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--> --> Therapy cat eviction case dismissed By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings A federal agency has dismissed a discrimination complaint filed by a mentally disabled woman who said she was evicted from her Ashland apartment because of her therapy cat. Andrea Venable was evicted from her Tudor Square apartment in September after she brought her cat from California to live with her in violation of the apartment complex's no-pets policy. Venable received disability payments because she suffered from depression and manic episodes due to bipolar disorder. She said the cat was a service animal who helped her fight depression, and federal laws protecting disabled people require that accommodations be made for such animals. After her eviction, Venable filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, the department recently dismissed the complaint. "Based on the evidence obtained during the investigation, the Department has determined that reasonable cause does not exist to believe that a discriminatory housing practice has occurred," Judith Keeler, director of the department's Northwest/Alaska Area Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office in Seattle, wrote in a letter to Medford attorney Carlyle Stout. Stout represents Tudor Square owners Charles and Linda Butler. "My clients and the apartment complex complied with the law at all times and this investigation proves it," Stout said. Venable, who moved into an Ashland hotel following her eviction and subsequently left her job at an Ashland restaurant, could not be located for comment. According to the housing and urban development department report on its investigation of Venable's complaint, Venable signed a lease agreement and a Tudor Square rules and regulations form stating she had no pets when she moved into her apartment on Aug. 3. She occupied a four-bedroom apartment with other tenants who shared a kitchen and two bathrooms. On Aug. 9, another tenant who is allergic to cats complained that Venable had brought her cat to live in the apartment. The same day, Venable was given a 30-day eviction notice. She told the apartment manager there were laws that permitted her to keep her pet as a companion animal. But the manager said the cat could not stay because of the shared housing arrangement and the other tenant's allergy, according to the report. Venable was able to get a copy of a 1999 doctor's statement saying that separation from her cat would make her mental situation worse, but she did not provide the copy to the apartment manager, according to the report. The housing and urban development department ruled that Venable did not provide sufficient information to Tudor Square representatives that she is disabled or that she needed the cat because of her disability. Additionally, the department found the apartment complex would have had to fundamentally alter its business of providing shared housing in order to accommodate Venable's cat because the other tenant was allergic to the animal. Federal law requires that reasonable accommodations be made for disabled people. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing