To the editor: Brett Yates believes we can alleviate the housing crisis by making all rentals pet-friendly. He makes an unsubstantiated claim about the low frequency of pet damage; his claim of an average of $210 in repairs is ridiculous.
A typical one bedroom unit cannot be professionally cleaned for that. Additionally, tenants do not keep their pets in their apartments. Cats spray other tenants' front doors. Pets defecate in common areas. Dogs often bark when they are alone, annoying everyone in the building except their owners.
Yates believes pet owners should have no restrictions. So each apartment should be able to have, say, two dogs and four cats? He lives in a fantasy world where all pets and their owners are well behaved.
Now that insurance companies are leaving the state, what happens to a landlord's policy when a pet bites another tenant? Why should the owner have to pay more for insurance because someone wants a pet?
There are valid reasons why people want to live in a home without pets. For example, tenants with allergies need access to pet-free housing (except service animals). My husband is allergic to animal dander. He cannot stay in a hotel room with a pet.
Yates' sympathy extends only to pet owners. But in communal living situations, there are many people who understandably cannot tolerate proximity to pets.
Avirom Dock, Whittier
..
To the editor: Your op-ed about the need for pet-friendly housing policies could have specifically mentioned that at the city of Los Angeles' Chesterfied Square Animal Shelter, there are about 500 dogs in a facility with only 220 cages.
There, a few others and I recently spent a few days trying to save one of these dogs, who had been at the shelter for over 300 days because his family moved. He was 2 years old, friendly, trained, and a favorite of the staff and volunteers.
He had been red-tagged and cleared to be euthanized within 48 hours. Fortunately, someone came forward at the last minute to adopt him. There are hundreds more like him languishing and waiting.
In addition to supporting pet-inclusive housing, consider adopting before you buy, spaying and neutering your pets, and supporting anti-breeding laws. This is a crisis that shelters alone cannot solve.
Melissa Klaskin Levy, Los Angeles
..
To the editor: Yates needs to meet the real world. He demands that all tenants have the right to bring a dog home. I'm sure he had never before dealt with an animal that barked all day while the owner was away.
Apartment living, by definition, means that many people share a small space. However, many dog owners show no concern or respect for others, allowing their animals to diminish the quality of life of their tenants.
This is a real problem in my neighborhood; Maybe Yates will have a different experience at his house.
Lee Meister, San Pedro
