2016-10-26 Wed

In 1865, the British Parliament passed the Dogs Regulation Act which came to effect on 1st January 1866. Irish dog owners had to get new licenses annually which incurred them a cost of 2 shillings for each dog along with 6 pence for each license. Two revenue stamps were stuck on the document to represent the payment, one for the dog and the other for the license itself.

People with more than one dog used multiple stamps on the license documents. Irrespective of the number of the dogs that a person owned, a 6-penny stamp was required for the license. The act was introduced after many complaints were raised against livestock killings that were blamed on loose dogs.

Courts and police stations maintained registry books with information about the dogs and their owners. Many such books from 1866 to 1922 still exist that were annually updated. One of the two types of revenue stamp was called as the “dog tax” which was paid with revenue stamps featuring an Irish wolfhound. “License Two Shillings” is written on the stamp as well.

10sh and 20sh stamps were used by owners with multiple dogs. When the fee was increased to 4sh per dog in 1919, the stamps were redesigned to show the new rate. The 6p stamps were overprinted with the words “for dog license”. Before the country’s independence in 1922, the stamps featured Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and George V.

After independence, the stamps were used in Northern Ireland with the “per dog” stamp fee increased to 4sh. These stamps have an overprinting of the words “Northern Ireland”.

The use of Dog license stamps ended in 1983.