In our local community dogs and cats need to be licensed; which is basically in place to provide a source of revenue for the town. The tags do get linked to the owners, so if a pet does get caught by the animal control officer the owner is called and it is returned (not without paying an additional fee however).
I personally think the costs are a bit prohibitive, which leads many people to not even bother with a license. On the same note, it is the people who can't afford the licenses who take much better care of their pets (imo).
The subject of needing a license for fishing and hunting was mentioned as well, but what is to say the person with the hunting license won't use his privilege of gun ownership to use it as a weapon against others? Just because you have a license to do something, it doesn't mean it will be valued. Don't get me started about those who are caught for impaired driving.
