It’s sometimes hard to tell when someone has crossed a line from using resources to taking advantage of the system for their own agenda. Emotional support animals can be beneficial forms of therapy for people with various mental disorders, but unlike guide dogs, they have as much power in the eyes of the law as a regular pet would.
When I say that it can be difficult to tell who needs these resources and who doesn’t, I mostly mean it in the context of emotional support dogs and cats. In the case of emotional support monkeys however, a line has clearly been crossed.
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A woman in Creve Coeur, Missouri is fighting to keep three monkeys in her home, all of which have been registered as emotional support animals.
Texanne McBride-Teahan lives in a rental home with a black-capped capuchin named Paula, a bonnet macaque named Kalie Anna, and a patas monkey named Zoey.
About a month after moving in, a few of McBride-Teahan’s neighbors spotted the monkeys and voiced their concerns.
“It’s a wild animal,” neighbor Jim Hentschell explained to KMOV4 , “They belong in zoos, you know, or in their natural habitat. Everything I hear about emotional support animals, they only speak about cats and dogs.”
Despite the fact that the monkeys were registered by McBride-Teahan’s doctor, the city of Creve Coeur isn’t allowing her to keep the animals.
City law states that non-human primates, along with alligators, pythons, and lions, are considered an “inherently dangerous animals” and are not allowed in residential areas.
At a city council meeting on September 6th, McBride-Teahan defended her decision: “They are not dangerous animals. They are trained. They assist me.”
“I have PTSD because of something that happened to me, a very bad thing that happened to me a long time ago.”
McBride-Teahan’s attorney Don Sherman explained to Yahoo Lifestyle that “She suffers from PTSD as a result of a traumatic incident that happened when she was a child. It’s of a very personal nature. It’s beyond horrible. Picture a nightmare scenario and you won’t be too far away.”
“Unequivocally, she has a very real disability.”
“All she wants is to be left alone,” her lawyer continued. He also explained that the monkeys have never bitten anyone and are “never taken to public spaces.”
It is still unclear which way the case will swing, though Sherman believes that the issue has been blown “way out of proportion.”
h/t: Yahoo Lifestyle