File This Under “Ridiculous”
Sarah Sevick, a 19-year old freshman at a Catholic University in Texas, has filed an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint because she is not allowed to keep her ferret in her dorm or bring her to class.
She claims that she suffers anxiety attacks, and the ferret has a calming effect, so therefore she should have to right to bring her ferret anywhere she wants, including into the classroom. Amazingly, a local ferret shelter owner supports this insanity. He disagrees with the University’s assessment that ferrets can be dangerous to other animals and are not trained as service animals. On the first point he is right to a large degree: ferrets are no more potentially harmful than most dogs. However, on the second point the university is clearly correct. Ferrets are not trained as service animals. In fact, ferrets are hard to even train to do basic things, like use a litter box or refrain from destroying everything they come across. Regardless, you can’t just bring an animal to class because you want to!
A little common sense to Sarah: First, if you really want to live with a ferret, live in a place that allows ferrets. Don’t complain about the rules that you already knew about when you moved in. If you want to own a ferret or any pet, move into a place that allows it. I love cats, but that does not mean I have the right to have one in an apartment that does not allow them. Second, just because the ferret has a "calming effect" doesn’t mean it has to go everywhere you go. Personally, if I had to sit next to a stinky ferret, who is probably using the corner of the classroom as a toilet, I would need some kind of medicine (or animal?) to calm me. So I would have to bring in my cat to counter the effects of your ferret, and then someone else may have to bring in their pet acaconda to deal with the effects of my cat, and then your ferret may get eaten, which would really cause anxiety. Ok, joking aside, even if we classify anxiety attacks as a disability, taking a ferret with you wherever you go is not the answer, nor is wasting the government’s (and University’s) time and money.
File this under "ridiculous." Or maybe under "you have way too much time on your hands" is more appropriate. It is trivial complaints like these that make it harder for people with real disabilities who need animals for assistance to get what they need. Plus, how much is the school going to have to spend to deal with this?
November 11th, 2005 at 11:52 pm
As Sarah’s mother, I want you to know that her claims are legitimate under the ADA. She is not just asking for a pet–and Lilly has been trained to perform tasks that other, more common, animals are trained to perform for people with anxiety disorders and PTSD. Sarah had read the university’s policies and spoken with university officials before registering for her first semester. It was our understanding that the university would be following federal law. (even if they do not consider the ferret a service animal, under the Fair Housing statutes, she would be allowed to have the ferret in the dorm–something the university refuses).
Sarah’s conditions are not something that just happened because she wanted a pet at school.
She has been struggling with these problems for years, and they have seriously obstructed her ability to support herself or to educate herself. Since she started using Lilly as a service animal, Sarah has been able to hold a job and to manage her illness. At the university, without Lilly, her mental health has detiorated. She continues to struggle, working with a counselor and with her professors, but she is fighting an uphill battle without Lilly. Sarah does take medication for her conditions, but anxiety medications are contraindicated for her because of other complications. Her counselor and her physician agree that she has a special need for her ferret and have written the university. The university also has documentation of the methods used to train Lilly, and the behaviors Lilly is able to perform.
In addition, Marshall’s, the primary breeders of ferrets in the U.S., has developed a product called “Bio-odor”–a dietary supplement which significantly decreases any offensive odors associated with ferrets and/or their feces.
In addition to her comforting behaviors, Lilly has also been trained to “potty” on command. This is an important behavior for psychiatric service animals because they are required to remain calm for long periods.
As a parent, I rejoiced when Sarah had finally seemed to find a way to cope with her disabilities in a positive manner. I have been very disappointed in the prejudice which she has encountered from people who would accept her better if she had a dog–and a wheelchair or cane.
November 12th, 2005 at 10:16 am
Mrs Sevick,
I am glad that your daughter is helped by a ferret, but please, not in a public classroom. If everyone who had some kind of psychological disorder insisted on having the right to bring a chosen item/living thing with them to class that comforts them, we would have everything from guns to snakes in the classroom. Get counseling, find a good anti-anxiety medicine, an apartment that allows ferrets, and leave it there during class. Even if I am convinced your daughter is handicapped because of her condition, bringing a ferret with her to class is *not* an accepted, orthodox answer. It is not prejudice, but common sense about psychology, accepted treatments for anxiety, and the rights of others in the dorm and classroom.
If the university wants to change the policy about pets in the dorm, fine. I can handle that so long as I don’t have to stay in the same room with a ferret. Marshall’s diet or not, ferrets’ smell is overpowering, at least to me. Even a small, female ferret on a special diet causes my nose to react.
I wish your daughter the best of luck, and have been praying for her anxiety to ease. I hope she improves, but I still think the “I need to bring a ferret to class with me as a service animal” line is unconvincing.