No Dogs Allowed
A U.S. veteran has been banned from a Connecticut grocery store after the dog she uses to help her balance and reach low lying objects defecated in an aisle of the store. Despite cleaning up the mess herself, the store asked her to leave and not return.
Now, the woman is considering a lawsuit, claiming that the ban is in direct violation of the ADA. According to representatives from the store, the dog was not on a leash while it was making its mess, and it is the store’s responsibility to maintain public health.
While it seems that it’s one person’s word against another, these incidents are never as cut and dried as either party wishes them to be. If this does end up in court, it will be interesting to see what evidence is presented and who turns out to be wrong.
Now, many of you are responsible guide dog owners and I know that our own writer, Steven Famiglietti, has experienced something similar with his dog. What are your thoughts on this?
To be fair, there are two possible scenarios. The first is that the woman’s dog made a mess in the store and she apologized and cleaned it up herself. In this instance, the problem would have been addressed and solved by the owner and the store should absolutely not ban them from shopping there because of that. I can understand if they would be upset about it, but banning her is too harsh.
On the other hand, if the dog was not on a leash at the time, then the store may be well within their rights to ban the woman from shopping there. For reasons above and beyond what the dog did in the store, what if a child came up to it and provoked a biting. While the dogs are highly trained, it is very possible that this could have happened. If that was the case, then I believe the store would need to be responsible for their other patrons and ask the woman to leave.
Without the appropriate evidence, this is all conjecture, but it does create an opportunity for discussion. Feel free to share your thoughts in submission to the reader’s forum or comments on the site.
To read the original article, please go to http://www.courant.com/community/north-haven/hc-veteran-dog-banned-0803-20100802,0,7473252,print.story