Pet Policy

[Sections 1-6 of this policy were voted on unanimously at a house meeting, 8-13-06.]

1. All pets must be spayed and neutered, and kept up to date on shots and tests, as per the Shot Guidelines/Pet Health Info guidelines (below).

2. All litterboxes and food bowls must be kept in the rooms of the owners. Exception: litterbox under breezeway desk to be maintained by all cat owners.

3. The Steward, acting as Pet Kaiser, will keep track of the member's compliance with pet policy.

4. $100 will be collected from the pet owners for each pet moving in with the owner. $50 is a non-refundable pet fee and $50 is a deposit held to help mitigate potential pet expenses to the house at move-out. (house update 10/4/15 by a vote of 12-0-0)

5. Any pets not compliant with pet policy would be evictable, and the owners of the pet would be evictable if they refuse to deal with the pet.

6. Pets with communicable diseases can be quarantined to the room of their owner until the pet's condition is no longer communicable.

7. Section 24 of TheContract: "No pets are allowed on the premises at any time without approval of CHEA. A security deposit of $100 will be required for each pet."

8. Section 7.9 of the HouseRules: "Pet Deposit: The House membership will set its own pet deposit amount. In no case will the amount collected be less $100 per pet. $50 is a 'pet fee' and therefore non-refundable, as it goes to pest control when the pet leaves. The other $50 is a pet deposit and may be refunded depending on pet damage/mess at move-out. The pet owner is also responsible for any damage done to carpet, rugs, walls, furniture, smell, etc. above and beyond what is normally expected to put the room back into its pre-pet condition. This means a pet owner can be charged additional costs if needed."

9. Section 7.9.1 of the HouseRules: "All pets must be approved by the house prior to being moved in."

10. Section 7.9.2 of the HouseRules: "No dangerous animals will be allowed."

11. Section 7.9.3 of the HouseRules: "Roommates must approve of all new pets."

12. Section 22.2 of the HouseRules: "Tigers are not allowed anywhere."

13. No dogs are allowed to live in the house (with the exception of service dogs, as required by law). (Voted on unanimously, 5-6-07.)

14. No more than 5 cats are allowed to live in the house. (Exceptions for extenuating circumstances can be voted on at a meeting.) (House vote, 5-6-07.)

15. A member may not have more than 2 cats at a time living in the house. (House vote, 7-29-07.)

16. There shall be no cats on the dark side. (House vote, 10-26-08.) Updated rule: Cats are only allowed on the bright side; cats are not allowed in rooms 1 thru 8, nor are they allowed in the dining room, the TV room, or the kitchen. (House vote, 8-28-11.)

17. This site seems to state that pet deposits for service animals are prohibited by ADA, but that you can charge for damage caused by a service animal provided you would charge the same amount to someone who is not disabled: http://www.ada.gov/qasrvc.htm

18. Dogs that are not a nuisance (at the discretion of the Pet Kaiser), stay out of common areas unaccompanied, and don’t stay overnight will be allowed as guests. (House vote: 10-24-10)

Shot Guidelines/Pet Health Info (Must be followed according to section 1 of the Pet Policy)

[Written by Dr. Sue, with the help of her veterinarian friend]

1. DOGS

2. CATS

3. If we have a potential or actual tenant who argues that they would like to substitue a titer for a vaccine, the consensus is NO. A titer is where they check the blood antibody level in an animal against a particular pathogen; very conservative or wacko types are paranoid about over-vaccinating and may protest our vaccination policy, but neither vet I consulted was a big fan of titers, to put it mildly. They are not considered reliable indicators of an animal's immunity to a pathogen.

4. Background info: [S/S = signs/symptoms]

5. Some of the stuff they recommended is to protect other pets in the house, some of it is to protect us. Flea and tick prevention is obvious: icky, disease transmission (eg, tapeworms, Lyme disease) to us and pets. Worms prefer to live in pets but WILL live in humans. This is esp important if we have kids/babies in the house, and is yet another excellent reason to keep animals out of the kitchen (and preferably not pooping in the yard, but ya gotta start somewhere... In the meantime, wash your hands when you've been digging in the yard.) Heartworms do not live in human hosts, but are potentially transmissible to other pets (fairly unlikely; they are transmitted via mosquito bites, so a mosquito would have to bite an infected Sasona pet, have the worm go thru its life cycle in the skeeter, then bite a 2nd sasona pet). Bottom line: heartworms suck, if pet owners give a damn, their pets should absolutely be on prev year round (or very nearly) in Texas.

6. Signs of ill pets include: dull coat, thin/weight loss, diarrhea/vomiting, incr/decr appetite, big belly, wormy butt, lethargy, incr/decr thirst, limping, weird neurologic signs (loss of motor function, behavioral changes, etc.).

7. FleaInfo

Notes gathered while enforcing this policy:

Bringing a new cat to the house? Check out CatFights for hints and tips on how to make it easier for all the cats.

"distemper" is aka Panleukopenia http://www.chatvet.com/fvrcp.htm

Note 2015-10-13: Proposed changes from Alanna: PetPolicyChangeProposal

SasonaWiki: PetPolicy (last edited 2021-05-24 03:04:51 by TripleEntendre)