A teensy-tiny village in Switzerland is serious about collecting an annual pet tax—deadly serious.
With a population of 2,245 humans and 280 dogs, Reconvilier, Switzerland, has announced a plan to execute dogs if their owners don’t pay the annual $50 tax.
Pierre-Alain Nemitz, a local official, told the AP that the law aims to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. How 280 dogs at 50 bucks a pup will account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue was not explained. Perhaps dog tax dollars, like dog years, are counted at an accelerated rate—say 1,000 to one. 14,000 is probably a lot of money for a small village but this seems like a ridiculous idea and the village shouldn’t expect anyone with any type of pet to willingly move there with such horrendous laws.
For $50 a year per dog there better be some major services offered to the owners which benefit the dogs themselves (perhaps a park with agility equipment and a lake). Oh wait we just paid $60 a year per dog so the girls could receive a 3 year rabies vaccination and we get absolutely nothing in return. Well I hope the Village can explain how they will use the $14,000 they are trying to collect under threat of death.
The townspeople aren’t taking the threat sitting down. Nemitz told the AP on Monday that authorities have received death threats since news of the plan leaked.
I saw this through a link on Facebook – and was totally appalled!! Talk about INSANE!
I couldn't pass by when I saw the title of your post. Incredible. Did you know that in Rockport, Maine, it is illegal to walk your dog on main street? Some places have the weirdest rules.
Rosemary
EEEkk! That's insane!
I know my state has a lot of stupid taxes up just for the sake of squeezing money out of the population but this is just outrageous…
The Swiss authorities had better come up with some nice services for those dogs with that huge amount of money.
This is one of the crazier things I've heard in quite a while–I hope those villagers VOTE OUT whoever is attempting to put this in place–and make darn sure those people don't vote themselves in an increase in pay!!!!
If my town introduced that law I am pretty sure I would move!
Wow, luckily such tax was not imposed in Malaysia. Are they trying to discourage the public to own pets or the country lack funds so much that they could not think of other way to get more revenue
What a crazy story!
Wow. I am really curious how they are going to justify this tax. Is it for city clean up costs? Are people not cleaning up after their pets? Do they have a massive over-population problem? There must be a reason. If not I don't know how this will ever fly.
Interesting, though. I love reading about the crazy laws in other cities.