To me that just seems like yet another reason not to buy from a pet store/puppy broker.

 

Seriously, what is happening to the world? If anyone needs me, I'll be living in the woods with my dogs.

 

That's just awful, another layer on pet store pups.

I wonder if EULAs, being so long and full of jargon, are encouraging people to not read contracts properly.

The less understanding voice in my head is screaming "if you can't afford the initial outlay you can't afford the care and upkeep!"

 

That's insane. I can't imagine needing financing to get a pet. And considering I think of my pets as family, I would be really uncomfortable making payments to keep a family member. That's just so weird.

 

please wait for me Shandula.....me and Baloo are coming too....

 

Was waiting for other opinions before sharing mine.

It looks like someone is successfully exploiting emotional blackmail for profit (and expanding on it, re, article).
While I'm assuming that on this forum, we all know that petstore dog purchases are a bad idea for a number of reasons (supports puppy mills, poorly bred under socialized dogs, etc), but given that there is an endless supply of folks that don't know that, and walk in and buy, this latest strikes me as a case of 'adding insult to injury'.
I'm guessing the petstores in question don't try too hard to explain the terms to their prospective customers. I'm guessing the customers have no idea that 'leasing a dog' is even a thing so are not on their guard for that when reading what they think is a standard installment contract.
Leasing dogs in this case is also exploiting a loophole in the usury/loans laws (interest rates on loans are capped), leasing gets around that (better stated in the article)
And of course, given the potentional for profit, I can see the company expanding into actually breeding dogs to fit their profit models, petstore not required.
My short opinion is--I find the whole concept deeply disturbing.

 

I think more often than not, pet store puppies are impulse buys. The idea that pet shops source dogs from puppy mills is pretty imprinted in the public's eye, IMO, but people just don't care. Or they think they care but then they see the cute pup and all of those ideals go out the window.

It's a sucky situation, but as far as I'm concerned, if you're going to drop a large amount of money on something you should darn well do your research. If I were in a position to put down $2000 on a dog, you better believe I'm going to find a good dog from a good breeder - just as if I were going to buy an expensive computer, a new car, etc.

I guess the best argument is that some people just aren't "dog people" so they're not really aware of the importance of a quality breeder, but again, this is a big decision, a big purchase, and at some point a buyer has to take responsibility for their choices or they just have to deal with the consequences.

 

@PoppyKenna honestly, some people really don't know. A guy I work with bought a puppy from a pet store last year. Of course, I was all, "PUPPY MILLS!!!" and he honestly believed them when they told him that their puppies are from rescues. A quick google search shows that the store is HORRID. There were people picketing outside of their store on Black Friday because they were having Black Friday deals on puppies. I wanted to send him the link but refrained for the sake of our work relationship haha


The situation in the OP is exploitation and greed at its finest... I have no words.

 

I wonder, if they reposes the puppy 5 months down the line, do they ship him or her back to the puppy mill to perpetuate the horrid cycle?