NavigationWelcome to DAISweb.com! You don't need to be signed in to the site to explore. Feel free to browse. Create an account to add to the Employment Exchange. User login |
Animals in the Residence Halls(The following posts were culled from the DSSHE-L archives. Some editing has been done to consolidate space and exclude extraneous remarks, but no changes have been made the to content shown. Not all posts on a given subject are necessarily included here. Information about the date(s) of appearance and subject headings are provided for those who wish to return to the full archives to research this issue in more detail.) I just got off the telephone with the mother of a student who is on her way with a cat. Her psychologist has recommended that she be allowed to keep the cat in the residence hall. Mother reports that all suitemates have agreed to the cat, who will be kept in the student's single. Of course, documentation has been requested. I have a call in to my contact in housing. I know this issue has been addressed and I was just looking for some input. (If Housing says "no", I can't take the cat home, my wife is very allergic. Which raises the issue of others with allergies in the residence hall.) Thanks. Dan Herbst Do what you want Dan, but if you start down this slippery slope, there will be no end of cats, dogs, snakes, ferrets etc. in the residence halls. Is the claim that this is a service animal? The ADA is real slim on guidance re:service animals, but most of us have adopted a position that the animal should have had some training/certification to qualify. Nobody doubts that pets are wonderful for our well being, but using the ADA to bring a pet to a residence hall does a disservice to the spirit of that legislation and will make it very difficult for your housing folks to run community housing. Better to have the psychologist make one hell of a DSM-IV case for the cat and then waive housing and let her find off-campus lodgings which permit animals. This work has given me a certain degree of cynicism about some MD's, and Psy professionals. If you substitute the word customer for patient, why wouldn't somebody sign off on parking, single rooms, pets, unlimited time on tests etc. That's where the development of good diagnostic and/or verification forms come in. Make these professionals explain and defend their reccommendations knowing that other professionals may see their work. Don't accept the statement on the prect. notepad or letterhead. Richard Harris "Is the cat a service animal?" The one piece of this definition that in different from any other documentation or accommodation question is "trained". Trained can not mean certified (there is no federal agency certifying service animals and as far as I know no state either) but it does mean that its behavior is controled by the person with the disability (the partner) and is not purely instinctual. As a cat owner I know cats can be trained but my guess is that the animal has been "prescribed" as a companion animal. Companion animals (or theraputic pets) are used in treatment because thier presence provides a sense of calm or an anchor; contact triggers a relaxation response (in the person); or care for the animal, its dependence, etc. assist in the development of self esteem, a sense of purpose, or a reason to "go on". The ADA and 504 are clear that service animals must be permited. Companion animals are not specifically mentioned in the legislation. Hence the question becomes is allowing a companion animal into the residence halls a reasonable accommodation? Does the individual have a disability? L. Scott Lissner Scott as usual puts out a very rational structure to examine these issues-I'm more basic. A) you cannot run community housing while allowing pets. There are potential health problems for the both the humans and the pets. Dorms, fraternity houses are not suitable envrionments for pets. They get overfed, stepped on etc. Many humane societys really discourage such settings. 2) If a student's psy. problems are such that he/she is unable to function without taking their pet with them, than one would have to question "otherwise qualified." If this is the best treatment her professional can come up with, that is sad. Would having the pet at school be helpful, nice, comforting-yes. But making that an ADA matter is beyond the pale. For those following ADA title 1 cases in the courts, it is fairly clear what the ruling would be re: a request to Richard Harris The University of Oklahoma was involved in a lawsuit over this issue. A therapist provided a letter to this office for a student with a disability. The letter indicated that this particular student had "found a stray dog(a poodle) and bonded with it." The therapist was now requesting that the University allow the student to keep the dog in his university apartment. The reason provided was if the university did not allow this it may jeopardize the student's ability to bond with people in the future. We have a no pets rule for many of the reasons which all of you have stated. We do, of course, allow service animals. We made the decision that, under ADA, this poodle would not be considered a service animal. Nor did we feel that the therapist had provided adequate reasons that this was an appropriate accommodation. This denial did turn into a three ring circus with the student utilizing the press. We maintained our position, and the student continued to push the issue. He continued to kept the poodle in his apartment. We were reluctant to evict him. He then began transporting the poodle on our mass transit system, and eventually, started taking the poodle to class. We successfully defended the lawsuit. I had been named as causing this student intentional mental duress. In spite of the media attention, I still hold firm on our decision that this was not a service animal. It was not individually trained to meet any specific disability needs of this individual. I also turned down a student's request for her pit bulls to be considered service animals. She had arthritis and claimed that the service provided by the dogs was protection!. I certainly believe that pets can be therapeutic. This does not make them service animals as defined by the law. Interestingly enough, through this whole process, the students with disabilities(especially those who utilize service animals) supported the University. They felt that an untrained animal jeopardized their welcomes into restaurants, businesses, etc. by the local merchants. They wanted to continue to protect the image of trained service animals for specific disability needs such as guiding someone who is blind, alerting a hearing impaired individual to sounds, pulling wheelchairs, alerting a person to seizures, etc. Just because we sometimes might look like the "bad guy" we cannot back down on decisions which attract media attention. We don't live in a microcosm within the Disability Service Offices. We still have the safety and welfare of an entire university community to consider. Suzette Dyer We have a no pets policy, but we have approved a cat in one of our family housing units - but look at the specifics. A family member of a student had a well-diagnosed mental illness. This person was therapeutically dependent on a cat to allow her to function. The cat was NOT a service animal, it was a THERAPY animal (HUGE difference). We obtained significant supporting documentation from the treating psychologist. One of the supporting factors was that the person rarely left the home and usually did so only with the cat. Another was that this family member was an adult who was able to be alone for extended periods of time (e.g., while the other family member attended classes) - so long as the person had the cat. There was evidence to show that the person did not function well alone in the home without the cat. We approved allowing the cat based on the following: The family decided to live elsewhere, more due to the small size of our housing units than any other reason. I posted our service animal policy on this list some time ago. This policy clearly defines the difference between a service animal (protected under ADA) and a therapy animal (not protected under ADA). The latest newsletter from the Delta Society (an excellent group that provides up-to-date information on service dogs, living with service dogs, and legal issues) had a very good article on therapy animals - and included information on why these animals are not covered by ADA. Since I am working from home today, I don't have the address or phone number. They have a web site - if I recall correctly it is http://www.deltasociety.org/ Marcia ******************************************************** (This thread was culled from the archives by Jane Jarrow, DAIS, ********************************************************** |
Welcome to the NEW Home of DAIS!Disability Access Information and Support (DAIS) is an important resource to the higher education community, providing a menu of services for those concerned with disability and access in higher education. Institutions and organizations can contract for help from DAIS, in the person of Jane Jarrow, Ph.D., for a variety of services. The growing list of DAIS publications and activities includes resource materials to assist in interpreting/fulfilling legal mandates, a variety of professional development opportunities, policy/procedure reviews, consultation regarding quality assurance and compliance, and information to aid in understanding the philosophical underpinnings of providing quality service to people with disabilities in the postsecondary environment. Check out the site orientation given on the home page under the heading of, "Where to look, and what you'll find at daisweb.com!" |