My wife and I were eating at the Bakery a couple of days ago when a woman came in with a dog in her purse, sat at a booth, put the dog beside her and fed it off her plate.
It is not fair for people to bring a dog to a restaurant and inflict their animal on other people who are paying for a meal. I wouldn’t want to sit in a booth where someone had just fed their smelly dog – an animal that might have flees, ticks, distemper, mange or some other contagion.
People who claim they must have their dog with them for security – a comfort dog- are full of BS and just looking for attention. A person would not be allowed to bring their 300-pound hog or monkey or snake into a restaurant claiming they must have their comfort pet with them in order to function? Dogs fall into the same category and should be restricted.
It is ridiculous. People that inflict their dog on the public are inconsiderate. A couple of months ago a woman brought her dog into Walmart and a shopper with a dog phobia went into hysterics. Why would anyone feel they needed to bring their dog to shop for food at Walmart?
I don’t dislike dogs; but I have a low regard for people that are so ignorant or inconsiderate that they impose their dog inappropriately on other people.
Wm Gilliland
Sure sounds like you dislike Dogs to me.
Well said!!!
I agree with you 100%. I was just at Wal-Mart and an older lady was walking her dog in the store on a leash! I have 2 young children with severe pet allergies. Whatever happened to “no dogs allowed? My opinion is the only exception to this is a true service dog assisting an individual in a public place and is marked that it is a trained dog. Keep your pooch at home!!! I would have been completely disgusted if I was in a restaurant and a dog was in there … doesn’t say much for the bakery you were in!!
Agreed. What I didn’t like seeing was a family with a rottweiler in the grocery store and when mentioned to a front end supervisor got no response. Dog had no vest on stating it was a service dog. Have seen large dogs in WalMart also with nothing indicating it was a service dog. Management must be lax as they saw them in both cases. If I had my dog still, I’d try it just to see what happens.
I work in a restaurant in NJ..People come in with dogs sometimes..no vest..and if a manger speaks to them..they create a scene..say it’s a service dog and threaten to call the cops on you..LOL..So we just let them do it ..Not worth the aggravation..
Yet you inflict this letter upon us. I don’t EVER trust someone who doesn’t like dogs. This policy has saved me untold grief through 61 years and three continents. Dogs are excellent “louse” detectors.
I agree that random dogs shouldn’t be allowed in stores, restaurants, etc… However, trained service dogs are impeccably well-behaved and do physical tasks for their owners. These are tasks like guiding a blind person, opening doors, retrieving items off store shelves, or putting their body under the owner’s head during a seizure. Comfort or emotional support doesn’t legally qualify a pet as a service animal. Businesses have every right to refuse entry to non-service animals. They’re allowed to ask these two questions to tell if it’s a service dog:
(1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
(2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
The craze of people bring their non-service dog everywhere is getting out of control. Some people even buy fake service dog outfits. If you see a dog barking or running around in a store – that’s not a service dog unless something is very wrong with their owner and they’re trying to get help. They also don’t eat at restaurant tables (which is gross).
There is a big deference between a service and a therapy pet. A service animal, usually a dog aids people in ways they can’t do for themselves, like avoid danger due to blindness. A therapy pet, keeps your emotions in check and require a letter from a healthcare professional and are not meant to accompany people in the real world, the therapy pet programs do work, but more and more doctors are refusing to write letters due to the level of abuse by pet owners, such as the one detailed in the article. These letters are intended to get your therapy pet into housing that normally doesn’t allow pets, not as a free pass to take your pet into restaurants and stores.
wow,I wonder if Walmart’s insurance provider knows?
I still rather deal with a dog than overly “scented” people. I can’t even stand next to some of these people without sneezing.
I agree! And I’ll admit that I don’t like dogs. In a restaurant, I’d sooner sit next to someone smoking a cigarette than someone with a dog. I don’t want them around me and will stay away from an establishment if dogs are allowed in. If you need help in a store, hook your dog outside and let a human help you.
No worse than the person that sit he diapered child on the counter at the fast food joint while they order their food…
As a person who suffers from PTSD and has a service dog I have to say that the experience has been life changing. I grew up in Farmington and now am “from away” and can attest to people checking for my dog’s badge. Several employees have stopped me in Walmart, Renys etc. to make sure my service dog is legit. I carry him. He is hypo-allergenic, well groomed and taken care of.
As far as the diseases mentioned in the above article as “contagion” are all spread dog to dog. Most diseases are like that. The dog ones stay with the dogs and the people ones stay with people. This means a sick person is arguably more of a risk of making another person sick then a dog. As far as phobias, one would think a handler of a service animal would be respectful. Service animals are also supposed to be respectful. They are not supposed to solicit attention. People who are bringing service and emotional support dogs places need them for ailments. One would think that would make them sensitive to a persons phobias and Respectful. Also, a serious dog phobia seems like it could be fairly debilitating for even walking into Walmart, or down a sidewalk where there may be dogs.
I do not have a vest on my service dog, because it is embarrassing. He has a badge I keep in my purse. With the attention brought to the issue recently, my husband and I have considered having more of a label on him. With that being said now that I am happy and healthy, my service dog stays at home most of the time. I don’t need to haul him around to do regular tasks and that is a beautiful thing!
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Please, look at the person who is bringing their dog with them to the bakery and recognize how lucky you are to be comfortable sitting there alone, or to have the company of a guest. Recognize the fellow patron for what they are, a person sitting and sharing their meal with a dog. Having been there, I can attest for most people in that type of situation it would not be their first choice. Having the company of a service animal is important and nessicary for some. Please just feel fortunate that you do not need to find comfort in that way.
@Sarah
“I don’t need to haul him around to do regular tasks and that is a beautiful thing!”
That likely means it was never legally a service animal (especially if you carried him). A badge is meaningless – even though it helps convince the less knowledgeable that your pet is allowed. There is no official registry for service animals that hands out “badges”. There are plenty of companies online that offer badges and other “certifications”, but they aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. Comfort isn’t considered a legally protected reason to keep your pet with you. People who bend the rules for their “comfort/therapy” pets threaten the ability and ease of real service dogs to do their jobs.
*service animals are not required to wear any identification and their owners do not need to carry it either.
For those folks with questions regarding service animals & public access, the following website has excellent information and resource material: https://www.ada.gov/
PTSD is a mental illness, not a physical handicap. You have a therapy pet, that you are trying to pass off as a service animal. The epitome of a privilege abuser. I have a therapy pet who was allowed only with a letter from a mental healthcare Professional. I paid for 8 sessions with 6 different psychologists before getting one who would even consider writing a letter.
Wow! I’m glad we’re all discussing serious issues instead of carrying on about stuff like heslth care, education and taxes. I’m sure a Christian in Aleppo, if allowed to eat in a restaurant without fear of being blown up, would be cool with a dog at the next table….is this discussion remotely worth all your comments? Including mine!
Hrtlss Bstrd… not sure if you have ever auto corrected your name on an iPhone but ironically it is “hurtles bastard.”I actually do have all of the qualifying things you are speaking of. I’m not sure why you assumed I did not, or if this comment was actually not directed towards me; which would make more sense. Please! Correct me because I truely hope I am wrong.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if it was easier to have your companion with you?” Yes, emotional disorders are not taken as seriously as physical ones. That is a very severe problem, as they can be just as life threatening. Ok, or maybe and hopefully you are in a point and place where this is not at all life threatening. Honestly, I really hope this is the case. I am sorry there were such demands and it was not easier for you to do something you needed. This, is the real issue. Who is to know what is what?
@guppy
Just curious how you know all of this
Sarah
A letter from a psychologist DOES NOT make your pet a service animal. Service dogs perform a physical task for their owner that the owner can’t do (like opening doors, etc…). Emotions and feelings don’t count as physical assistance.
“Who is to know what is what?”
We do know what the laws are… Perhaps you genuinely believed that your therapy pet was a service animal. However, it’s not okay to break the law because you think your situation “deserves” certain privileges. Go to our local politicians or find other ways to raise awareness if you want changes to the law. Until then, your dog is NOT a service animal.
Sarah
It’s all on the official ADA website:
https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
I looked at the official ADA website and found the following under the ADA Revised Requirements – Service Animals. A dog that was used for PTSD is listed as a service animal.
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.
I’d much rather eat in a restaurant that allows dogs, than with screaming kids with no parenting been done.
I’d choose the dogs over the kids every time.
@Joy Dyer
A service dog has to perform a task, not just be present for comfort. Sarah stated that her dog is carried around in her purse. I’d be curious to know how the dog gets out of that purse to take independent action. It’s true that service animals can be useful in PTSD situations. Some are trained to wake their owner during nightmares, retrieve medication, or get help during a panic attack. However, mere comforting presence (in a purse) doesn’t count as being a service animal.
https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
http://www.maine.gov/mhrc/news/ServiceAnimal.html
there are real and legitimate reasons where a person needs to have a service animal. buying a vest online or putting your comfort animal in a purse just so you don’t have to be bothered to find a dogsitter not only becomes a nuisance to the public and businesses, but it undermines those with genuine need. i diagnose people with ptsd, i cannot tell you what service a toy breed could provide to those clients within the confines of a purse.
If you don’t like dogs and/or don’t appreciate Willie Nelson,, then you don’t understand life and you can’t be trusted.
Very simple.
As some people may know, I have been in the service industry for several years and have a few practical thoughts to share. While the intent of the law is necessary and admirable, in practice, it can in be increasingly more difficult to discern and monitor the difference between service animals, assistance animals and pets. That difference is seemingly muddied further by persons intent on bringing their pets into service establishments. Service animals and some assistance animals are recognizable by their perfect behavior, demeanor and by the way are treated by their owners. They have strict rules that they have been trained to follow while they are “On Duty”. Rarely have we ever asked if someone’s animal was a service animal. There’s 2 reasons why. First, we would never want to call attention to a patron’s disability and potentially cause them embarrassment, anxiety or worse. Second, We would never want to get into an argument over their animals’ status. Pet owners, who intend on having their pets in service establishments, have mostly unknowingly used the ADA statues to gain admittance by default since asking is awkward and denying potentially argumentative. Since arguments in service establishments are mostly pointless, are hardly low key, rarely end well and do almost always end in a customer’s favor, we have taken the stance that all dogs brought into the restaurant must be some sort of comfort to their owners and are allowed as long as they don’t become a nuisance. We can most easily accommodate customers who wish to not sit near and animal.
http://www.maine.gov/mhrc/news/ServiceAnimal.html
Good letter,Tom.
I can certainly understand the points you make Thomas M. and have seen many businesses take this approach.
In my house I don’t allow the dogs in the kitchen, I certainly don’t feed them from the table let alone on the table.
Having a dog eating off a table in a public restaurant is not acceptable to me. If that is their policy I won’t eat there.
Having the dog/pet under or at the side of the table given the circumstances would be acceptable. But not on the table, that is gross and not fair to the general public.
It would be only fair that if a public eatery has this policy ( dogs can eat off the table ) then they should have signage stating this so I can go elsewhere.
It doesn’t say the dog ate off the table, it says she fed the dog from her plate.
In my mind it’s two different things. I wouldn’t bring my dog to a restaurant,
but I don’t care if other people do as long as their we’ll behaved.
Thomas Marcellino,
Great stance on this subject. I appreciate the empathy, kindness, and common sense. One of the many, many reasons that I visit and love your establishment.
And just for the record, I do not have a service dog nor would I bring my pet into an establishment like this but if it is well behaved and makes someone happy- go for it! The world could use a little more kindness.
I interpret Tom as saying he respects true service animals that the law allows and tolerates pets being dragged into his restaurant to avoid conflict.
I love dogs, and I do feed mine at the table, they are my “kids” that I never had and its my house. I always wash the table after eating too. Sometimes I let the bird sit on the chair and the cat sits on the floor by the dogs. But I would never take my animals in a restaurant. But that is me.