Plymouth is giving up on licensing dogs.

Finding that many dog owners haven't bothered to get a license anyway, and that those who do don't cover the city's cost to issue them, Plymouth has decided to phase out individual dog and cat licenses.

"We are looking at eliminating unnecessary services to reduce cost," said City Manager Laurie Ahrens. "We have never returned a dog to its owner based on its license."

Currently, Plymouth has 2,262 licensed dogs and 244 licensed cats -- clearly just a fraction of the animals residing in a city with about 72,000 people. The city estimates that doing away with license tags will save about $1,000 a year in supplies but more importantly, significant staff time.

Plymouth will continue to require pet owners to vaccinate their animals against rabies. It will also require that they wear collar tags that identify their owners by name and address -- or that they have an embedded identification chip -- so they can be returned if they get lost.

The city will spot check for rabies vaccinations, Police Chief Mike Goldstein said. "If we come across an animal that we can identify, before it's returned to its owner, they have to show us proof that the dog has been vaccinated."

Goldstein said the $3 licenses were an opportunity for the city to collect a small amount of revenue while keeping track of the number of dogs in the city. But not everybody who had a dog licensed it, and "we really didn't do anything with the data. It was not that meaningful."

There is one wrinkle in the license law change: Owners of more than two dogs will continue to be required to license their dogs.

Goldstein said other cities have also discontinued animal licensing.

Minnetonka stopped licensing in 2000 when the Police Department estimated that of roughly 15,000 dogs in the city, only about 2,000 were licensed, said Jacque Larson, spokeswoman for the city. Minnetonka concluded that it was penalizing the responsible dog owners and that it would not be worth the effort to get everyone else to comply, she said.

Minnetonka does require that dogs wear identification and requires owners to have proof of rabies vaccination.

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711