Flex Petz, Kindness or problem in the making!  An Act Prohibiting the Renting of PetsAn Act Pro

An Act Prohibiting the Renting of Pets is needed immediately!

Flex Petz is one of the worst ideas that have happened to our culture!  Throw away dogs? Is this what we have evolved to?   Rent a pet?   A pet ownership without the obligation is just going to make animals more afraid more nervous, they will suffer because they are shuffled around without any hope of staying with the people who choose them, bonding only to be given back,  deprived of a loving home on a permanent basis, more apt to react negatively to their new renter, their health will suffer as people will not have a vested interest with their new toy.   Where is the commitment?   This is unethical and just wrong on so many levels.   

 We will be creating a larger problem as we use pets as a new way to make money.  That%u2019s right, this is all about money.  Not quality, not love, no matter how you dress it, it is wrong and must be stopped. 

This is not about finding a use for homeless animals!  It is about making a profit, but not about quality of life. 

Please read some of the articles below, these are  from well known Animal Behaviorists and Veterinarians as well as Animal Rights Organizations to name a few.  Please help us and sign this petition and help us stop this kind of treatment of our animals.   This idea is evolving and will open in many states including Massachusetts, the UK, Washington DC, the West Coast, and more are out there.

Organizations like the Humane Society of the United States, and the Animal Coalition endorse An Act Prohibiting the Renting of Pets and urge its swift passage to stop this from continuing and to stop new businesses from starting up.

• Jo Jacques, Certified Dog Behavior Consultant

Constantly breaking a companion animal%u2019s bonds is not only cruel, it could ruin her chance for a %u201Cforever home%u201D when the business is done with her. These animals will become distrustful of humans; they will withdraw. If  they%u2019re not adopted or it fails as a result? Off to a shelter, but older, more confused%u2014and more likely to be euthanized or spend the rest of their lives in cages.

 

• Sgt. Charles Rudack, Acting Director of Animal Control, City of Boston

We are the caretakers of the planet, not the users. Animals should be cared for, not used. Pet rental businesses are the moral equivalent of puppy mills; both are driven by the almighty dollar, not concern for animals.

• People for the ethical treatment of animals

Dogs and cats are creatures of habit who need%u2014and deserve%u2014a human family, a routine, stability, and consistency. Pet rental businesses make money at the expense of the animals%u2019 well-being. They send the wrong message%u2014that it is acceptable trade dogs and cats as if they were video games. PETA proudly stands behind %u201CAn Act Prohibiting the renting of Pets.

 

• Paul Waldau, PhD, JD, Director, Center for Animals and Public Policy, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University

Licensing pet rental businesses is bad public policy. At first, it might seem one is renting any number of virtues%u2014companionship, affection, play, a friend. But the realities for a rental pet are these: There is no single owner who really cares about him, no continuity of life, no real home, no consistent companion that can result in a mutual understanding. (Yes, our pets are intelligent enough to understand much of what we do for them).   

Imagine yourself the rental dog. What if you become chronically ill? Who will care for or adopt you? What if you bite out of fear or confusion, after being passed from renter to renter, one bond broken after the next? You%u2019re excess merchandise, and no business can hold onto excess.  

Relationships with pets don%u2019t just happen; we need to earn the affections, affiliations, connections that are the rewards of a responsible companion animal relationship. Those rewards are precisely what make the relationship unique and so very, very valuable. Not only does (renting a pet) treat a living being as solely a commodity, it also treats our own connections and affections as if they can be called out upon demand. Imagine our horror at %u201Crent-a-kid.%u201D That revulsion comes because renting a relationship is, frankly, a contradiction in terms. 

 

The New York Sun ran this response regarding Flex Petz:

Submitted by Ruby, Oct 29, 2007 16:22

There is NO comparison between shuttling a dog from human to human so other humans can profit and volunteering to spend time with a lonely child, who, as member of a family, relates to the same individuals every day, sleeps under the same roof every night, and is part of a social structure.

The more apt comparison would be between Big Brother/Sister and volunteers who spend time with lonely, abandoned dogs--which is what Flex Petz' dogs likely will become (or worse--killed) if they're not rented often enough, or grow old and ill, or bite because they're traumatized from being passed around like rental car. And you do understand how humans treat rental cars, don't you?

At the end of the day, Flex Petz is a business. No business can hold onto excess inventory and still turn a profit. And, as it seems to have escaped you, make no mistake: To Ms. Cervantes and her investors, dogs are commodities, inventory, not living, breathing beings with the same range of emotions as humans. No one who believes the latter could rent out an animal for profit...or pay to rent an animal for one's own amusement.

If Flex Petz succeeds, we all lose: the rental dogs and those who lose their humanity by renting them, dog who, in the future, will be more readily abandoned because of the mindset Flex Petz advances, that animals are disposable commodities. And, ultimately, society loses too. Aren't we already shallow enough?

Please help us make a difference, stop pets from being rented out.   Act today...