Italian city may charge pet owners $2.30 a day for each dog they take into town

Drivers in London, New York and other major cities are used to being charged for taking cars into the city. Now one municipality may demand payment to take dogs into town.

- Victor Mather

A Bill in Bolzano, Italy, would mean that owners taking their dogs to the Tyrolean Alps for some scenery and mountain air would face a new charge of roughly €1.50 (S$2.30) a day, the Italian news media reported.

Local dogs will not escape under the Bill, which would come into force in 2026 if the provincial council approves it. Residents would be charged an estimated €100 a dog a year, bringing back a dog tax that was abolished in 2008.

These taxes would replace a policy in Bolzano that requires DNA testing for all dogs. The testing requirement, used to identify dogs that left waste behind, as well as those that were struck by cars or that attacked people or other dogs, had been in effect for two years.