Dog Health Insurance

Regular readers may remember a post from about a week ago, about plans to introduce a new dog licence to Northern Ireland, costing £50 per year, or ten times what it currently costs. I was concerned that further raising the price of keeping a dog would only serve to increase the cases of abandonment – not reduce it!

Well, it turns out that there was so much opposition to the idea that it has actually been dropped! Instead there will be a much more reasonable £12.50 licence, which will actually be free to owners over 65 years of age! Michelle Gildernew, minister in charge of dog control legislation, also said the £5 licence would remain for people on a low-income and for those owners who have their dog neutered. This new legislation has proved far more popular and will come into force next month.

This is fantastic news as far as I can see; the combined cost of pet food, vet’s bills, cleaning, grooming and all the other things that come with owning a bet is quite enough already! This new charge is just over a pound per month – much more reasonable than the £50 monster-fee! Isn’t it nice to know that, for once, the people who are meant to make the laws have actually listened to the people the laws are meant to help and protect?

After a gang in Northern Ireland was found responsible for helping to organise dog fights across Britain and the EU, Michelle Gildernew recently declared that Northern Ireland has a dog control problem. She was speaking in favour of the new dog licence in Northern Ireland, which is said to be ten times more expensive than the current one at £50! With a third of all stray dogs in the UK being in Northern Ireland, the fact that it has a problem is undeniable. However, I can’t help but wonder if forcing owners to get expensive licences will actually make some problems worse.

The Dog Control Order, bought into force to help tackle the problem of unruly animals will mean owners will also to get their pet microchipped. Although initial estimates of the price of microchipping were around £10, variations of up to £30 are already being rumoured. This is worrying news; in my opinion, keeping the price of microchipping as low as possible is probably the only way to ensure owners actually comply – otherwise we’ll be doing little more than making petty criminals out of owners who haven’t got a spare hundred quid for a licence and a microchip!

Times are hard and few people have spare money; if all these extra charges are allowed to mount up, I’d suggest we’d see even more dogs being abandoned – not less!