Dog lovers nip at mayor over Alta's license limit

ALTA — Every January when dog licenses come up for renewal, dog lovers at this ski town go wild with anticipation. They start counting the dogs rumored to have died or moved away with their owners, hoping that a few of the finite number of licenses will be up for grabs.

And if the license lottery leaves them empty-handed, they can always try pestering the mayor, who can issue his own licenses for good cause or compassion.

"It's the worst issue I deal with," said Mayor Tom Pollard, who is manager of Rustler Lodge. "The day after I was elected I got my first call — I hadn't even gotten to the job. They disguised it as a question about garbage service, then finished with, 'Can I have a dog?"'

To protect the alpine watershed, an ordinance in this former silver town limits the number of dogs to 12 percent of the human population, with few exceptions. No four-legged visitors are allowed, even inside cars, and violators can go to jail.

For now, the town council keeps the lid at 42 licenses, even though it could add two more dogs under the formula tied to Alta's population of 370 old-timers, ski bums, business owners and resort employees.

"I never heard of a place limiting dog licenses," said Stephan Otto, a lawyer and legislative director for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which tracks dog ordinances. "It sounds a little European."

And "it's almost impossible to get one. It took me 11 years of trying," said Mark Hoffman, a 56-year-old lawyer and avowed ski bum. "They'll have 17 people wanting a dog for only two or three licenses."

Alta occupies 4 square miles inside a national forest where a special act of Congress left Salt Lake City in charge of the water supply. The city and county police the canyons, keeping out nonresident or unlicensed dogs to curb bacterial contamination of streams and protect Salt Lake's drinking water.

The scramble for dog licenses in Alta has people chatting about dearly departed Kali, which belonged to Alta's former mayor, Bill Levitt, and his wife, Mimi.

But the Levitts say they are not giving up the license. Under the ordinance, they have six months to find a new Fido to romp with kids at their Alta Lodge. Their shepherd mix, a stray dog they adopted at puppyhood, died of old age Dec. 4.

"She was the official greeter at Alta Lodge, a real sweetie for 14 1/2 years," Mimi Levitt said.