Cook County
Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control
In short
Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control issues 2 permits we publish for Cook County, last verified 2026-09-27. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kennel / Pet Shop / Animal Boarding Licensing — State License Applies (Cook County)only if it applies to you | Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control | No fee | not applicable at the county level; the Illinois license is issued for a term set by the state | 2026-09-27 |
| Rabies Vaccination Certificate Submission (veterinarian's duty) | Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control | No fee | ongoing — required each time a veterinarian administers or renews a rabies vaccination | 2026-09-27 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Kennel / Pet Shop / Animal Boarding Licensing — State License Applies (Cook County)
No fee applies at the Cook County level. The Department of Animal and Rabies Control's own agency page lists its services — rabies prevention, rabies vaccination tags, vaccine and microchip clinics, services for unincorporated areas and services for veterinarians — and names no kennel, pet-shop or animal-boarding license. Section 3 of the Illinois Animal Welfare Act (225 ILCS 605/3) instead requires a pet shop operator, dog dealer, kennel operator, day care operator, dog breeder or cat breeder to hold a license issued by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, whose Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare licenses these operations for $350 per license type. Cook County's own Animal Control Ordinance (Ch. 10) exempts 'licensed pet shops, animal hospitals, animal grooming establishments, and kennels' from certain of its pet-number-limitation provisions — a reference to the state license, not evidence of a separate county one. A veterinary clinic or pet retailer boarding, breeding or selling animals in Cook County still needs the state license; it needs no additional county kennel or pet-shop license on top of it.
Rabies Vaccination Certificate Submission (veterinarian's duty)
No fee applies to a veterinarian's duty to submit rabies vaccination certificates to Cook County Animal and Rabies Control, either on paper or through the county's 'ACE Paperless' electronic system. This duty applies directly in unincorporated Cook County, and at least Hickory Hills and La Grange Park have separately adopted the county's Animal Control Ordinance by reference into their own municipal codes (the full roster of adopting municipalities is not published in one place); Chicago runs its own separate Animal Care and Control agency and is not under this county ordinance. Separately from the certificate-submission duty itself, ARC sells rabies tags for $6 (1-year) or $18 (3-year), a distinct consumer-facing fee rather than a charge on the veterinary business. Secondary sources reference a $40 (altered) / $85 (unaltered) rabies-vaccination registration fee as of January 1, 2022, but no primary ARC fee page states it, so that figure is not shown here.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Cook County
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control (agency page)Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Illinois Department of Agriculture — Bureau of Animal Health & Welfare (kennel, pet shop, dog dealer and breeder licensing under the Illinois Animal Welfare Act, $350 per license type) and Bureau of Weights and Measures (statewide inspection of commercial scales and fuel dispensers)Illinois Department of Agriculture · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Rabies Certificate SubmissionCook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
- Services for Veterinarians (rabies-tag fees, ACE Paperless reporting)Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-27
Other offices serving Cook County
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Illinois jurisdictions
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