Blatant discrimination against service dog handlers.
My wife and I visited on March 15th. I am a disabled person that uses a service animal to mitigate my disability. After waiting in line several minutes, an employee approached and said that even though my service animal is well behaved, she had to leave as they do not allow any animals in the store for any reason because they make food on premise. She then added that we must not have seen the sign in a condescending tone.
I have several problems with this encounter:
1. Service animals are granted access where the public is granted access, regardless of health code via title 3 of the ADA. This right is further enforced by state law.
There are very rare exceptions where a facility that is both open to the public and manufactures food is able to deny access to service dogs. This is limited to restaurants where access to the kitchen is part of the experience. But as a general rule, if the kitchen is not directly accessible to the public, the areas that are accessible to the public must be equally accessible to disabled people with their service animal. This store had a food prep area behind a counter and WOULD NOT be exempt from requiring access for service animals.
2. The condescending comment about the sign is ridiculous. I understand that Fredericksburg is generally dog-friendly, so I naturally assumed that the sign meant no pets. That is a reasonable request. It does not specify service animals in any way.
3. The employee wouldn't go far enough as to actually ask me to leave. This is a major problem because I've been discriminated against, but don't have any meaningful documentation. Usually, you would be asked to leave, then you refuse until the police arrive to trespass you. The police either inform the owner of the state law (they are not able to enforce federal law), or they formally trespass you and provide an incident report. I could then use that incident report as proof and sue at both the state and federal level for discrimination. It also makes filing a request for criminal charges much simpler.
4. The person refused to identify herself. I don't know if she was the owner, a manager, or a rank and file employee.
Without that paper trail, I'm upset, no longer wish to support their business even if they would serve me, and don't have the necessary support to escalate in a meaningful way to correct their behavior for the next guest with a service animal.
In short, I can't speak on the chocolate as I was not permitted to sample or purchase anything due to having a service animal. Every other restaurant and store in Fredericksburg was perfect for me and my dog. I'm not sure why this is the one shop that doesn't know the law. read more