A brewery is offering paid parental leave for its employees when they get a dog

Dogs have often been called man’s best friend, but a Scotland-based brewery is suggesting they’re akin to children, too: by extending its parental leave policy to cases in which an employee brings a new canine home.

The aptly named BrewDog, which is planning a location in Ohio, announced in a statement Monday that it was extending a week’s worth of paid leave to employees when they take in a new dog, citing “those all-important first few days of the greatest relationship a person can have,” excepting children.

“We know only too well that having a new arrival – whether a mewling pup or unsettled rescue dog – can be stressful for human and hound both,” the statement read. “So we are becoming the first in our industry to give our staff a working week’s leave on us to help settle a new furry family member into their home.”

BrewDog, which got its start in the United Kingdom, already offers both maternity and paternity leave, and has used the homage in its name to draw dog-lovers’ attention before. Its bars across Europe and in Hong Kong are largely dog-friendly, and the company plans to expand to Columbus, Ohio.

Adapting the concept of parental leave for pets isn’t new — the United Kingdom is home to a few companies that already offer some form of “pawternity leave,” according to Public Radio International. On the other side of the pond, one novelist has suggested allowing childless women to use maternity leave to take time for themselves.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 10:36 AM with the headline "A brewery is offering paid parental leave for its employees when they get a dog."