That's wicked, well done on writing such an excellent piece. We are starting to have the same problem in the Uk with this. As house prices go up (in the top bracket the average house price is now apparently touching the £200,000) people especially young people simply cannot afford to have a mortgage and are having to rent instead, this means that a lot can't have a pet (cat or dog) due to certain rules. This is WRONG WRONG WRONG and I think it's high time responsible pet owners are allowed to have their animals live with them. Something needs to be done in the UK and hopefully it will.
I think it's great you've highlighted this problem, more needs to be done about this and changes will happen.