Rent A Dog Service To Open In Boston

This is bad on so many levels--and could be potentially disastrous for the self-absorbed, commitment-phobic humans (sounds like a great person to date, eh?) who rent dogs. Let's start with the renters, since that's the way they'd want it. Their needs supercede anyone else's.

Even well-mannered dogs who are stressed (perhaps after being passed around from renter to renter to renter) are more prone to bite. If your rental dog sends you to the ER, you're lucky. Because if he bites a stranger, or even playfully harms a neighbor, you're screwed. Personal injury attorneys cast a wide net. They'll sue FlexPetz and YOU, probably your Great Aunt Matilda too. FlexPetz may be insured up the wazoo. But do you know of a homeowner's or apartment insurer that offers individuals a "rental dog rider"? Would any insurance company be stupid enough to write a policy that exposes them to such astronomical liability? Personal injury lawyers will take your kidneys, liver and spleen after they've depleted your life savings. And if you're heartless enough to rent a living, thinking, feeling being, you deserve it. Call it Canine Karma.

As for the unfortunate dogs who've been reduced to the status of a rental car(and we all know how people treat those): FP may suggest it's rescuing them from shelters. Do you know of a reputable shelter that would hand off its animals to become a commercial enterprise's rental property?

And if FP has managed to find those that are perhaps not so ethical, the reality is the most rentable dogs obviously are the most adoptable.

Do you honestly think FP is taking timid, old or scruffy shelter dogs, who wouldn't command its hefty rental fee? Do you believe in the Easter Bunny?

In order to turn a profit, FlexPetz has to skim the most adorable, friendly dogs, who otherwise would have had the best chance for adoption. And that could mean depriving them of a permanent home, not just for a few years or until they're spent, but forever.

Here's why: According to Ray McSoley, who founded the Animal Behavior Clinic at Boston's acclaimed Angell Memorial Veterinary Hospital, dogs bond with humans in as little as 24 hours. Wrenching them from those bonds every few hours or days or whenever a new rental opportunity emerges is not only cruel in the short term--over time, it conditions them to distrust humans. Rental dogs develop loyalty to their doggie day care pack, with whom they live between assignments. And that doesn't bode well for a future owner.

What happens when FP is done with these dogs, and adoption either doesn't happen or fails? Yep. It's off to the shelter, only older, more confused and less adoptable than before becoming a profit center for an exploitative business.

Dogs need a consistent caregiver; they deserve a stable home with a human who understands they're sentient beings, not rental cars or DVDs, fashion accessories or toys. People who genuinely love dogs do not want them passed around from renter to renter for a few hours here, a day or two there.

If they don't have the time or desire to commit to a pet, they play with a neighbor's dog (and if that person is elderly or infirm, that could help keep owner and pet from having to be separated). Or they volunteer at a shelter. Or make a few extra bucks by becoming a dog walker. Or do without a dog until they're in a position to commit.

They behave like mature, responsible adults--not self-indulgent kids who care about their needs first and last. And the latter is bad for the humans they romance, raise, work with, hang out with: Our attitudes and behaviors toward vulnerable beings, including animals, transfer to all relationships.

Or as Gandhi said: One can judge a society by the way it treats its animals.