Ayla and her service dog, Princess Shasta, who replaced Lilly Joy.
Photo via justgabe.com
In 2009, five-year-old Ayla Casabier, who suffers from life-threatening type 1 diabetes, got a Golden Retriever puppy named Lily Joy. The new puppy was being trained to replace Ayla’s Black Lab, a diabetes-detection service dog, to help Ayla control her blood sugar. However, the apartment complex in southern Oregon where the Casabiers lived was taken over by a new housing agency, which had a strict no-dog policy. So the family was forced to move to non-subsidized housing, which caused so much stress that Lily Joy and Ayla never really bonded as they should. Here’s a news story from 2009 that offers all the details.
Ayla’s mom, Raynie Casabier, filed a disability-discrimination complaint, saying she was being evicted and staff members harassed the family and questioned the validity of the service animal. This week, the Casabier family was awarded almost $100,000 and the housing agency agreed to send its employees to special training on state and federal discrimination law.
This is just the kind of judgment that will make landlords and housing authorities think twice before the violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.