BANDERA, Texas — A disabled Army veteran and his service dog were evicted from a Bandera mobile home last month, following a months-long dispute over an unpaid “pet fee.”
David Palasek, whose seven years of military service included tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan for the Army and the Army National Guard, was evicted Dec. 22.
He refused to pay the pet fee, citing the Fair Housing Act, which protects people who use service dogs from being discriminated against.
“If it’s happening to me, it’s going to happen to other people,” said Palasek, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and injuries to his neck, spine, knee and shoulder in a Humvee accident and separate IED attack in Iraq. Palasek is also a cancer surviver, beating testicular cancer in recent years.
Doctors told Palasek his gunner’s harness contributed to the disease, which he received treatments for at hospitals at Lackland Air Force Base and later Fort Sam Houston. Paperwork from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs indicates Palasek is 90 percent disabled.
He began using his four-year-old service dog, Checkers, to help “get him through the day”.
“He knows what his role is. He supports me mentally, emotionally, physically,” said Palasek.
The Service Dog Registration of America confirmed Checkers’ certification Wednesday.
Palasek said the contentious relationship with his former landlord, Guilott Realty, boiled over after his mobile home was broken into in November.
He changed the locks and refused to allow employees of the company inside when he was at a doctor’s appointment in San Antonio.
Palasek then received an eviction notice and was told the pet fee had ballooned to $2,500.
An employee at Guilott’s offices in Bandera referred all questions to Gay Guilott. Ms. Guilott denied Palasek was evicted when reached on the phone Wednesday, then stated we had interrupted her lunch. She hung up before answering any other questions.
The two sides were in court in Bandera County earlier this week. Palasek has moved back to San Antonio while the conflict remains in court.
Section 504 of the Fair Housing Act states service animals are not pets. It goes on to outline how housing providers cannot enforce pet policies on residents who use service animals.
