Discrimination Against ESA

[Roxanne B.]

I will preface this saying. I know many people have happy destructive “ESA” dogs. I just dog sat one and it will likely take a chunk out of my deposit. It was an adorable monster. 

I also know people are so angry thinking about fake ESA animals. Out of principal. 

But here’s the deal. That’s not your problem. Stop stewing over what someone else is doing if it’s not illegal. You know what is illegal? Housing Discrimination.

Blanket Discriminating against dogs doesn’t make sense. Children are much more destructive, as are some adults. Not all dogs are created equal. Many of us put in the hours to train our dogs. 

But what about the barking? 
many humans are worse than this too, with loud music or fights and profanity. 

What about the peeing? 
well first of all, Service animal and pets are house broken. Just include a clause with a heavy fine for destruction caused by urine. Simple. 

You have a deposit.

At the end of the day anything beyond normal wear and tear can be repaired. feel the deposit isn’t enough for this? Draft a reasonable contract where things are to be paid for by the dog owner if they’re damaged. Nothing abusive of course. You’re not going to have someone remodel your place with pricier things, just back to how it was. 

My landlords are in awe of the state of my apartment after years living here with a dog. 

I worried I thought maybe his nails made some marks - I do see some faint scratches  if I get down and look from the side under specific lights. Then I saw the other apartments. Deep Furniture marks and scratches visible not only up close or with special lighting, visible always. 
other scratches possibly from shoes or toys.  The places looked battered, supposedly most of it was legally “normal wear and tear”

Some of these were single people, some families, some couples. Point is, mine is 10x better. Minus the damage the tiny dog that I was dog sitting did literally last week. Which brings up another point / judging dogs based on weight.

My 50 pound dog has never done anything destructive in all my years here. The little Shitzu I just dog sat kept getting **** stuck on its tail and smearing it everywhere. And it scratched up a door door frame and wall when I locked it in a room during a meeting. 

And before you say, oh, that’s exactly why we don’t allow dogs - some children smear food everywhere. Some children draw on walls and scrape things and even make holes in things. Don’t get me started. you disagree and think Children are more civil? Not all of them. Same can be said for dogs. It’s a psychological barrier you’re making an assumption. 

All that said - I have a service animal. I need him, my life is more normal and successful since I got him. People who don’t need an ESA or havnt tried it wouldn’t understand. 

Landlords have wasted my time, and after making me jump thru all submission hoops after I meet all the strict requirements they were hoping to use to turn me away - Then they tell me it rented. 

Then I message them from a different account and learn it hasn’t rented. But they go thru the great length of unlisting the place so I think it rented. I thought I was being paranoid until I reached out and my friends. 

Isn’t this a federal offense? 
My dog is SO well trained, I even offered a letter from my current landlords.

People say just move someplace that is dog friendly. There are none with this quality in this area. But the other problem is - this is 

I L L E G A L 

It’s a building with more than 30 apartments. It makes no sense to discriminate. They will have a security deposit if they’re so scared.

Also, stop asking for “certifications” there is no such thing. This gives people the bright idea to become fake ESA. It’s not a government number. There are hundreds of data base “ESA Registration sites” that charge people money and give them a number, but this number is not official — it’s far from that it is just a number that can be searched only within that website that provided it. You could choose to buy a URL and that ends in.org right now build a database and start charging people to register their service animals and have landlords search within that website that you just created. all of those websites, the point is are unofficial. The only thing that truly counts is a letter from their doctor. You can also require papers for the vaccinations. 

I’ve had the worst search experience. 
“No dogs” is a thing of the past. I can’t wait till it’s not just ESA, it honestly should be all pets. We are PAYING, and in this case nyc almost 3000 for an apartment monthly. We can do whatever you want as long as you don’t disturb anyone or destroy it. We are not your house guest. We are paying.