Woman Wants to Keep Service Pet Indoors
A landlord has denied the disabled woman's request to keep 'Earl' inside.
Nov. 14, 2007 — -- Celiac disease has left Patty Cooper's bones brittle from osteoporosis, so she relies heavily on her beloved pet Earl to help her when she falls or when she needs help getting into her wheelchair at her Warren, Vt., home. Cooper said her independence and very life depends on the animal.
But Earl isn't a service dog. He is a 1-year-old minihorse, who is about the size of a large dog. He weighs 125 pounds and is 32 inches tall.
But the 50-year-old's relationship with Earl may be in trouble because Cooper doesn't live in a house. She resides in a two-bedroom apartment. And some, including her landlord, are questioning whether a farm animal, even one as small as Earl, should be allowed to live in the complex.
"It's a horse and my landlord doesn't think he'd like to have a horse in his apartment," Cooper said.
She filed a human rights complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission after her landlord rejected her request to keep the animal, according to The Associated Press. Cooper paid $1,000 for the gelding and expected to use it for trips to the bus stop and around town.
The land trust where Cooper's apartment sits says it provides reasonable accommodations for service animals.
"You've got a 24-unit apartment complex. And even though it's in a rural area, it's on a limited amount of land and that land has to support the 24 units," said Preston Jump, Central Vermont Community Land Trust director.
The agency that owns the apartment complex in Waitsfield denied her proposal, citing concern about horse droppings, hay storage and lack of grazing space, the AP said.
Cooper says that Earl can be house-trained and that she even built a four-by-six stall in her dining room for the horse. Cooper had considered buying a dog, but ultimately chose Earl for his longer life span and diet of gluten-free oats. Celiac disease has been linked to a severe intolerance to gluten.
The land trust will decide in a few days on Earl's fate, but until then Cooper keeps hoping she'll still have her best friend.
"I want Earl to come home," she said. "He's my best buddy in the whole wide world."
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