Little Caesars in Kmart
From Service Dog Training
A man is thrown out of a Little Caesar's Pizza restaurant because he entered with his wife's service dog.
http://www.mncdd.org/news/inclusion-daily/2003/08/081203usaccessadv.htm
Look down at the second case mentioned in this article (the first one is worthy of an article in and of itself...in a nutshell: Costco won that one easily).
Let me summarize how I'm reading this story. A woman with MS goes into a Kmart. Her husband follows with a three month old German Shepherd service dog on a leash. The man goes to the counter of the Little Caesar's Pizza franchise in the store with his wife's service dog. He is denied service because he cannot prove it is a service dog. The man becomes belligerent and is arrested for trespassing. Turns out this guy had been kicked out two weeks earlier for the same reason and was coming back to stir up trouble. The expert the news article cites ""It's best if the dog is certified, but they don't have to be," explained Shannon Jorgensen, operator of K-9 Crossroads, an Oroville school that trains service dogs. "As long as the dog is well-behaved and not a threat to anyone, it should be considered a companion animal for the disabled.""
All sorts of problems here! First of all...this dog is three months old. At this stage in a service dog's life, they should be learning things like "sit" and "down" and "don't pee inside." While public exposure is good for service dog candidates, this is not a service dog and is not entitled to ADA protection. State laws may provide protection, but there is no indication that this dog is in training. This dog is apparently being passed off as, at the age of three months, a fully trained service dog.
Second...the dog isn't even with the disabled person! Can someone please tell me how this dog is assisting the woman with MS if the dog is in the pizza place with her husband (and the woman presumably elsewhere)? A service dog is a dog that performs tasks to mitigate the effects of a person with a disability, not a family member of a person with a disability. Even if this was a fully trained service dog, access rights belong to the disabled person, not the dog, and a service dog accompanied solely by an able bodied handler has no more rights than a pet. Huge red flag here.
Now to criticize the media's expert! Why is it best if a dog is certified? Is it because this expert charges a substantial amount of money to place "certified" dogs with individuals? (check out her website). And since when does well behaved and non-threatening make a dog a service dog? Never! Task training makes a dog a service dog...task training that is benefiting a person with a disability. And last but not least, a companion animal for the disabled is very different from a service dog. A companion animal is a pet. A service animal is a working dog. A companion animal provides love, affection and companionship! A service animal performs at least one task that mitigates the effects of an individual's disability.
Kmart and Little Caesar's had every right in my eyes to refuse access to this man and his wife's service dog. Summary...The dog was most likely not a service dog to begin with. The handler was not disabled, nor identified as a trainer. This happened in 2003...I'm trying to find any follow up. I'd be curious to see how this one turned out in the long run.
