[Cagdu] FW: Woman Wants Horse As Service Animal

Wed Oct 31 18:22:11 PDT 2007

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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