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Um . . . that's not just dense, that's blind AND dense . . .
Posted on 11/12/2007 7:04:00 PM PST by yorkie
Patty Cooper's landlord normally welcomes tenants who use animals to help them get around, such as guide dogs for the blind. So after the disabled woman bought a 32-inch-tall miniature horse to pull her wheelchair, she asked to keep the animal in her home. When her landlord rejected the request, she filed a human rights complaint.
Cooper, 50, paid $1,000 for the 1-year-old gelding named Earl, expecting to use it for trips to the bus stop and into town. The agency that owns the apartment complex in Waitsfield denied her proposal, citing concern about horse droppings, hay storage and lack of grazing space.
Cooper insists the 100-pound tobiano pinto can be house-trained and said it "just makes me so happy whenever I'm around him. I'm not lonely anymore."
The landlord has told Cooper the horse would have to be kept elsewhere—not in the 4-by-6 stall she designed in her living room. For now, Earl is staying at a farm owned by a friend in neighboring Warren, where Cooper visits and trains him.
The case has drawn national attention since The Associated Press reported on it last month as an example of disabled people using animals other than guide dogs for the blind.
Cooper, 50, has celiac disease, a disorder in which exposure to a protein called gluten destroys the ability of the small intestine to absorb nutrients and can cause brittle bones. Cooper, who broke her back for a second time four years ago, uses a wheelchair most of the time.
[snip]But the agency is weighing the specifics of Cooper's request, particularly whether Earl could be trained to relieve himself only when taken outside every three hours.
Also, the apartment complex has no place to graze a horse,
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
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Um . . . that's not just dense, that's blind AND dense . . .
My hand to God.
But just as the Bedlington/sheep confusion is real, who would think anybody could mistake a goat for a German Shepherd?? This is also absolutely true; I witnessed it myself and there was no mistake. Suburbanites and city people can be remarkably clueless about some aspects of country life.
The pony needs to be house trained, that’s for sure. However, the smell from poop is stronger than a dog’s. And if you let in a pony, what next? Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my!
Maybe it was a long way off, in the shade, and they were nearsighted?
Part of it I'm sure is that people don't see what they don't expect to see. I probably would have said, "OMG, is that a GOAT? What is it doing HERE?" but only because I used to have a nice little goat named Leona. She was an urban goat (not even a SUBurban goat) and spoiled within an inch of her life. I used to swing by the feed store after work in my good wool suit, silk blouse, pearls, and high heels, and buy a bale of 1st cut alfalfa and a bag of Purina Goat Chow and stuff them in the trunk of my (old) BMW. Always got a laugh from the guys at the feed store.
The place we used to live was originally quite country, populated by folks who moved down from north Georgia to work in the sheet metal plant in Atlanta, and the city had simply swallowed the area up without changing it. Lots of our neighbors had goats, and chickens, and ducks . . . no cows or horses though.
The amazing thing is that the zoning actually ALLOWED cows and horses, if you had enough yard.
Dog poop smells far more objectionable because dogs eat meat. The breakdown byproducts of grain and hay don't have the same objectionable odor.
I have both dogs and horses. I have probably shoveled a couple of metric tons of horse byproduct in my life, much rather do that than pick up dog mess.
With all that said, this lady needs an electric wheelchair. Having a miniature horse is just an affectation, a service dog could do the same job and do a lot of other stuff too (like fetch stuff).
I’ll take your word for it about the smell of poop. This lady certainly needs a service animal. This is easier said than done but think if she really wants to keep the pony, she needs to live some other place where there is no objection to the animal.
Some people were in an auto, about 12 feet from where the goat was tied, and others were on the street three feet away. So it wasn't a vision thing. And there were horses around, so a goat shouldn't have been surprising. Other people speculated about what kind of dog it was, too; it wasn't just isolated spectators.
Since all the service animal does (according to the story) is pull her wheelchair, seems like an electric wheelchair would be a HECK of a lot less trouble. Don’t need to walk it, don’t need to feed it. If she wants companionship, she could get a small dog or a cat.
That’s just totally bizarre! (I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt . . . but it sounds like they just were completely clueless. Didn’t they have picture books when they were growing up, or watch Walt Disney wildlife films, or SOMEthing? Sheesh! I weep for the Republic!)
It certainly isn't abuse to have a mini pull things. Minis can, and do, pull carts. So, for that matter, can large dogs. (and have a great time doing it!)
She isn’t going to want that horse stalled in her living room, even if they allow it. No matter how diligent she is about cleaning (and with her disability even that will be harder) the mess of the bedding material and the waste is not something that’s easy to manage in an apartment building.
There was a mini stallion who had a small stall inside a tack shop I used to go to. She let him loose to walk around the store. But horse smells are something tack shop customers are not put off by. ;~)
Hair, I absolutely agree with you about how easy it is for animals to haul. Two anecdotes:
1. Last weekend my girlfriend and I were driving her horse. She is new to driving and was worried about getting him tired, was it too hard for him, etc. After we were done I (a lightly-built woman) pulled her cart my myself and pushed it up into the horsetrailer where it’s stored.
2. A number of years ago stupid liberals wanted to stop the carriage rides around Capitol Hill on grounds that it was abusive to make the horses pull carriages. As a demonstration of how easy it was, the horses’ female owners pulled the carriages themselves several blocks.
Pulling a rolling vehicle isn’t that hard. Letting a grown human ride on a miniature, however, would indeed be abusive.
I think this lady is nuts for wanting a mini to pull her wheelchair; an electric wheelchair would work a lot better. But miniature horses have been used with great success as service animals for disabled people, and they’re a benefit in the case of disabled people who are allergic to dogs.
So many of them are bred purely for small size, and wind up looking distorted and out of proportion.
That Rottie does look like he's having a good time.
It's a long story, but I've been contemplated having my Lab pull a small travois . . . .
"You want me to do WHAT?"
She could dress the horse in disguise and sneak it into her apartment.....
Link with picture of Ms. Cooper & Earl that can be enlarged with a click:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1290959
They had some hellacious pictures of storm damage in your general neck of the woods . . . .
We got through the storm fine, thanks! No damage here. Just a few nervous hours.
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