Woman Arrested For Late Payment of $5 Dog License—and That's Business as Usual

Ann Musser was arrested at her Holyoke, Massachusetts, home, according to media reports, and spent four and a half hours in jail—because she was tardy in paying her $5 dog license fee. Well, actually, as Holyoke City Clerk Brenna McGee assured me, Musser was actually arrested on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court—over the tardy $5 dog license fee. Musser is a little preoccupied these days with ovarian cancer, which may explain why she put an administrative fee on the back burner. But then, it's common practice in Massachusetts to refer people to court after they've ignored or simply missed notices of tickets for even the pettiest of offenses. And since petty offenses have proliferated, including the non-payment of fees for the most mundane activities, court referrals and encounters with the police over...well...bullshit are not uncommon.Musser "and her husband are also repeated offenders" McGee told me, referring to the dog license issue...more