Yes.... you can lease a dog!

[debbie does duncan]

Let the face punching begin. Not only a store bought dog on payments ...do not read any fine print!

http://www.tampabay.com/business/they-thought-they-were-buying-a-family-dog-turns-out-they-were-leasing-it-20181224/

[kenaces]

UGG 

There are so many rescues and dog shelters in south florida that have MANY dogs in need of a home.  And all of them are WAY cheaper than $4500!

[Just Joe]

I thought dog-sitting for the relatives and neighbors accomplished temporary dog possession needs without cost...

[marty998]

Just when you think you've seen it all :O

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

Sounds like a shit deal for the dog. This shouldn't be allowed. It's a living creature, not an appliance.

[slugline]

This sounded familiar to me, and now I remember why:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/'i'm-renting-a-dog'/

[katsiki]

Sounds like a shit deal for the dog. This shouldn't be allowed. It's a living creature, not an appliance.

+1

The money wasted on this scheme could save countless animals too.

[tralfamadorian]

Sounds like a shit deal for the dog. This shouldn't be allowed. It's a living creature, not an appliance.

Not to defend the companies doing this- we can all agree that they are terrible human beings- but according to all three companies offering pet leases and the writer of the article, there has never been a single repo. That makes sense since for pet stores puppies' value drops dramatically as they age. By the time they get to be old enough to be potentially repossessed, they are valueless from the standpoint of these companies.

However, the leases are a strong emotional lever to get people to keep paying when their incomes cannot support it and to scam people into paying ~3x the sticker price.

From the founder of one (maybe two) of these companies in the article:

"We like niches where we’re dealing with emotional borrowers,” Wunderlich told Bloomberg.

I'm as much of an animal lover as the next person and if framing it as an animal rights issues get these things banned, fine by me. However, from the information we have about what actually happens, the real harm is being done to uneducated pet buyers who are being scammed into signing paperwork that they don't understand, not to the pets themselves.

[TOgirl]

Somewhat related...one of my most unmustachian friends (seriously she could be a very entertaining thread) sent a group of us a message, all excited about being able to adopt an alpaca. You pay monthly, you get to name the alpaca...and then VISIT it whenever you want, at the farm where it lives.

My first thought was damn, what an idiot, why on earth would you pay for that....but then I thought DAMN, that's a smart farmer, getting idiots to pay for that!!!

[faithless]

Somewhat related...one of my most unmustachian friends (seriously she could be a very entertaining thread) sent a group of us a message, all excited about being able to adopt an alpaca. You pay monthly, you get to name the alpaca...and then VISIT it whenever you want, at the farm where it lives.

My first thought was damn, what an idiot, why on earth would you pay for that....but then I thought DAMN, that's a smart farmer, getting idiots to pay for that!!!

That farmer's a genius!

[RetiredAt63]

Somewhat related...one of my most unmustachian friends (seriously she could be a very entertaining thread) sent a group of us a message, all excited about being able to adopt an alpaca. You pay monthly, you get to name the alpaca...and then VISIT it whenever you want, at the farm where it lives.

My first thought was damn, what an idiot, why on earth would you pay for that....but then I thought DAMN, that's a smart farmer, getting idiots to pay for that!!!

That farmer's a genius!

Hmm, I've heard of something similar for cows being used to get raw  milk, but unless  they are into processing fleece an alpaca doesn't make sense.  Unless it is a rescue situation?

[I'm a red panda]

I guess in theory I leased my dogs from the shelter.

At least, I signed something that said I would never sell or give them away, and if I were to want to get rid of them, I'd return them to the shelter I adopted them from.

Granted, the one dog was $35 (spayed when she came in) and the other was $110 (including neuter fee)


I'm confused by this article, because it talks about both a lease, and a rent to own.  Was there never an end to the payments? (A lease) or was the dog taken back because payments stopped? That makes complete sense to me if financed and payments stopped.  You shouldn't be allowed to finance an animal.

[Basenji]

I guess in theory I leased my dogs from the shelter.

At least, I signed something that said I would never sell or give them away, and if I were to want to get rid of them, I'd return them to the shelter I adopted them from.

Granted, the one dog was $35 (spayed when she came in) and the other was $110 (including neuter fee)

Spiritually, we all only "lease" our dogs and they get repossessed seven times too fast.

[FIFoFum]

Legally speaking, this is not a lease. It's a sale on credit. Store-based financing. Nothing to see here except the predatory lending methods common in MANY industries.

They are calling it a lease, but it would never hold up as anything more than a financed sale (as there is no intention to return the dog to the store at the end of the lease term with "useful life" of the dog left).

The question here is: should someone who can't afford to pay for a dog be able to buy one? And if so, where should they get their financing from? And if they default on payment, is repo of a dog permissible? Should it be?

(Also - it would be great to see pet store sales of puppies entirely banned on animal rights grounds, but that's a different issue...)