Miami County’s Animal Shelter director is taking a more proactive approach to ensuring people are licensing their dogs following a decline in sales of tags.

Marcia Doncaster, director, talked with the county commission April 13 about concerns with a decline in people buying the license tags the past few years.

As of last week, the shelter had 2,854 dog licenses that had not been renewed. If all licenses would be renewed, the county would bring in nearly $80,000 in additional revenues for the shelter. That is based on the $14 license fee and $14 late penalty.

The shelter now sends out renewal notices at the end of November and second notices around mid-February.

There isn’t any follow up following those notices unless there is a complaint received about a dog and the lack of license is discovered or an owner visits the shelter to claim a dog that has been impounded and isn’t licensed.

Doncaster said she looked to surrounding counties for ideas to improve renewals.

She proposed first having animal control officers and/or volunteers make reminder phone calls to those on the list of 2,854 licenses not renewed and give a deadline to buy a tag if they still have the dog(s).

Once that is done, Doncaster proposed sending an animal control officer door to door to issue citations. Those who go to court on a citation face at least a $25 fine and court costs in addition to having to obtain the license, she said. The shelter would get the fine money.

The county issues around 16,000 dog licenses a year, she said.

The commissioners agreed with the proposal for phone calls. A decision will come later on option might be pursued afterward.

“I would want to talk more about the door to door, and how we would handle that,” Commissioner Jack Evans said.

The phone calls also will help the shelter update its computers to remove those who don’t have the dog as licensed any longer, Doncaster said. “We need to get those off the computers so we have a better idea of revenue,” she said.

In checking with neighboring counties, Doncaster said Shelby County shelter staff said they send renewal notices, and then follow up with emails, phone calls or letters saying the owner has a set number of days to obtain a tag. Those efforts are followed by a citation.

In Darke County, notices are sent, follow up calls made in February and then another notice by post cards. Once those efforts are made, door-to-door checks are done and citations issued. The staff also checks homes that appear to have dogs but no licenses on file, she said.