After city officials forced a family to remove a service animal used by their daughter, a family in Ohio has filed a lawsuit alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
City officials in Blue Ash are forcing the family to remove the animal on the grounds that the animal is “livestock” and not a recognized service animal:
The lawsuit, filed by Housing Opportunities
Made Equal, or HOME, and Ingrid Anderson, a mother of a child with
disabilities, says the city violated the Fair Housing Act and the
Americans with Disabilities Act, HOME executive director Elizabeth Brown
said.
The service
animal, a miniature horse named Ellie, is the size of a large dog and
has been trained as a service animal and recommended by Children’s
Hospital Medical Center for Anderson’s 13-year-old daughter Chloe, who
has suffered from numerous physical ailments since birth, Anderson said.
Anderson told WLWT the horse helped Chloe break barriers, especially among other children. “Chloe has gained so much social skills because a typical kid is not
real likely to walk up to a child in a wheelchair and engage in
conversation,” she said. According to the lawsuit, a doctor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
recommended the horse for Chloe.