This is a sign that I noticed last week, which the City of Boston has placed near the plaza where I work. The text beneath the sad little puppy dog reads as follows:

87% of lost dogs who are licensed are returned home.

If your dog gets lost, a license tag on your dog’s collar is the fastest way to reunite you and your dog. Even if your dog is microchipped, a license is immediately visible and doesn’t require a special scanning device to read it. All dog licenses are renewable as of April 1st.

It is your responsibility as a dog owner and good citizen to protect and license your dog.

Now, maybe you don’t mind licensing your dog (if you have one). Maybe you even accept that there are legitimate public health and safety reasons for doing this. But hopefully you will agree with me that this poster is a cut-and-dry case of state propaganda. Let’s look at the manipulation that’s taking place here.

(1) It’s a sad-looking yet adorable puppy. Come on.

(2) It’s misleading. It says “a license tag on your dog’s collar is the fastest way to reunite you and your dog.” This is ridiculous. Any kind of tag on the dog’s collar would have the same effect. All it takes is a phone number on a tiny metal sheet. An address helps too. That costs less than $10. There are automated machines in every PetCo that will stamp them out for you. You do not have to register with the government in order to see these benefits. And frankly, pet safety isn’t the reason why states require pet licensing.

(3) It’s manipulative. “It’s your responsibility as a dog owner and a good citizen to protect and license your dog.” Is it? Is it really? The tacit argument here is that it is our responsibility to comply with all the legal minutia that the state’s come up with, even when they are clearly not moral issues of any kind. If a person’s patriotism and citizenship hinges on whether or not they register their terrier, then those things cannot be worth much to begin with.

Seeing these sorts of posters reminds me that it’s never really clear what the government’s role is supposed to be in our lives. Is it meant to protect us from the threat of foreign powers? Is it meant to provide organization and facilitate municipal services? Or is it meant to maintain bureaucratic pet registration databases? Or to spend tens of thousands of our tax dollars on manipulative ad campaigns that make people feel bad for noncompliance with proto-Orwellian laws?