A Warren, VT woman is fighting to have her landlord accomodate her service animal which just happens to be a horse. Patty Cooper's service animal is a horse of a different color: a black and white miniature horse, to be exact. She thinks she should be allowed to have this animal under the laws regarding persons with disabilities....an interesting premise, but hardly practical.
Disabled woman wants service animal of a different color: Times Argus Online
4 comments:
For those who would like to read as well as learn more about Patty Cooper and her new replacement service animal, Earl, check out her blog, here.
As far as being hardly practical goes, one example of such can be found, here [via USA Today; 1/28/2007].
Hope that helps.
By the way, your subject header reads Disabled woman wants seeing-eye horse. If you read the article more carefully, you will find that the use of the service animal in her case is different than what your subject header describes.
Although my headline was tounge-in-cheek, I applaud you for finding a woman who actually does have a "seeing eye horse". The only ommision in the story was the issue of whether the woman in New York lived in public housing. If she is a homeowner, I think its a logical and quite wonderful idea. If you are going to have a horse in public housing, I still say its not practical...
Vermont
Consolidated Assistance Animal/Guide Dog Laws
Statute Details
Printable Version
Citation: VT ST T. 9 § 4502; VT ST T. 23 § 1057
Citation: 9 V.S.A. § 4502, VT ST T. 9 § 4502; 23 V.S.A. § 1057,
Summary:
The following statutes comprise the state's relevant assistance animal and guide dog laws.
Statute in Full:
VERMONT STATUTES ANNOTATED. TITLE NINE. Commerce and Trade. PART 7. LANDLORD AND TENANT. CHAPTER 139. Discrimination; Public Accommodations; Rental and Sale of Real Estate.
§ 4502 Public accommodations
(a) An owner or operator of a place of public accommodation or an agent or employee of such owner or operator shall not, because of the race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, sex or sexual orientation of any person, refuse, withhold from or deny to that person any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of the place of public accommodation.
(b) An owner or operator of a place of public accommodation or his or her employee or agent shall not prohibit from entering a place of public accommodation:
(1) An individual with a disability accompanied by a service animal.
(2) An individual who is training an animal to perform as a service animal for an individual with a disability.
Just because its the law doesn't mean it is beyond reproach. It also doesn't supercede people's right to live in clean public housing. It also doesn't require the landlord to make accomodation without some reasonable limits. I think I need a service animal...since elephants live longer than miniature horses, my landlord should accomodate me. How crazy does that sound?
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