Pet Rentals

[zandperl]

Ever heard of rental pets? I hadn't either until Dolittler pointed it out. Apparently they're targeting my lovely state next.

I am writing to you today regarding the House act “An Act Prohibiting the Renting of Pets” (H.D. 4864). My name is ***, and I am **occupation** in **location**, and I live and vote in **location

Comments

[zandperl]

And this makes shipping them around to multiple renters okay because...?

[q10]

because maybe the alternative is a scenario in which they were put down already months or years ago?

[zandperl]

However, supporting pet rentals is not the proper solution to pet overpopulation. That would be like saying it's a Good Thing to buy inbred dogs from puppy mills. It may (big conditional on the "may") help the couple individual dogs in the program, but it does not help the overall situation.

As for that conditional, it's possible these are dogs that were going to be put down. It's also possible these are dogs that would have found a full-time home instead of being shipped around to different renters. A dog that is well-trained and has a good temperament as they claim their dogs all do would make an excellent candidate for adoption rather than being put down.

The Dolittler post I linked also has some comments on the history of FlexPets. Apparently their origins were that they actually bred dogs just for this. It's also not entirely clear what happens to the dogs as they age - they say that they only have dogs age 2-3 years old. They imply many are adopted, which I would like to believe, but I don't know.

[cosmicwonder]

Wow, this is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Renting a pet? If I were a MA resident, I would definitely email that letter. How cruel!

[meig]

My advice would be to remove the part about human children. Mainly because many people do not view animals equal to humans and it might get the person reading the letter to think, "Oh, she is one of "those" people," and you will lose your credibility.

Just my suggestion.

[zandperl]

Heh, already sent, and my state Senator already replied saying he's looking into it. I send roughly one or two emails a month to my state and federal Reps, and the one I sent in January caught his eye b/c it was on a pet project of his, and he's been sending personalized responses to every email I send since. It's pretty cool.

FWIW, I do not rank animals quite as high as humans, nor pets quite as high as children, but in my opinion they're close. I guess I feel animals should be treated as well as possible and protected nearly as much as we protect children, EXCEPT when it's a case of human vs. animal (for example, I do eat meat, I do believe in animal testing, and I understand that sometimes you have to give an animal up for adoption).

[q10]

hey, all other domestic animals are treated as commodities, to be slaughtered as soon as they get plump enough or have enough fur - why should your favorites get a special exemption from this commodity-for-human-amusement status?

[zandperl]

Dogs are not my favorites, they are some of my least favorites as far as potential pets go b/c like every furred animal I'm allergic to them, but unlike most they won't stay the fuck away from me are highly social with humans and want to interact with us all more closely than my comfort or allergies allow.

And I never said that treating other animals as a commodity was a good thing. I'm just taking action on one particular instance of it. And I don't feel this is extreme action on my part either - I'm not against pet ownership, I'm just against institutionalizing serial pet ownership without any responsibility towards the pet. Basically I'm against Brittany Spears -style pet ownership.

[q10]

it just seems like an awfully strange set of priorities, even in the hypothetical world where these dogs are bred for this, are rented around for a few years, and are killed by relatively painless means (the particular operation you linked to appears to currently be doing much better than this, but details are scarce), they're still enjoying better lives than the vast majority of animals who live out their lives under the power and in the care of humans. i know you pick the political fights you can win, but it seems like this is singling out one class of businesses in drastic disproportion to the amount of evil they perpetrate, even by the moral standards that make this exercise seem like a good idea

[zandperl]

Your other arguments are entirely irrelevant to the issue of whether pet rentals are a good idea. They may be relevant to whether I have a coherent system of beliefs, but that is not the point of this post, and not what I am interested in discussing at this time.

Could you please clarify for me how it's a good thing for an animal to be repeatedly moved from home to home, bonding with one family and then being ripped from it over and over again?

[q10]

[reads various stuff online] so basically it's an escort services, but with dogs instead of people and with no implicit promise of sex?

[zandperl]

Except that escorts can give informed consent.

[q10]

do dogs every give informed consent to anything? if not, could you kindly explain why it's suddenly important to start worrying about that now?