Ejected in Service Dog

Today was a first. I actually got kicked out of a store because of my service dog. No, it’s not because she was acting up, causing a scene, or damaging anything. She was just minding her own business, standing calmly at my side while I shopped, but I was told she had to leave.

First the guy tried to be “reasonable.” He said she was too big to be in the store. There just wasn’t room for her. Then when I said she was a legal accommodation, he changed to say that he can’t allow animals in the store. “You can just tie her outside.” Um… No… I’m not tying out a dog that’s valued at $10k outside on the street in the sun in the summer. That’s asking for her to get sick from the heat or stolen. That’s just not going to happen, even with today being reasonably cool. On top of that, she has a legal right to public access, as protected by the ADA. I even told him about the ADA, and he still refused to listen.

Honestly, if I was there by myself I would have just told him to call the cops. They could tell him about my legal right to access and they weren’t going to remove me from the store. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was just shopping. And legally I have the right to shop in the store with my service animal, so I wasn’t doing anything wrong and would just be asking the police to support my complaint. I mean, what are they going to do? Tell the police officer I’m not allowed to have my service dog in the store? And if they still choose to make me leave?

But Oz and Link were with me, so Oz just said we should leave it, put my stuff back and we’ll just shop somewhere else. I didn’t even put anything away. I left my drink on the table for them to put away and walked out of the store, insisting loudly that they’ve lost the business of our entire family and I would be telling everyone I knew about their discriminatory policies.

The funny thing? The guy kept insisting that he didn’t want to lose our business, he just couldn’t allow the dog. He’d be happy to serve us if we’d just tie the dog outside and come back in. I just had to understand that if he let me in with a dog, everyone would come in with their animals and he just couldn’t allow that. If we’d just take her outside… Then as we were leaving he told us he’d be happy to see us again, just come back next time without the dog.

So, maybe this isn’t the best way to handle it, but I got home and I told everyone on Facebook about my experience with this store. Then I put up a review on Google. Then I put a review up on Yelp. Both of which included that the business discriminated against me because I have a service dog. I also heard back from a friend that she’s offered to drop a copy of the ADA law off at this business every time she happens to be driving through, if I can just show her where to print it up. I’ve also been advised to go down to the police department and see if they’ve got any advice on how to handle it. I’m also going to call the office of disability on Monday to see what they can do about it.

And what am I going to do about the whole thing? Each and every time we know we’re going to go by that shop, I’m just going to print out a copy of the ADA law on service dog accommodation and give it to the guy behind the counter. This will be paired with a brief explanation of, “I was told I’m not allowed to have my service dog in this store, so I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the laws requiring access for my service dog. This is a copy of the ADA requirements. Have a nice day!” And then not buy anything, just drop the information and leave. I mean, there’s nothing illegal about going into a store and not buying anything. I’m not damaging anything. I’m not harming anyone. I’m just delivering a statement of the law that protects my right to walk into the store with my service dog. Yes, it’s a little petty, but it’s not illegal. And, honestly, it’s not like I’m going to do it every day for my duration of living here, because that could be for years, and talk about a waste of paper and ink! But I’ll keep with it until I get bored with it, or maybe just until it gets cold out and we don’t walk by there anymore, taking the bus instead.

But more than anything, I’m annoyed that in this day and age people aren’t aware of their requirement to accommodate people with disabilities. I can’t believe with all the talk about service dogs and all of that, these people weren’t aware. And I think part of it is a cultural thing, because not all cultures are big on dogs or animals, but still…

So, here’s hoping I make an impact and a future service dog handler doesn’t have an issue going in that store. Here’s hoping showing him the law makes a difference. Maybe the disability office and the police can step in to enforce the law. I’m really hoping this has a lasting impact, because this is the future of the world, where people with service dogs should have equal access and should be treated like any other shopper. Hopefully this effort will put me one step closer to that.