Doggedly Determined : Handicapped College Student Faces Eviction for Owning Pit Bull That Helps Him Make His Way to, Around Campus

Students at Orange Coast College barely catch a glimpse of Jeff Smithling as he streaks through the campus on his skateboard, his stocky dog Lightning pulling him along like a husky hauling a sled.

“He roars through campus--his dog is so strong,” said Bob Zhe, a counselor at the college’s Disabled Student Center. “He buzzes through here.”

Smithling has suffered from an arthritic disease since birth that rendered his legs unusable. Over the years he has endured more than 20 operations on the brittle limbs. Ten months ago they were amputated at the knees. A lifetime of immobility, however, inspired the determined 29-year-old to come up with his unique way of getting around.

But now, Smithling, who moved here earlier this year from Palm Springs, is facing another problem: His landlady at the Villa Marseilles Apartments on Bristol Street has served him, his fiancee and their two roommates with an eviction notice because of Smithling’s dog. Lightning is a Staffordshire terrier, a member of the pit bull family.

The apartment complex allows pets, and Lightning has not caused any problems, everyone agrees. But manager Shirley Stephenson last month ordered Smithling and his three roommates to either get rid of the dog or leave after several of their neighbors complained that they did not like living near a pit bull, according to Steven D. Silverstein, an attorney for the complex.

Stephenson, who on Sept. 4 also had formal eviction papers served, could not be reached for comment, but Silverstein said: “It’s strictly because of the dog. We all know that pit bulls have a vicious propensity.

“Would you like to live next to a pit bull terrier?” he asked.

“She’s never even seen the dog,” Smithling said of his apartment manager. “People like her think that my dog eats small children and small dogs. . . . It is not an aggressive dog.”

Smithling’s two roommates, whose names are on the apartment lease, said they plan to move out by Sunday. Smithling, who is a full-time student and does not have a job, is determined to fight the eviction. But he said he and his fiancee don’t know where they’d go if they, too, are forced to move.

Officials of the nonprofit Fair Housing Council of Orange County say the eviction notice amounts to discrimination against a disabled person and have advised Smithling that he can file a lawsuit challenging the order.

Cliff Dover, compliance manager with the Fair Housing Council of Orange County, said that the type of dog that Smithling has should not be the issue, especially because the dog has not caused any problems for any of the residents.

“The issue is whether he (Smithling) has a right to stay,” he said. “It is a very narrow issue.

“It’s apparent from meeting Jeff that his dog is necessary and essential for him in achieving as close to a normal a life as possible,” Dover said. “It’s not merely a companion