Smart pet owners

You can track your steps with your watch. You can stream music and video from your television. You can delve into virtual reality with your phone. We live in a technologically-smart world. 

Why not make the simple metal tag hanging from your dog’s neck a little smarter too?

The new dog tag system the Town of Erin is implementing in 2018 goes beyond identification. The company DocuPet boasts about helping lost pets make it home safely and quickly through lost and found pet reports.

There’s even a program called the “pet brigade,” where owners who opt in, town staff and DocuPet staff are notified about lost pets so they can be on the lookout for the homeward bound pooch.

The system even does a little extra, like send sympathy cards when the worst happens and provides access to rewards from local and national businesses.

For pet owners it takes the bothersome tasks of going to the municipal office (when it is open) and getting the tag. I see why people “forget” to renew it. Year after year dog tag sales slump, leaving less revenue for the town.

Pets are part of the family now, and keeping them safe is a number one priority for pet owners.

It’s smart to get a little more for the money residents should be paying every year anyway.

– Olivia

VS.

Stick with what works

The Town of Erin has implemented a new dog licensing system and owners will now receive an email wishing their pooch a happy birthday.

Don’t rub your eyes, you read that correctly.

The town clerk has said there’s no cost to implement the DocuPet system, yet the cost of purchasing a dog license is going up by $5.

The licensing program is a user-pay system, so by definition the $5 increase for a license is a $5 increase for each user of the system. That’s an implementation cost, no?

This is all because town staff thinks it’s too labour intensive to input the information into a spreadsheet. Again, users fund the service – and they were paying less with the old system.

Another benefit of the new program is that new tags will allow lost dogs to be easily identified.

This is a definite benefit, but town councillors are saying this feature will allow rescuers to track down owners, bypassing the SPCA and “the other things the town is paying for.”

Hmmm … what if the dog is sick? What if the owner is abusive?

There’s a reason the SPCA and humane societies exist – they look out for animal welfare.

Saving a few bucks by not involving the SPCA doesn’t seem worth it when an animal’s safety is in question.

– Jaime