[Cagdu] FW: Woman Wants Horse As Service Animal

[Juliett Cody]

Ok... It getting ...
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: tina thomas 
  To: cagdu at nfbcal.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 6:22 PM
  Subject: [Cagdu] FW: Woman Wants Horse As Service Animal


  Subject: Woman Wants Horse As Service Animal


  > Woman Wants Horse As Service Animal
  > 
  > By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press Writer
  > 
  > Friday, October 19, 2007
  > 
  > (10-19) 22:25 PDT Warren, Vt. (AP) --
  > 
  > The Central Vermont Community Land Trust usually has no objection to a
  > service animal like a seeing-eye dog moving into its apartments. But
  > Patty Cooper's service animal is a horse of a different color: a black
  > and white miniature horse, to be exact.
  > 
  > Now the nonprofit housing group is trying to figure out whether it can
  > accommodate a disabled woman's new companion, with its need for grazing
  > space and questionable housebrokenness.
  > 
  > "Frankly, it's a bit unique," Preston Jump, executive director of the
  > Land Trust, said in an interview.
  > 
  > Cooper, 50, has a severe case of celiac disease, a disorder in which
  > exposure to a protein called gluten destroys the ability of the small
  > intestine to absorb nutrients. One result can be brittle bones, and
  > Cooper has used a wheelchair since she broke her back for the second
  > time four years ago.
  > 
  > Earl, short for Early to Rise, is a 1-year-old miniature tobiano pinto
  > horse that weighs about 100 pounds and is 32 inches tall at the
  > shoulder
  > - just the right height for a frequent face-to-face nuzzle with Cooper
  > as she sits in her wheelchair.
  > 
  > Earl isn't living with Cooper yet, but she visits him daily at the farm
  > where he is recovering from his recent gelding. It's clear a bond has
  > developed in the few months since she bought him.
  > 
  > "This guy just makes me so happy whenever I'm around him," Cooper said.
  > "I'm not lonely any more."
  > 
  > Her plan is to attach shafts extending from Earl's harness to her
  > wheelchair. "He'll be able to pull me back and forth to the bus stop
  > and
  > pull me to town. After he's trained he'll be able to go on the bus with
  > me under ADA laws."
  > 
  > The ADA is the Americans With Disabilities Act, the federal law
  > requiring entities that provide public accommodations, like the Land
  > Trust, to make reasonable efforts to accommodate people with
  > disabilities.
  > 
  > Cooper got a letter last week from the operations manager of the
  > 24-unit
  > housing complex where she lives expressing worry about "possible health
  > and safety issues. So, can you tell us how you intend to dispose of the
  > pony's waste? Is the pony housebroken? If he is house-trained, who is
  > going to pick up after him outside?
  > 
  > "What does this animal require for food?" it continued. "If it is hay
  > and grain, as I suspect, where and how do you plan to store this food
  > so
  > that it will not attract rats or otherwise become a potential health
  > risk to the other residents living in this complex?"
  > 
  > It went on to say it was investigating whether a 4-by-6-foot stall
  > Cooper had built in her living room for Earl constituted an alteration
  > and therefore a lease violation. Cooper called that "a veiled threat of
  > eviction" on a blog she's been maintaining about the issue.
  > 
  > This week, both Cooper and the Land Trust were taking a more
  > conciliatory tone. "I don't have any problem with the Land Trust," she
  > said. "I think they do very good work in the community" by providing
  > affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people.
  > 
  > For its part, the Land Trust issued a statement in response to press
  > inquiries. "CVCLT's policy is to make every effort to accommodate the
  > specific needs of our disabled residents, including making allowances
  > for service animals when the service to be provided is reasonably
  > related to the disability at issue," it said.
  > 
  > "Due to the unusual circumstances associated with housing a pony in an
  > apartment setting," it added, "careful review and consideration is
  > being
  > given to this request in order to determine whether this animal can
  > reasonably address the specific needs described by this resident while
  > assuring the overall welfare of both the animal involved and
  > neighboring
  > residents in the apartment complex."
  > 
  > Cooper said she already had tried to respond to some of the Land
  > Trust's
  > worries, installing a rubber mat at the base of the stall, which she
  > says didn't require any apartment alterations, as well as rubber-backed
  > carpeting in case of an accident before Earl can make it outside. She
  > said she was talking with a neighbor of the apartment complex about
  > grazing space on that property.
  > 
  > "I'm confident it's all going to work out," she said.
  > 
  > One benefit of a horse versus a dog is a longer life span. Tippy, the
  > mixed-breed dog who was Cooper's previous service animal, died
  > recently.
  > "I don't want to have to go through this again in 10 years," she said.
  > "Earl will live at least another 50 years. I'll still have him when I'm
  > 100."
  > 
  > 
  >


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