People don’t know. And if you don’t have a marketing budget to tell people, they just don’t und