Bigmouth Strikes Again: Carrie Marshall's blog

Rent-a-dog

An MSP is horrified at plans for a dog rental firm to set up shop in Glasgow.

“Dog renting is an idea which will horrify most dog owners and dog lovers.

“Dog rental businesses encourage irresponsible attitudes towards dogs and encourage the use of pets as fashion accessories.”

Mr Brown claimed the practice would cause unnecessary distress to dogs by depriving them of a stable environment.

He added: “If dog renting is not a breach of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, it certainly should be.

“On any view, it damages the ability of the dog to have normal relationships with people.

“Dogs are not inanimate consumer items. They need normal stable domestic arrangements as the basis of a contented life.

“The idea of renting out dogs in this way for profit is repugnant.”

I’ve no idea if he’s right or not, but if you’d love to have a dog but can’t for whatever reason then there’s a better option: Barking Mad. It’s essentially a pet-sitting service, and it’s brilliant – and instead of paying silly money to a pet rental service, you get paid to do it.

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Comments

0 responses to “Rent-a-dog”

  1. Ronnie Brown

    If this type of business helps reduce the numbers of people who think they can look after a pet but can’t, then they’ll be providing a great service.

    There are thousands of dogs who are malnourished, neglected and poorly treated as their owners realise that looking after a pet isn’t easy.

  2. Squander Two

    Some dogs just love meeting and spending time with lots of different people. Others hate it. I’d’ve thought the latter would make a dog-renting service no money, since no-one’s going to pay to spend time with an angry scared dog that’s liable to snap. So the dogs being rented out would be mostly dogs that enjoy being rented out.

    Is this pompous MSP going to try to ban boarding kennels as well, or dog-walking services?

  3. RG PetComm LLC

    I agree that there are so many dogs available for adoption why is there a need for a rental service? It could help a family decide if they can live with a dog but it could hamper the socialization of the dog.

    http://www.rgpetcomm.com