Miniature horses and the duty to accommodate
Earlier this year the New York Times featured an article about miniature horses replacing guide dogs as “service animals” for people with certain types of disabilities. (Hat tip to Daniel Zimberoff of the Northwest Condo & HOA Law Blog for passing it along.) The article thoroughly discussed the several different types of service animals and the definition briefly and generally described the history of service animals:
“… [F]irst it was guide dogs for the blind; now it’s monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go. …”
This New York Times article is of particular interest in light of the new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (“AODA”), which came into force on January 1, 2008 and which affects most condos as private sector organizations that provide goods and services. The purpose of the AODA is described as follows at section 1:
Recognizing the history of discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ontario, the purpose of this Act is to benefit all Ontarians by,
(a) developing, implementing and enforcing accessibility standards in order to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures and premises on or before January 1, 2025; and
(b) providing for the involvement of persons with disabilities, of the Government of Ontario and of representatives of industries and of various sectors of the economy in the development of the accessibility standards.
Section 9 of the AODA’s Regulation 427/07 establishes accessibility standards for customer service and prescribes the following criteria as to whether an animal is properly qualified as a service animal:
(a) if it is readily apparent that the animal is used by the person for reasons relating to his or her disability; or
(b) if the person provides a letter from a physician or nurse confirming that the person requires the animal for reasons relating to the disability.
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