The reason pets aren’t allowed in places that serve food is because health officials say animals carry bacteria and parasites that can make people sick. The Oregon Food Safety Division receives hundreds of complaints each year about pet owners taking their animals shopping and to restaurants.
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Gone to the dogs: Animals in stores – KATU
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s getting to to be bad out there, I won’t bring the Wife’s Animal in to a store if I can do the job myself. I’m tired of the attitude of the people.
Hello,
I too have been the victim of discrimination simply because I have a service animal. I just finished reading the article linked to this blog and either the people writing it were greatly exaggerating about the level of problems that they have encountered or it is due to where they live. I have never seen any animals in grocery stores or restaurants in my area of the country except on a very rare occasion and then they are very obviously service animals. The problem why too many legitimately disabled people with service animals continue to have problems with the ignorant idiots that manage or own a business is that they never do anything about the times when they encounter problems with a business owner or manager. Every time you encounter discrimination you should be filing formal complaints against the business as well as the individual with the Department of Justice and many states as well as local counties in many areas of the country have passed additional laws protecting the disabled with service dogs. I recently had a problem at a local restaurant that denied me access simply because I had a service dog. Well I did not get angry but I am in the process of getting even. I asked the manager why I could not sit at an empty table and he was dumb enough to tell me to my face in front of witnesses that he knew that if I were allowed to sit there that he would receive complaints about me being there with my service dog. Well he is getting educated about his responsibilities under the ADA. Eventually he and the restaurant will be asked a lot of questions and possibly face a stiff fine by the Department of Justice as I filed a formal complaint with them and I also found out that there are several state laws that have been passed to strengthen the ADA that have been violated and just the other day I found out that there is also a county ordnance that has been violated and I believe it is a misdemeanor that also carries a fine. So don’t get angry and upset by these brainless morons, take names and get even.
I have been lucky and only had one problem with a laundry mat that is owned and located next to a large grocery store/chain. My husband and I go there about twice a month to wash bedding. The last time we went an employee question be about my SD and told me to leave. I gave her the ADA card and told her the law, she approaced me two more times. The first time after she had swept the whole laundry mat, she pushed the broom over to me and said is this all from your dog? The broom was full of human hair, dirt and lent. I told her “Yea, right that isn’t dog hair and my SD is a standard poodle and doesn’t shed (which wouldn’t make a difference anyway!) Then she came up from behind me a second time and throw her hand up and said “is that dog going to bite me!” I wanted to bite you myself! I told her she can not harass me and that she could be sued along with the store. I went over to the store and filed a complaint with the district manager, he appeared to be horrified about the whole thing and took down the info I gave him. This store and laundry mat even have a sign on their front doors saying only service dogs allowed! We we see what happens next month when go back. From now on I will be filing all complaints with the Department of Justice and local county/city.
I have had very little opposition to my service dog, which is a Doberman Pinscher. Once people see her ID tag they pretty much just go the opposite direction. I frequent WalMart regularly and they have gotten to know us there. We did have a very bad incident at a Flash Foods store in GA, where I live. Usually my service dog is in the car when I go in this store but on this day she was out walking with me around town and I didn’t have my car. I encountered a police officer who was a K-9 handler and we stood talking outside the front of the store for quite a while, people walking by us going in and out of the store continually. When the conversation with the officer ended I attempted to enter the store. I was confronted by a woman who began yelling and screaming in my face about how I was not blind and I was not bringing THAT dog into the store. Then she called the police officer back over and said “Tell her she can’t bring that dog in here” The Cop actually took her side, even after I tried to give both of them a copy of the ADA pertaining to service animals. What an uneducated class of people there are these days. I asked the police officer if he was going to make her obey the law and he told me it was his job to keep the peace. He did offer to go in to the store and purchase what I wanted, an offer I declined. I took my business elsewhere and when I got home I contacted the corporate offices for Flash Foods by email to inform them of what happened and that I was going to contact the Dept. of Justice. It didn’t take long before I heard from the District Manager and then the Head of Customer Relations at their corporate offices. I was asked to give them some time to do some research on Service Animals. I told the gentleman that I wasn’t looking to sue anyone, that this wasn’t about money, but it was about the law. Within the first week I had the personal phone number of the “Man In Charge” and he had mine. By the second week, I received a letter of apology. I haven’t tried to enter the store with my service animal since that day but I will be carrying a copy of that letter with me and the main man’s phone number is on speed dial. People just don’t understand those of us that are not visibly disabled, there are a lot of disabilities on the inside of a person that others aren’t able to see or even understand. I think it’s really up to those of us that can, we need to educate the public. We don’t have to be rude or nasty or even back down. The law is on our side. (except in little country hick towns that just want to “keep the peace” LOL
I have constant problems trying to shop, go to the library, and other places. My ShihTzu, Jade Li, is a certified service animal. I lost his original papers; I had them copied 4 to a page on orange paper and folded up in my wallet. When idiots confronted me (it always starts out with, “You can’t bring that dog in here!”), I would tell them he was a service dog and they only thing they are allowed by law to say is, “Is that a service animal?” Then if they demanded to see his papers, yes, it has happened several times, I would open my wallet, point to the folded orange paper, and say, “There they are”. My wallet got “misplaced” with my ID, his ID, and several hundred dollars in traveling money a year and a half ago while I was moving from Utah to Texas.
Jade Li was able to help me balance when I walked, as I’m areflexic from the hips down, but as I have walked less, he has become my balance dog emotionally, in that I can’t go anywhere without him, in my anxiety I have to have him with me; he rides on my lap, the foot platform of my Hoveround, or on the bottom of the mart-cart when we go to Wallyworld. I had another one of those damned anxiety attacks in the middle of the night, thought I was dying of a heart attack, thank the Goddess for Jade Li and xanax!! I think I’m becoming an agoraphobic because I have a hard time leaving the house, mainly because of all the s*** I get about Jade Li.
I recently was confronted in a Dollar General Store, by a replacement manager who started out with the usual, I replied with the usual, and then she told me he wasn’t a service dog! He was wearing his picture ID at the time. I asked her what made her think he was not a service dog, she said, “Because he doesn’t have a red vest on”! I told her it was out in the truck, and in spite of great pain and inconvenience to myself, I would go get it if that’s what she needed. He wasn’t wearing it because it was 88 degrees outside and he’s a cold-weather dog!! But she relented. Instead of buying half my month’s necessities there, I just got cat food and litter, and LEFT! Then when I got home, I called the corporate offices of the store, told them about the episode. It has not quite been fully resolved, as I have yet to receive an apology from the replacement manager. I referred the district manager to the website at ADA.gov for the education program for employees.
I shop but once a month, because it is such a big production, so I get whatever I can at DG and the rest at Wallyworld. The 7-11 on the corner is within easy rolling distance, so I can get what I missed there if I need it right away.
But just thinking about going out, and being confronted by idiots, makes me so nervous, I seldom leave the apartment. Then if I do decide to go out, likely or not some other kind of idiot will be parked on the parking lot ramp and I won’t be able to get to the truck!!
Thanks for listening, sometimes I just need to vent.
Goddess bless us all with the patience we need to educate all the idiots out there who think a service dog is a german shepherd leading a blind person! Most of us have “invisible disabilities”; I myself am healthy as a horse and look as strong as one (better looking though); peripheral neuropathy and anxiety can’t be seen at first glance.
Bright blessings,
Ellanna
Ellanna,
I can under stand what happened at the Dollar General. I had the same problem at one in Columbia, SC. I decided not to say anything about it due the fact that I more than likely will not go there again. If I have that problem at my local store then I will say something. I had one of the greeters at wallyworld to call the manager because he did not think a small dog (Mini Pin) could be a service dog. I also have peripheral neuropathy and anxiety and you are right they cannot be seen. I have kept on of my dogs tags in my safe so I hope her tag on her collar doesn’t come off but if so I will have one to fall back on.
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