Pups with LA Licenses to Get a ‘Free Ride Home'

A new LA Animal Services program will give returning-home dogs wearing their license tag one complimentary ride.

What to Know

  • LA Animal Services
  • Licensed Los Angeles County dogs will receive one complimentary ride home from an Animal Control Officer
  • $47 fee will be waived for that first ride

Finding out your Fido isn't where he is supposed to be? And knowing, in one terrible, heart-stopping instant, that he is somewhere out there, beyond your home, and perhaps on the run, lost, and scared?

It truly is one of the worst scenarios a dog lover can imagine, an agonizing situation that is stress-inducing in every sense of the term.

But LA Animal Services, thanks to an innovation grant from Maddie's Fund, is looking to lower the stress factor for those people eager to be reunited with their found dogs.

How? Through the new "Free Ride Home" program.

The upshot? If your LA pup is licensed and is picked up by LA Animal Services, or is brought into one of the animal shelters, he'll enjoy that "Free Ride Home" to your waiting arms.

That's right: The $47 "trip home" fee will be waived, at least while funding remains. (The grant was $5,000.)

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Note that this program covers your hound's first ride, and if your pooch slips out a second or third time, you will need to pay for those subsequent rides home.

Important to know?

Your pup will need to be wearing his current City dog tag, and, yes, LA Animal Services will need to have gotten in touch with you, too, before the ride home is completed.

As for the mission behind Maddie's Fund?

It's a "... national family foundation established by Dave and Cheryl Duffield to revolutionize the status and well-being of companion animals, to educate and incentivize LA City residents on the importance of licensing your dog."

Is your pup sporting her all-important silver tag, right now, as you read this?

Woof! Which is "yay you!" in dog-speak.

Are you completely sure that she'll never be lost or apart from you?

No dog-loving human ever is, truly, making it all the more essential that we license our Laddies and Lassies.

"Your dog may not be able to drive, but he does need a license!" said Brenda Barnette, LA Animal Services General Manager. 

"We want dog owners to license their dogs. Not only is having a current license the law, it could be the safety net to get your best friend home if he gets lost."

Find out more information on the new Free Ride Program now.

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