Who was BU here

[knicknackkarriewhack]

Sorry this is long. Was in a (chain) pizza takeaway and witnessed this. Customer probably in her sixties came in with an assistance dog, clearly wearing identification as such. Dog extremely well behaved. Didn’t hear her give it any commands, it never took it eyes off her, sat when she stopped, was glued to her side when she moved. It obviously was well trained and knew its role. She ordered from the young lad and stood at counter. Then an employee approached and she quite aggressively said dogs weren’t allowed. Customer answered it’s an assistance dog. Employee said it’s not allowed. Customer said under the equalities act 2010, the dog is classed as an auxiliary aid, and offered proof. Employee declined proof and moved away. Then about two mins later employee came back and said seen as you think you’re allowed in here can you move over there. Customer said sure and moved. She sat on a bench, dog immediately sat beside her. Employee then came out into the shop and started shouting at the customer and told her that she was being offensive by coming into the shop, and wasn’t allowed. Customer kept her composure and said I don’t know why you’re shouting at me, employee said because of the dog. Customer said I only have the dog because of my disability, so you’re shouting because I’m disabled. Employee then said you’re not effing disabled. Customer replied thank you I’ll take that as a compliment, it taken me 5 years to learn to walk after spinal injury, and are you aware that neurological disabilities aren’t visible. Employee was very intimidating and kept shouting at her to leave, customer refused. Who was BU , the employee for shouting or the customer for not leaving when asked. To be honest I was so impressed by dogs behaviour and how the customer kept her cool. Customer collected her order thanked the young lad for being polite and left. I did see her wiping her eyes as she passed the window. It was all very unpleasant and unnecessary. Imagine being treated like that just trying to buy a pizza.

There isn’t time to read all posts on all threads but I’d RTFT before posting my opinion. Reading the OP’s posts is a minimum.

Sorry to hear this happened to you OP, I hope you get somewhere with your complaint.

I hope you write a letter of complaint to the company

It's a sad state of affairs that you even felt it necessary to ask who is BU.

Clearly the staff member. I hope you get somewhere with complaining to the head office. They should be absolutely ashamed of how you were treated by their employee.

Name and shame the chain.

What diabolical behaviour.

Well done that customer. I doubt she'll go there again abd honestly I'd boycott a place with that employee working there too.

You should have RTFT

I have an assistance dog and it is awful you have experienced such discrimination. My dog was trained by one of the big charities and I have never been questioned about my dog or asked to leave anywhere. I have a lab so my dog looks like a classic assistance dog, I'm wondering if you have another breed. I know it shouldn't make a difference but if it isn't a classic lab looking dog it might confuse people a little.

And you could have easily read all her posts for further info

Ironic isn't it that:

a) there are hundreds of posts every week with "lying" OPs who change details not to be "outed" (like the fact their husband has a hobby or they have a pushchair for their toddler -the latter a true one from yesterday)

b) a disabled poster who does a reverse BECAUSE the last time she was verbally abused in public because of her disability she was also abused and attacked on here, gets attacked again by disablist posters not giving a fuck about the fact she was abused, but because she did a reverse.

Just goes to prove that they don't all work in coffee shops I suppose.

@1stTimeMummy2021 yes, IIRC from the April post the op has a much smaller ‘handbag type’ dog, that she trained herself, so that might be what’s confusing people.

My sister has a ‘classic’ assistance dog from a charity and she’s never been questioned on it, let alone screamed at so it does seem a reasonable assumption.

Please report this to head office. Most chains train their (minimum wage) staff quite well to avoid this sort of thing. They hate bad publicity.
Unfortunately many restaurants that appear to be chains are actually franchises and may not do all the training that they ought to so even more important to report it to the people whose name is on the wall.

Please do report, OP. And I wish you would tell us so we could boycott. Head office bears the responsibility for lack of training, even for a franchise

It doesn't actually matter because the store manager was still in the wrong

It does matter -

Service animals such as guide dogs are given legal leniency in many circumstances, being allowed in places other animals are not. Currently, in the UK, the laws that protect assistance or service animals do not include emotional support animals.

Have to admit I just assumed that the dog was a guide dog, or a hearing dog for the deaf - not an "emotional support dog".

Sadly, anyone could abuse this and claim that any animal was there for emotional support. One of you could even take me into the place! 😁

@Achwheesht @Emotionalsupportviper I mean it doesn't matter because the store manager didn't take the time to consider any option.

However, in the previous thread OP said the dog's a registered assistance dog - so a legal guide dog

I didn't think there was any formal way of registering an assistance dog in the UK. That's part of the problem. You could have a dog registered with one of the well known providers of assistance dogs. But you could also have an assistance dog you've trained yourself who is registered with nobody. Both dogs have the same legal status in the UK.

Yes, there is no mandatory 'register' for assistance dogs in the UK.

You can have a dog supplied by one of the ADUK charities, one of the non ADUK charities, owner trained in conjunction with one of the organisations that do that, or owner trained with the support of a general dog trainer.

As long as the dog performs physical tasks to mitigate the owners disability and is well behaved in public, thats really all you need. They don't even have to wear an identifying jacket/lead sleeve etc (personally I think it is silly not to but there are times it may be appropriate).

Having registers and only charity trained dogs would prevent many people from having an assistance dog at all, which is why owner-trained is an option.

There are very few places where you cannot take an assistance dog - some sterile areas of hospitals - in a taxi IF the driver has the appropriate medical certificate from a Dr, which is registered with the licencing authority and carried on them at the time (I think!)

There are also very few places where you can be asked to prove your dog is well trained before you visit - for air travel is the only one I can think of, because obviously they can't kick you off mid flight!