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The majority of support comes from those who already own property, be it homeowners or landlords themselves. Seventy-six per cent of landlords support their right to refuse rental to pet owners; 70 per cent of homeowners agree.

The province most sympathetic to renters? It’s a toss-up between Quebec, where only 57 per cent of respondents think a landlord should be able to refuse to rent to pet owners, and Ontario, the only province that doesn’t allow landlords to prohibit renters from getting a pet once they’ve already moved in.

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The Canadian Animal Health Institute estimates there are more than 15 million pet cats and dogs in Canada today. About six-in-ten Canadians own some type of pet animal.

Landlords in B.C. can legally choose not to rent to people with pets, as well as prohibit them from adopting a pet after they’ve signed a lease, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing.

In a recent case considered by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, a woman claimed she faced discrimination when the company that manages her strata unit fined her for keeping two therapy dogs. While the woman lost her case due to a lack of evidence, the tribunal was willing to consider the argument that a person with a disability may be entitled to keep a pet, even when it is not a certified service dog.

The case was not the first time pets have come up at the tribunal. In 2016, the quasi-judicial human rights body ruled against a woman who claimed her son’s pit bull “Coco” was a service dog and that its removal by her strata would send the recovering heroin addict into a downward spiral.

A Reddit Vancouver post on the difficulties of finding pet-friendly housing had some people arguing that pet restrictions are similar to banning children because pets are family. Others argued that having a cat was not a human right.

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