Pets as medicine: a touchy subject

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Miami Herald

BY Donna Gehrke-White

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.