Sunday, May 31, 2009

News: Oregon Family Battles Landlord over SDIT

A local story about a family battling with their landlord over a service dog in training and their right to have it housing is woefully lacking in details and information.

This landlord has not violated the federal law because service dogs in training are not covered by the ADA. The law only protects task trained full fledged service dogs. They may be violating Oregon State Law (http://www.animallaw.info/statutes/stusorguidedoglaws.htm) which protects service dogs in training. At ten weeks old this dog is a puppy in training and the family may need to provide proof that the dog is in formal training and/or connected with an organization helping them train the dog. Letters from doctors only say the person can benefit from a dog, they are not dog trainers and cannot vouch for the dog meeting the standards set by the ADA (http://www.ada.gov/reg3a.html#Anchor-36104). Since, they do have a doctors letter for need they may also be covered under the Fair Housing act as an emotional support animal while in training http://www.bazelon.org/issues/housing/infosheets/fhinfosheet6.html. This story serious lacks pertinent information; I, for one, am disappointed.

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