Petition: City of Seattle, please ban ‘pet rent’
Mar 13, 2014, 8:45 AM | Updated: 10:28 am
A woman has launched a petition asking the city of Seattle to ban “pet rents.”
“30% of Seattle’s residents own a pet and pay numerous fees for the chance to keep them, including pet licensing and taxes to maintain off-leash parks. With thousands of animals still waiting to be adopted at your local shelters, landlords should not be allowed to exploit the opportunity to extract more money from people who are willing to adopt. Requiring a deposit and sometimes an upfront fee is understandable, but demanding a monthly “pet rent,” is just plain offensive,” writes Krista Kouns on the petition page at Change.org.
Kouns is appealing to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to ban landlords ability to charge monthly rental fees for pets.
“It is so difficult to find a place to live with a pet in tow, that this adds to people’s hesitation to adopt homeless animals. This undoubtedly costs the city more money to house and inevitably euthanize strays,” she writes in a letter posted at the petition page.
Over 2,000 people have signed the petition.