For your pleasure, we present: Pets as Merchandise

Just when you think you have seen every crazy, harebrained scheme – along comes this nonsense. First, the article, then my sanctimonious rant. You tell me if I am totally off base with this, or if you feel similarly:

THE ARTICLE:
The lure of an energetic playmate and warm companionship has brought me to the door of my neighborhood animal shelter, but I was always stopped by thoughts of the poor pup being penned up all day while I'm at work.
San Diego and Los Angeles-based Flexpetz lets you borrow a dog of your choice for a few hours, a day or even a week. All their dogs come from accredited rescue organizations and range from an Italian greyhound named Pike to Tango, a stunning black Afghan.
Owner Marlena Cervantes says many of their San Diego clients are military personnel who don't want to kennel their dogs while out at sea. A number of celebrities also showed interest at a pre-Oscar event this year. "We had a lot of interest from actors who have to be on-location a lot," she says.
Membership is based on a monthly fee of $40 and a Daily Doggy Time charge, payable for each day or part of a day you spend with the dog, amounting to about $20 on weekdays and $30 on weekends.
They are planning to open a branch in New York City in June and have their sights on cities all over the U.S. as well as Europe and Asia. Soon you will never be left without the companionship of a faithful friend.

THE SANCTIMONIOUS RANT:

A faithful friend? It is a shame, however, that the owner cannot be as faithful as the friend. Pick up a dog, run him around for a few hours, and then take him back – as though you were renting a movie. Dogs are not commodities; they are flesh and blood with feelings and emotions. Renting animals is tantamount to teasing them. I see it every day in the eyes of my cat when I leave for work. The big difference there is that both of us know I am coming back.

When I went to Arizona in 1998, I left the little fur ball at my mother’s house because I was going to be gone for 2 weeks and didn’t feel as though I should inconvenience my neighbors for that length of time. Moreover, leaving any animal alone for that long is a bit cruel, I think.
It felt odd leaving him, and mom said it took the cat a few days to come out from under the sofa, but eventually he warmed up to her. It must have been quite a shock to his delicate kitty system to be “abandoned,” since he had no idea if or when I would return.

Playing games with animals is a peculiar choice for a business, and while it’s nice that people like dogs, if they cannot care for them on a consistent basis, then maybe they should accept it. However, as it is with many things, money dictates behavior, and this is yet another toy for wealthy people who think that the world is their personal playground and that animals can be used for their pleasure. They cannot alter their lifestyle, so they use their accumulated wealth to make others adapt to them. Here is yet another example of the rites of money and the power it provides, of which there seems to be no end.

Sadly, the dogs do not have a choice. They sell it as though the dogs are happy this way, because they are from "rescue organizations", and as such, are the lowest on the pet chain of command. Either adapt or die, I suppose.

That's enough out of me.

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