1 letter: Huge problem with contract firm for Gilroy dog licensing

Anyone else having trouble with Gilroy’s ‘Pet Data system’ for licensing a dog in the city?
Dear Editor,
I don’t know if anyone else has been experiencing difficulty with Gilroy’s licensing for dogs via “Pet Data.” For me, I’ve had nothing but grief. I wish it was set up in a more efficient way.
It used to be all you had to do was take your paperwork down to the police station, presented it, pay your fee and presto you’re done. Your tags come to you about a month or so later.
    So, Gilroy takes over the dog licensing. Being a good citizen, I go down to license my old dog. God forbid I take the old man out for a walk and get a ticket for not being up to date.
He was first licensed in Morgan Hill shortly after we moved to Gilroy. But after the passage of the BSL dog laws in Gilroy, I did not want to take any chances of having my dog taken from me. So, I filled out the paperwork and went down to the police station and registered him. At that time they were taking your applications at the station.
I waited for the dog license to arrive. It took almost a year for the tags to finally be issued. My old dog died three months later.
Earlier that year we had bought a new puppy. He was a show dog from a breeder up north. When it came time to have his first rabies shot and subsequently have him licensed, again I made the trip to the police station. But this time I was told they were no longer doing it there and they gave me the information to go to “Pet Data” and do it online.
Okay, I have a computer, I can do that, no problem. I scanned all the necessary documents into my computer, signed on, filled out everything, uploaded the files and paid with my credit card. Great, I’m done! Or so I thought … approximately three months later I get a letter saying, “I’m sorry we cannot process your application for a dog license because you did not include a rabies certificate.” I called, “Yes, I did send the proof of rabies shot, I told the man.” He checks the files and said the veterinarians receipt of vaccination was not recorded properly. And he asked me to resend it. I did.
A couple of months go by, another letter comes saying, “I’m sorry we cannot process your application for a dog license because you did not include a rabies certificate.” I was so disgusted at this point I decided to wait till my puppy would get his three-year shot, and the vet would give me the certificate and rabies tag. So, in September of 2011 I went back to the web site and updated the files with the new document. And I called again just to be sure it was received.
I just got a letter from “Pet Data.” “I’m sorry we cannot process your application for a dog license because you did not include a rabies certificate.” Back to the phone calls for me. My two and a half year old pup is currently wearing my old dogs tags whenever we go out for a walk or run. I got another dog, a spayed female. I just inputted her info with “Pet Data.”
God forbid I have anymore problems with this system. I think if anyone else was running into these issues with this system, they would just give up trying. But I’m like a pit bull when it comes to taking care of my dogs and keeping them safe. Especially because I own American Staffordshire Terriers (considered a pit bull type dog under Gilroy’s new laws) and if I don’t have the proper paperwork on my dogs they can be taken from me without cause.
Nancy Hjelmstad, Gilroy,
A very frustrated dog owner