Fighting For Pets In Apartments

Yesterday, the City Council held a meeting about pet ownership in apartment buildings to decide whether or not tenants can replace pets that have passed away (in some buildings, new rules may have been put in place that prohibit pet ownership, but tenants with pets already have been allowed to keep them). However, many City Council members were annoyed when Gary Kaskel of United Action for Animals compared co-op boards decisions that limit pet ownership to southern states "in the 60s trying to oppress the Civil Rights Movement," calling his remarks "reprehensive and absolutely bizarre." Gothamist would like to remind everyone that while New Yorkers love animals that are not rats or pigeons, relating the civil rights movement to your dog isn't the best idea.

In the end, the City Council voted to pass the bill that allows pet owners the ability to replace their pets. Another feature of the bill is that tenants can keep a pet if the building's owner haven't removed the pet within three months of learning of the pet's presence, which some co-op attorneys argue is a violation of rights, since some tenants don't like their neighbors' dogs or their filth. Sigh, can't we just all get along?

Gothamist on having pets in your apartment, getting a dog in your no-dogs-allowed building, and pet therapy. But tigers will probably always be outlawed.