A college student is suing her university for the right to keep her pet guinea pig.
According to CBS Detroit, Kendra Velzen, a 28-year old student at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, suffers from depression and a heart condition. She says that her guinea pig helps her cope with physical and emotional challenges.
Velzen’s lawyer wants to school’s policy against allowing pets in dorms declared illegal, so that more students can benefit from therapy animals.
According to the article, Cathy Klotz, executive director of Intermountain Therapy Snimals, says there’s “an important difference between therapy animals–which provide emotional support— and service animals, which are used for essential functions like sight or alerting their companion to an oncoming seizure.”
The lawyer claims that under the Fair Housing Act there are no requirements for training of a therapy or service animal, and no restriction on the type of animals considered therapy or service animals.
Should she be allowed to keep her guinea pig?
