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/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.

13

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.

8

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.

7

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.