Controversy in the Rent-a-Pet Business
You’ve heard of this, right? There’s a company out there called FlexPetz that rents dogs out to people who can’t (or don’t want to) take care of a pooch 24/7. It’s like a doggy timeshare and it was all over the pet care community last summer.
As one blogger wrote:
FlexPetz is, in its own words, “flexible pet ownership.” Once you’ve ponied up the $150 registration fee (plus the $99.95 annual account-maintenance charge and a $39.95 monthly service charge), you can browse one of its several locations online, choose the lucky pup who’ll get to spend some quality “you” time, and then simply pick up your dog. (You can also use the FlexPetz shuttle service for an extra $17.50 each way to deliver and/or collect your dog to and from your home and office. Like takeout! Except it goes BOTH ways!)
It costs $19.95 per day to rent a dog on a weekday, and $29.95 per day on weekends. Did I mention that there’s also a $75 per day late fee if your rent-a-pooch is overdue?
Note: Rates have since changed to $279.95/month, which includes 4 days with a dog, then $45/day beyond that. Yikes!
As you can imagine, many people were totally horrified by the whole concept, including some legislators in Massachusetts who recently proposed a bill to ban pet rentals in the state.
“I know what kind of bond there is with a dog. You don’t rent out members of your family,” said State Rep. Paul K. Frost, R-Auburn, who filed the legislation at the end of February.
Veterinarians, dog trainers, shelter workers and pet owners are also speaking out against this practice, saying that dogs need consistency, that the whole point of having a dog is having a relationship and that pets are not accessories (you hear that, celebutaunts??).
We’re all pet lovers here on this blog, so we can just imagine what side of the debate our readers fall on…
March 21st, 2008 at 3:10 am
I think that the idea of being able to rent a pet is stupid, rude, mean and just plain wrong. Thats the same as if you would rent out your child to a stranger for the weekend just to see what its like to have a kid. I do not support this!