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January/February 2004 NYC Bill to Expand Tenants’ Rights to Have Companion Animals By Marisa Miller

 

What You Can Do • Attend the pro-forma hearing to re-introduce Intro. 380 to the City Council in the beginning of 2004. Check the hearing schedule at www.council.nyc.ny.us/schedule/index.cfm for exact dates and times. • Call the following City Council members and say simply, “Please support Intro. 380, the Pet Housing Bill!” Gifford Miller, Speaker of the City Council: 212-788-7210; Madeline Provenzano, Chair of the Housing Committee: 718-931-6060; Melinda Katz, Sponsor of the bill: 212-788-6981; and your own Council Member. (To find yours, visit www.council.nyc.ny.us, click “Council Members,” then use Search.) For more information, contact Elinor Molbegott, Legal Counsel of The Humane Society of New York, at: ElinorM328@aol.com. —M.M.

On Monday, December 8th, the New York City Council Chambers was packed with tenants, senior citizens, attorneys, medical experts and celebrities all waiting to testify in support of a bill that has garnered more phone calls, letters and emails to legislators than any other New York City Council bill in 2003. If passed, the legislation would offer a solution for New Yorkers who are mourning the death of close family members. (The family members in question, in this case, are dogs and cats, and the cure could save thousands of lives.)

Jill Ragovin is one such New Yorker. She dreads the day when her dog Chester, who she adopted from Bide-A-Wee animal shelter, dies of cancer. Once he passes away, she will not be allowed to adopt another dog because her landlord doesn’t want dogs in the building. To Ragovin, Chester is more than just a cute fluffy dog; he’s family. “If you have children or grandchildren, God bless you. Not all of us are so lucky, so we have dogs,” she told the members of the Housing and Buildings Committee, who will decide the fate of thousands of New Yorkers like her who face increasingly stringent no-pet policies.

The proposed legislation will not only ensure that responsible pet people like Jill Ragovin can continue to keep animals for the whole time they live in an apartment, it will also grant senior citizens the right to have companion animals.

Councilwoman Melinda Katz sponsored this “common sense bill” to clarify existing laws regarding the enforcement of the no-pet provision on the standard NYC housing lease, which perfunctorily states that animals are not allowed. However, if a tenant chooses to take in an animal and the landlord does not order the animal removed within three months, the clause is considered waived. Intro. 380 will protect the rights of all tenants to keep pets when landlords fail to enforce the no-pet provision within that three month time period. The no-pet provision would be waived for the duration of the tenant’s occupancy, not just the lifetime of the pet. But the truly revolutionary part of the bill is the seniors provision, which would grant persons aged 62 or older the right to have pets and protect them from being denied occupancy or being subject to eviction on the sole ground that they have pets. This legislation does not, however, protect tenants whose animals create a nuisance or interfere with the health, safety and welfare of other tenants.

The first person to testify before the housing committee was Golden Girls star Rue McClanahan, who attributed the success of her marriage to her cat Bianca. “I would give her a very high percentage in saving our marriage. Many people say, ‘No, we don’t have children, but we have either dogs or cats.’ It’s as important as can be.”

Other celebrities who have endorsed Intro. 380 include Grant Aleksander, William Baldwin, Julia Barr, Isaac Mizrahi and Bernadette Peters to name just a few. They brought visibility to this campaign, which mushroomed once the media latched onto it in the fall. Now, the major New York news stations plus four of the top nine national newspapers are following the bill, and The New York Daily News has even endorsed it.

Since the campaign started last summer, more than 600 people have contacted Councilwoman Melinda Katz to voice their support for the bill, and approximately 9,500 New Yorkers have signed petitions requesting a hearing on it. These thousands of constituents represent just a fraction of the pet-loving population of New York. According to recent census data from the NYC Department of Planning, approximately 7.3 million people and an estimated two million companion animals live in the city. “[I]t doesn’t take a Ph.D. in mathematics to figure out that Intro. No. 380 will have a huge impact on pet-owners in NYC,” asserts Jenny Laurie, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenant advocacy group. She further states, “Federal law already grants tenants in public housing the right to pet ownership, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for similar protections for tenants in multiple dwellings in New York City.”

Virginia Chipurnoi, President of the Humane Society of New York, the main organization spearheading the effort to pass Intro. No. 380, stated, “This humane legislation will save tenants the heartache of living in constant fear of eviction for sharing their lives with a companion animal. Additionally, it will likely save lives because people threatened with eviction frequently turn their pets over to already over-burdened city animal shelters.” Edward Sayres, ASPCA President and CEO, is in agreement, adding that “on average 40,000 cats and dogs are euthanized at NYC shelters each year, many because there are not enough available homes for them. If we truly are committed to making NYC a no-kill city by 2008, then Intro. No. 380 is invaluable to animal shelters across the city in boosting their adoptions rates.”

Pet guardianship doesn’t just save animals’ lives; it saves peoples’ too. Studies have shown that taking care of companion animals reduces stress and therefore reduces our risk for coronary heart disease, lowers blood pressure and makes people less likely to suffer from psychological illnesses including depression. In 1990 scientists at UCLA found that pets could help reduce the amount of time spent at doctors’ offices. A study of people 65 and older found that those with companion animals visited the doctor 16 percent less than pet-less participants. Alan Beck, Director of the Human-Animal Bond Center at Purdue University, was quoted in a Time article (October 12, 2003) as saying, “The societal implications of pets as health enhancers for people 50 and older are critical.” Beck concluded, “If exposure to companion animals reduces the number of doctor visits, if it allows people to live independently, if it improves morale, and allows them to handle stress better, then pets are a legitimate strategy for survival.”
Intro. 380 is a win-win situation for humans and animals. New York City has thousands of animals who need homes and thousands of people who want them. Now it just needs the laws in place to bring the two together.

Marisa Miller is co-manager of the campaign to pass Intro. 380, along with Mary Max. She also coordinated the 2003 Walk for Farm Animals in New York City.

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