Critics snarled at the concept of dogs for hire at a City Council hearing in Boston yesterday, putting a damper on plans by a company called FlexPetz to open a branch of its rent-a-pooch business in Beantown.

“I speak for the thousands of pet owners, professionals and true lovers of animals,” said Ray McSoley, an animal behavior expert. “They sit with me, in chorus, urging you to pass the act prohibiting the rental of pets.”

Under the ordinance, proposed after FlexPetz announced plans to open a branch in Boston, any individual caught renting a dog would be fined $300, and the pooch would be impounded. The City Council is schedule to vote on the proposed ban on July 9.

City councilors heard arguments ranging from the legal issue of who is liable if a rented dog bites someone, to the potentially destabilizing effect of moving pets from place to place.

“I think the one unified position that I heard coming from the testimony was that this is no way to treat animal life. They are living beings, not commodities,” said city councilor Chuck Turner.

No one at the hearing opposed the ban, and no one representing FlexPetz attended, according to an article in today's Boston Herald.

Company founder Marlena Cervantes Cervantes said FlexPetz -- a San Diego firm that has opened rent-a-pet offfices in New York, Los Angeles and London -- was undecided on whether it would challenge a pet-renting prohibition in Boston.

The company has also drawn criticism in London.

“We are a small company, and we just don’t have the budget to fly out because the government is interfering in our business,” Cervantes said.