Article
Courtesy of the Miami Herald
By
Donna Gehrke-White
Posted June 11, 2006
Is there such a thing as a prescription pet?
It's the latest debate in South Florida's condo
canyons.
The Fair Housing Amendments Act allows condo
owners with proven disabilities to have a pet, even if they live in a
complex that bans animals altogether. The courts have recognized, for
example, that blind people need seeing-eye dogs, says Donna Berger, a
Becker & Poliakoff partner and executive director of the Community
Association Leadership Lobby (CALL).
Judges or arbitrators have a tougher time deciding
whether people get special accommodations if they claim they need Fido
for their equilibrium.
''This is the battleground: People are now
claiming they need their pets for their mental or emotional health,''
says Steven Weisberg, a board member of the Bonavida Condominiums in
Aventura.
Often, people say they need a pet to help them
cope with stress, anxiety or depression.
So far, courts around the country are divided over
accepting such arguments, says Lynne Zygmont, supervising intake
attorney at the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire.
''Some people prevail; some do not,'' she says.
In South Florida, Berger says she successfully
represented a woman who was allowed a small dog in a no-pet community
because she was depressed.
Other times she has helped boards fight to
preserve their no-pets rule.
Berger says some of her boards have viewed the
idea of ''prescription pets'' as an excuse not to obey rules.
''Some abuse it [the fair housing rules] because
they want a pet,'' Berger says.
BINDING CONTRACT
But the no-pet rule in a condominium's bylaws ''is
a binding contract at the time you purchase the property,'' Berger says.
Groups, however, are already trying to help those
who feel they need a pet for their health.
Maida Genser put on her website, petsincondos.com,
a ''mental health'' form letter for a doctor to sign.
Genser says she obtained three doctors' letters to
keep her two cats in a no-pet condo community in Tamarac. She says the
cats help her mental health, including lowering her anxiety.
The first two doctors who wrote letters in support
of her cats were not licensed in Florida. The board would not accept
their letters. But the board voted on her exemption to keep her tabbies
after a third, South Florida-based, doctor submitted a letter.
Still, there are no guarantees.
HELPS COPE
Bernadette Casale, 86, says she has fought off
depression and now suffers lupus and other maladies. She also has
trouble seeing. She says her beloved Chihuahua, Cha Cha, has helped her
cope. Her long-time doctor has written letters, saying Casale needs the
2 ½-pound pooch.
But an arbitrator of the state Department of
Business and Professional Regulation ruled that her doctor did not
establish that the elderly woman needed Cha Cha to accommodate her
disability or that the dog performed special tasks to help Casale.
Activist Genser believes Casale could have
successfully appealed the ruling.
But Casale says she can't afford to. ''I don't
have that kind of money,'' she says.
She
is moving instead.
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