Hey, there! Log in / Register
City Council: Take your stinkin' dog-rental plan elsewhere
By adamg on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 9:08am
The Herald reports the Boston City Council voted (when?) to ban dog rentals in Boston - even as pet abandonments in the state rise threefold.
Ed. English-usage question: The Herald calls city councilors "solons." When did that happen? I thought only senators were "solons." And now I find myself wishing for a story involving solons and jakes.
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Where's the logic?
This service cracks me up. If you add it all up, the cost of "renting" a dog is ridiculously more expensive than owning a dog outright:
Monthly fee: $100 x 12 months = $1,200
4 monthly visit (minimum) auto-billed: $45/visit x 4 = $180 x 12 months = $2,160
Pick up/drop off: $25/visit x 4 per month = $100 x 12 months = 1,200
Starting fees: $150 for training + $100 annual admin fee = $250
Grand total of renting/leasing Lassie: $4,810
Average annual cost of owning Lassie (according to the ASPCA): $1,260
Absolute insanity. If you want a dog, adopt a dog. If you want to play with a dog once in a while, volunteer at a shelter during the time that you'd spend walking or petting your fake fido.
It's not a matter of $$$$$
This is for people with more money than they know what to do with, and want the pleasure of having a dog without any of the hassles (read "responsibilities"). This is not what dogs are for.
My wife and I would love having a dog. I volunteer at a local shelter for a few hours a week. But we both work, and it wouldn't be right to leave Fido home for 10+ hours a day alone. Even if we hired a dogwalker, it's not fair. Our next door neightbor does this, and we don't like it, so we take her dog all the time (we have a key).
If kids were allowed to be rented, I'm sure these same people would jump all over it.
My friend rents a kid once a
My friend rents a kid once a month, and then returns him to his mother a teddy bear richer, an ince cream heavier, and with a sore throat from screaming while riding a roller coaster.
Yes my friends we already have a children rental system with a regional headquarters in Boston!
Ever hear of Big Brothers/Big Sisters?
You're a moron. I don't
You're a moron. I don't throw insults around lightly but give me a break. I'm a Big Brother and we donate our time not to rent a kid for a day but to provide guidance to them and some fun, especially for those coming from troubled homes.
Yeah and your point??? I
Yeah and your point???
I don't see how I am a moron based off of the fact that you just helped make my point. These children are not being hurt (I guess one or two are bound to have some issues with the program at some point, but 99.9 percent work out great.) I realize money doesnt change hands but that doesnt negate the fact that people sign up for this program and hang out with these kids for short periods of time, and then return the kids back to their homes. The littles have a good time, the bigs are feeling good for lots of different reasons, and the world keeps on moving even tho tomorrow the little and big will be in different places.
Knickers in a twist much?
I've worked closely with Big Brothers/Big Sisters in several of my job capacities, and have been a volunteer for them as well. I found this comment pretty funny, and I'm perfectly comfortable with people saying I participated in kid rental.
Obviously I didn't go around being creepy and showing off the kids as my own or anything, and I don't think the commenter was implying that volunteers do anything like that. But yeah, you get to hang out with a neat kiddo for an afternoon, take them places, buy them stuff, get lots of hugs and drawings, and then you give them back and you don't have the responsibility for raising them 24/7. It's really quite an enjoyable role, and the sheer joy of it makes up for the less exciting aspects, like dealing with needy parents or less-than-ideal home situations. And it's been proven to be very helpful to kids. I don't think anyone was dissing on BBBS or its volunteers.
Great
Big Brothers is a system that really works, because it goes right from the volunteer to the recipient, and doesn't involve money or bureaucracy. Big Brothers are often from very different worlds than their Littles, and can show them things they'd never normally see. I think it makes a difference.
Who do you go after next? Nursing home volunteers? Those doctors who fix hairlips in the third world?
I take your point, snark and all
I take your point, snark and all. Can we get to the actual reasons city council has cited to ban dog rental? Documented here.
Oh, Those Greeks
Solon can be any lawmaker. That came from a respected Athenian lawgiver about 600 years BCE. Note that their legislature was unicameral, so the senate/house concept didn't apply.
It came to mean wise lawmaker and then any.
All those clichéd newspaper terms still evoke giggles. As sports reporter and then editor of my high school paper, I remember learning these supposed correct terms. Cross-country runners were always to be "cindermen," for example. Bah.
2 days ago
vote was 2 days ago...
i know at least one local t-v news station ran the info day of...
The City Council holds its
The City Council holds its meetings on Wednesdays so that's likely when they voted on this.
an issue for city government to approve or disapprove
I don't see how its an issue for city government to approve or disapprove unless the dog rental company breaks the law or dances along the edges.
Is there a problem with a company owning dogs for the purpose of profit which includes caring for them when they're not being rented? I can see how multiple masters may make for a confused dog but they learn.
People own dogs to show them, horses to ride them and rent them for other people to ride. If this is different, then I'd like to know how (really not rhetorically.
License, maybe?
You can't do anything without a license, maybe this is the hangup?
Another Angle To Consider
Might there be some concern over the type of dogs being rented? Pit bulls, anyone?
(Only throwing that out as a possibility, since it just now occurred to me. Of course, guard dogs can be rented already, right? Or not?)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
seems like hokum to me... but I don't have dogs
Hokum
n. meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
Not Hokum
To paraphrase the points:
"Rentals of living animals is bound to raise a moral and legal questions - we do not have anything right now that explicitly addresses those questions and it is likely those questions will be raised sooner rather than later."
"Leasing an animal to strangers makes for an unstable environment for the animal - which animal behaviorists agree is stressful to the animal and can lead to aggression."
"Because there are the open legal and moral questions, plus the concerns about animal welfare and public safety, it is best that we not institute this."
Not that difficult....
Rentals of living animals
As pointed out above, it's pretty common for people to rent horses to ride. Also, farmers and gardeners rent bees for pollination.
Is it enough to say "it raises moral questions" ?
Is it enough to say "it raises moral questions" without identifying those questions and answering them? (rhetorical question) The answer is "no", not if your going to pass laws based on your REASONING.
The idea that someone would rent a dog and abuse it is ridiculous but if they did, they would be accountable to law that is already in place. Already, you can't abuse animals.
So then, the question is whether it is immoral, unethical and unhealthy for a dog to be rented, or for someone to profit from it.
Horses can be rented and ridden. Animals can be purchased and sold. Ergo, profit is not the issue.
So why is renting, and in particular renting dogs, different?
Truthfully, I don't know. I think that if the kennel was kept in tip-top shape and it was a nice place to be, say the dogs got exercised and fed well, then it's no so different from the MSPCA or Animal Rescue, except that people can rent them.
Wait I thought you werent
Wait I thought you werent supposed to write laws aimed at one business or group? Doesnt that open people to law suits???
What a load of FUD.
Animal borrowing leads to increased agression?
Quick someone alert the nursing homes!!
We're able to shop on Sundays (granted not the whole day at most stores) for alcohol too now, no less. I really thought we were heading in the right direction...and then they go and plop a load of horseshit like this down the pipes. I hope FlexPetz takes this to court and gets it overturned on some constitutional grounding.
I still have no clue how animal sharing leads to increased animal homelessness which was their first reason on enacting this pile of FUD.
absolutely pile of FUD
If City Council has good reasons to take the decision to ban dog renting, they certainly haven't presented them in their legislation, which they have now passed and which is waiting on the mayors desk to be signed. I'm going to see if they recorded a vote.
passed unanimously July 9
The City Council passed this ordinance on Wed. Jul 9 during the regular meeting. The decision was unanimous.
HOORAY!! Now we need to work
HOORAY!!
Now we need to work on that bike rental system the bike wants to start. People are gonna rent those bikes just to sexually abuse them and stuff. They need to be stopped!