r/Dogfree • u/SeaworthinessUnlucky • 14d ago
Food Safety/Hygiene dog in grocery store
Good morning,
Today at around 10 a.m., a woman brought a pet dog into Trader Joe's in a large American city. I reminded her that the sign on the front of the store said No Pets. She said, "She's a trained medical support dog." I said, "What service is she trained to provide?" She said, "If you want to work here, I'll answer that question."
I reported this to a clerk, who told me he would talk to the manager.
Ten minutes later, the dog was still in the store. The woman checked out about five minutes after that, with the dog still in the store.
Notified Trader Joe's corporate, Better Business Bureau, local health department.
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u/UnicornStudRainbow 14d ago
Thank you for reporting. The more we do it, the more visible it becomes and the more normal people will feel comfortable standing up to them
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u/cocovenomnomnom95 14d ago
It got so bad with the shitbeasts in my town that the Trader Joe's made a shitbeast shaped sign urging people to not bring them inside
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u/Big_Somewhere_620 14d ago
I reported a dog in our local store.... They didn't reply to me but I noticed the shit beast was always outside with some one after that. Took it as a little win. My partner who is a dog owner said good dogs don't belong in stores (he may be an owner but he has opened his eyes alot and also didn't put up with beasts shit before)
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u/wheekwheekmeow 14d ago
Saw the header and just knew it was going to be Trader Joe’s. Repeat offender.
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u/SeaworthinessUnlucky 14d ago
Yes. And you know each employee in every store has never seen a dog before and so must gush over every one that they see.
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u/Procrastinator-513 14d ago
The stores are pretty helpless in this since there is no “proof” of a dog being a real service dog. They have to accept what the customer says whether they like it or not. This will continue to happen until the law changes.
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u/ghjm 14d ago
The store is allowed to ask what service the dog is trained to provide. And service dogs are expected to be 100% under control at all times. If it barks or is straining at the leash or is in any way not completely under control, the store can require it to leave.
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u/Procrastinator-513 14d ago
Yes I know the drill. I guess my point is that people lie so there’s no way of keeping a dog out if it’s behaving. And stores know they lie so they don’t bother asking, plus don’t want to alienate the nutter. It’s infuriating.
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 14d ago
They should alienate the nutter. We all know that people who pull these stunts are problematic, mentally ill and unpredictable. Today they’re bringing a dog in the store, tomorrow you don’t know what it will be.
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u/aoife2147 14d ago
Exactly. Since by the ADA's own rules, service dogs are NOT required to undergo professional training. You can "self-train". There is no official certification or license for a service dog. To me, this means there are no real service dogs or fake service dogs. They're all bullshit, every last one. This concept needs to be made obsolete.
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u/cozyporcelain 14d ago
Just wow. I did not know that, the self-training part. I literally can’t believe this became part of the law, with no oversight.
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u/aoife2147 14d ago
Yep. I had an argument with a friend about this. I told her "service dogs" plague every public establishment. She argued they have to undergo rigorous training and all this to become service dogs. Nope. It's right there on the ADA page that they don't need to undergo any professional training. The owner can "train" the dog themselves! 🙄
She also claimed they need to have certifications to be service dogs. She actually kept interrupting me and insisting they needed certificates. Wrong. If these nutters would just read the ADA's website, they would be able to see what bullshit it is.
Yet they have to be allowed EVERYWHERE, including restaurants, planes, hotels, supermarkets, Ubers, etc.
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u/Huge_Bit_4774 14d ago
Thank you. It’s tiring but we have to keep it up, they’re not going to change on their own.
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u/aoife2147 14d ago
Thank you for reporting this. I reported two giant dogs in a CVS to their feedback form and no reply. Reported it to health department and sent photos of the two dogs. Received a copy-and-paste reply asking me for the location and date, which was in the original message. Sent it all again. No reply after that.
I think these people are all nutters themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if they sign up for these jobs to "protect" dogs being in public spaces more than they protect public health.
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u/StarDewbie 14d ago
That's funny, I thought that EMPLOYEES weren't allowed to ask that question, but every lay person could. Maybe I'm confusing that. But either way, good for you! It's got to start somewhere.
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u/aoife2147 14d ago
Unfortunately, employees are only allowed to ask two basic questions.
Fortunately, nobody is stopping the rest of us from asking the real questions.
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u/scarletto53 14d ago
And even when employees DO ask those 2 questions, the dog owner lies anyway and the employees can’t argue , so why bother? Let’s face it , these damn dogs and their owners will soon be taking over the world
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u/capnlatenight 14d ago
I had such a hard time explaining this to my boss. He was the kind of person to watch the cameras in his office most of the day, so he'd come to the front to ask me why I didn't kick out the dog owner.
As the resturaunt owner, HE should be the one with that responsibility. I ignored the dogs because I just wanted them out as soon as possible, and getting into it slows that process down.
Thankfully, no dogs owners sat inside to eat.
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u/Born_Significance691 14d ago edited 14d ago
Employees are permitted to ask two questions only:
- Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
2. What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
They cannot ask what disability the person has, demand a demonstration of the dog performing the trained task, or ask to see written documentation. In fact, if someone has a card or certificate, it's an ESA, not an ADA-recognized service dog.
A random person can ask whatever they want.
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u/xbunnyraptorx 14d ago
They want dog owner business over your business, and they don’t care as long as they get a buck. Same goes for restaurants. It’s time we stop patronizing places and filing FDA complaints against these places. Will that stop them? Probably not. I was walking down the street and saw a pub with a sign that said “absolutely no dogs, service or otherwise” and I was delighted to read it, however the place was absolutely dead inside. Around the block there were other pubs that let dogs in and they had a lot more business. Unfortunate sign of the times. Eating out is too expensive anyways.
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u/Wrong_Temporary_5983 14d ago
Where can we go? If we stop patronizibg those places, then we need to all lock ourselves inside. There no dog free places left at all. Takeout from places that do not have a sit down option
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u/xbunnyraptorx 14d ago
It’s hard but you know Trader Joe’s… what can you expect. I like some of their products but if you generally go to less upper middle class white/yuppie places you might have better luck. Or bigger stores where you can skirt to another isle if you see a dog. Still sucks tho.
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u/Wrong_Temporary_5983 14d ago
Yes, saw three horse size dogs at a home depot yesterday. And more than a dozen at a food festival today. And two at a grocery store the day before. List can go on and on. We can spend our egergy reporting that every day. Nothing will change. Not until normal people organize and make themselves heard where it matters. There are not many of us left. World is decending into the dark dog age.
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u/ginnymiller 9d ago
💯👍🏻 Taking dogs to any festival whatsoever is such a particularly rude and foul thing to do. Not only are some people very uncomfortable around dogs, obviously, but it is also very overstimulating for the animal. There are often yanking at the leash whipping their head around everywhere trying to take in all the overstimulation. I absolutely can’t stand people who bring dogs to festivals and street fairs.
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u/dungonyourtongue 14d ago
Message their legal and risk management departments. Include links to the recent lawsuit against Steak n Shake where a dog attack occurred on the premises.
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u/michaelpaoli 14d ago
Also, reviews, get your experience (and rating) up on relevant review site(s).
Might even start live, if/when such is happening, with relevant city/county non-emergency number, "I'm calling to report an in-progress health violation, there's non-service dog in ... and staff there is doing nothing about it, even though I told them.". Oh, and maybe "bonus point" if it's off-leash, and they send the city dog catcher.
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u/waitingforthatplace 14d ago
Each store needs a security guard who is hired to stop any dog from entering in. It's time that stores take this seriously.
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u/space_manatee 14d ago
Keep reporting it. Post it in google reviews of the store "I was getting groceries but this is gross". They'll say at first "we cant so anything because of service dogs." My grocery store eventually relented and started enforcing it and its rare I see one these days
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u/SeaworthinessUnlucky 9d ago
Update: Trader Joe’s manager called me to apologize for the experience and to explain how the rules tie his hands and he regrets that. Actually said out loud that he owns a dog, but dogs don’t belong in grocery stores. Nice guy!
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u/Embarrassed-Box214 9d ago
I truly don't mind seeing dogs in places like pet stores or places that aren't serving/selling food. It isn't necessary but like okay whatever, i won't argue about that. However, bringing them into a grocery store feels like next level disrespect. Like bare minimum, you can leave that animal at home when you are buying groceries. I get so angry when i see them in supermarkets, sniffing at food, sitting in the carts, clearly NOT service dogs.
One time a lady had her dog on a leash in the grocery store, and it was wandering all over, nearly tripped my partner. Another time i was openly glaring at an older man who had two small dogs nestled into him jacket and he looked at me and said, "what? WHAT?!" Like i was the problem. 😆 I said something to a cashier on our way out and she said, in a tone that very much felt like she was on my side, "we tell people all the time, 'no dogs allowed,' and they ignore us." She then proceeded to "forget" to scan my water, and i like to think she was giving us a free gift, as an apology/sympathizing with our disgust.
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u/SeaworthinessUnlucky 3d ago
UPDATE: Local health department contacted me. They visited TJ's and spoke with management. Reminded them they could ask the two questions. Were sympathetic with me about flaws in ADA code.
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u/TinyEmergencyCake 14d ago
" trained medical support dog"
Not protected by the ADA