Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Seeing-eye dogs and common house pet policies

[Catya Belfer-Shevett (catya]

> >> If I can add to the question. Has any community had to face a situation
> >> where you had a service dog and a dog-allergic member?
>
> >We're not up and running, but my feeling is that unless you had a
> >serious unmedicable allergy, the service dog would take precedence.
>
> I think that Katya is right in the sense that people see blindness as a
> form of disability, but they don't see people with allergies or multiple
> chemical sensitivities as disabled.  Yet, allowing a dog in a space might
> make it inaccessible for someone who is highly sensitized.
> I'm not choosing who is "right" or "wrong" on this one, I'm just pointing
> out that we are conditioned, culturally, to opt for one over  the other.

*chuckles*

Actually, I totally agree with you on it, and that was sorta the point I was
trying to make.

"unless you had a serious, unmedicable allergy" meant just that - that
allergies that could be medicated, or weren't serious, should IMHO not take
precedence over a blind person's need for a service dog, but more serious
allergies may need to be considered at the same level.

        - catya
                              ____
Catya Belfer-Shevett      ____\  /      Interested in
catya [at] pobox.com           \  / \/      Cohousing in MA?
www.catya.org              \/       www.mosaic-commons.org

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