Dog Licensing
The freedom to own a dog is subjected to government permission in every city we studied. To measure the impact of this requirement on individuals, we compared the license fees residents in each city would have to pay. Some cities outsource dog licensure to the county and so we looked at the fees a resident in any given city would expect to pay despite the specific entity that charged the fee.
This metric was calculated by determining the lowest fee an individual would expect to pay if they purchased a multi-year license for an altered and micro-chipped dog, and determining the highest annual fee for a single year license for an unaltered and non-micro-chipped dog. The two amounts were normalized individually, weighted, and combined to create the metric score. Since higher fees are designed to be slightly coercive of individual choice, the higher fee level was weighted slightly more at 60% of the total metric score.
To see a specific city's laws for this metric, click on its name in the right column, then find the row in the table below the Individual Liberty category.