diff --git a/scour/scour.py b/scour/scour.py
index 4d7995e..0112ad1 100644
--- a/scour/scour.py
+++ b/scour/scour.py
@@ -2884,9 +2884,11 @@ def scourString(in_string, options=None):
    # flowRoot elements don't render at all on current browsers (04/2016)
    cnt_flowText_el = len(doc.getElementsByTagName('flowRoot'))
    if cnt_flowText_el:
-      print("SVG input document uses {} flow text elements, which won't render on browsers!".format(cnt_flowText_el))
+      errmsg = "SVG input document uses {} flow text elements, which won't render on browsers!".format(cnt_flowText_el)
       if options.error_on_flowtext:
-         sys.exit(1)
+         raise Exception(errmsg)
+      else:
+         print("WARNING: {}".format(errmsg))
 
    # remove <metadata> if the user wants to
    if options.remove_metadata:
diff --git a/testscour.py b/testscour.py
index de8036f..af9ce96 100755
--- a/testscour.py
+++ b/testscour.py
@@ -1416,6 +1416,19 @@ class DuplicateGradientsUpdateStyle(unittest.TestCase):
 		self.assertEqual('fill:url(#' + gradientTag.getAttribute('id') + ')', rectTag1.getAttribute('style'),
 			'Either of #duplicate-one or #duplicate-two was removed, but style="fill:" was not updated to reflect this')
 
+class DocWithFlowtext(unittest.TestCase):
+    def runTest(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(Exception):
+            scour.scourXmlFile('unittests/flowtext.svg',
+                               scour.parse_args(['--error-on-flowtext'])[0])
+
+class DocWithNoFlowtext(unittest.TestCase):
+    def runTest(self):
+        try:
+            scour.scourXmlFile('unittests/flowtext-less.svg',
+                               scour.parse_args(['--error-on-flowtext'])[0])
+        except Exception as e:
+            self.fail("exception '{}' was raised, and we didn't expect that!".format(e))
 
 # TODO: write tests for --enable-viewboxing
 # TODO; write a test for embedding rasters