Pet-Renting Concept Termed 'Shocking'

For New Yorkers without the time, space, or willingness to commit to owning a dog, a new share program launching in Manhattan next month offers pets for rent.

Singles who don't own pets but want excuses to chat up dog lovers at city parks, for example, can break the ice with Jackpot, a midnight-black Labrador retriever billed as a "happy dog who loves everyone," who can be a best friend for a month, a week, or an hour.
While researchers tout the positive impact of spending time with pets, the rent-a-dog program, FlexPetz, is seen as a "shocking" development by veterinarians, dog trainers, and longtime pet owners. Veterinarians say renting out dogs could inflict permanent damage to their psyches, as multiple owners could muddle their understanding of loyalty.

"The whole point of having a dog is having a relationship," a veterinarian and health director of the doggie day care center Biscuits & Bath, Deborah Sarfaty, said. "It's not like wearing a piece of jewelry. Dogs get attached quickly and then it's lifted away from them, which is cruel."

FlexPetz was founded by California native Marlena Cervantes, 29, a former child behavioral therapist who came up with the concept after sharing her Labrador with families of her clients. After seeing how her pet thrived with the families that borrowed him, she turned the concept into a business. More cruel than renting a dog, Ms. Cervantes said, is owning a pet full-time and neglecting it during frequent trips out of town and long hours at the office.

Ms. Cervantes founded FlexPetz five months ago in San Diego, and soon after opened a Los Angeles franchise. In addition to the Manhattan depot opening in September, Ms. Cervantes also plans to offer doggie rentals in London, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington by next spring.

FlexPetz members pay a monthly fee of $50, a "daily doggy time charge" of up to $40, and a yearly membership fee of $250. The dogs, most of which Ms. Cervantes and her team adopt from local shelters, are put through extensive training before they are sent into homes. Members also go through a rigorous screening process, Ms. Cervantes said. The dogs, most of which sleep at day care centers when they're not working, can be delivered to a member's home or office for $18 a trip.

While Ms. Cervantes says she already has a long waiting list of New Yorkers interested in the service, her program is causing an uproar in the canine community even before it arrives in town. "This is a marketing idea of someone who has no understanding of a pet bond," a past president of the New York City Veterinarians Association, Alexander Miller, said. "Pets are not commodities. A dog's going to get confused."

"As a dog lover, I can't view a dog as a car that can just be rented out," the chief executive officer of Running Paws, a doggie day care and running center, Joshua Stine, said. Profiting from renting an animal raises serious animal rights questions, he said, although certain breeds might respond to the program better than others. "A Rhodesian Ridgeback would never stand for that kind of arrangement. They're very aloof," Mr. Stine said. "A lab would be very adaptable. They like to have fun and be around people and care less about who is giving them the attention."

Ms. Cervantes, who adopts many of the dogs in the program at about 2 years of age, said she anticipates that her program will increase the number of pet adoptions in the city, as members fall in love with their rental pets and decide to adopt them as permanent houseguests.

"A lot of people go out and get dogs and then abandon them," Ms. Cervantes said. "They don't understand the full responsibility of dog ownership, and this is a wonderful way to learn."

"Dogs need consistency and routine," an employee of Biscuits & Bath, Iliana Lebron, said. "Think about them like kids. Would you rent a kid?"