License to fish? License to... RIDE A BIKE? License to... HAVE A DOG/CAT? License to USE A RADIO? (I'm talking about GMRS, AFIAK emergency services do not use GMRS frequencies)
Why is everything a license?
What next? License to exist?
Someday they are gonna require a license to get your own water, or filter your own air (due to pollution).
This funds public cleaning of dog poop and free dog poop bags.
NYC technically requires a dog license, and I can guarantee you it provides neither of these things. The streets are absolutely covered in dog shit because of irresponsible dog owners. A lot of the city doesn't have garbage cans either (especially in Queens), and the few that exist are never emptied.
This used to be like this in my hometown (in Europe). Then the city government placed free excrement bag dispensers in many places and did a public awareness campaign telling people to clean up after their dogs; this definitely had an effect, I hardly ever see dog poop anywhere anymore.
As with many types of license, they usually only get checked when you're caught misbehaving.
If you're caught not picking up your dogs poo, you're asked "have you got a licence for that dog". At which point, if you say no, then you get another charge or two slapped on as well. If you lie and say yes you can get yet another charge slapped on for lying to law enforcement.
Its basically another layer of incentive to follow the law and get a license or the penalties may be higher as a result.
We dog owner should be detained and made spend the night in the dog park. That way they have to rely on other dog owners to pick their dog shit for sanitary conditions.
In Germany we have a law enforcement level below the police called “Ordnungsamt” (I’m not going to try to translate that). They are in charge of these minor misdemeanors (like parking wrong, littering, speeding, etc.) It’s entirely possible that their patrols randomly check dog owners, but personally I’ve never heard of that.