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NORTH HAVEN, (AP) - A disabled veteran says she has been banned from a Connecticut supermarket after the dog she needs for help with some tasks defecated in an aisle, despite her cleaning up the mess.
Kim Mucha of Wallingford says the ban imposed last month by the Big Y Supermarkets store in North Haven is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and she's considering a lawsuit.
If a dog is not "trained" I can see the supermarkets point of view... the dog pooped in SEVERAL locations in the store, obviously this dog was not a trained dog... its a walking health hazard in a GROCERY store no less... I think the attorney (the little greedy bastard) is just hoping to make some money with these kind of fraudulent lawsuits along with the pathetic plaintiff.... its disgusting...
If the article is true and the dog was not on a leash I can understand the concern. Also, if the dog defecated twice, as an owner of a highly trained animal she isn't meeting her animal's needs. She should have had the dog go before they entered the store.
This isn't an instance where the store is banning all service animals, just this one owner that doing the right thing.
She says she needs her dog, Ivy, for balance and reaching low-lying items, because of injuries she suffered while serving as a military policewoman in the Air Force.
How is a dog going to help with this? Maybe a shopping cart, where she can hang on to it as she reaches down or something...but a dog?
It goes to the way society is these days. The disabled vet is not resposible for her behavior, but expects everyone else to be accountable for theirs. It is a shame she can not realize that her dog was in the wrong and should take it and go shopping at a different store and work with her animal to prevent this from happening elswhere.
There are training facilities who will train your dog with you to certify it as a dog for such needs. She need only seek them out and with a bit of training, she can take the dog to public places legally and few will object as the process of training this animal resolves the issues such has occurred with her dog in this store.
Location: East Texas, with the Clan of the Cave Bear
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Simple issue here ... the animal is not "house trained" and sounds also to have some health issues if it is defacating numerous times in a short period..
If the dog is certified and was wearing the proper garment signifying that it was a service dog, then I'm more apt to side with the woman. If the dog was just a pet, then that doesn't fly.
I 'trained' one puppy through my 4H group that eventually became a service dog...those dogs go through crazy training starting from the time they're born.
The article does not say that the dog is a certified Service Dog... so I'm inclined to believe that this particular dog is just a pet who helps her. If that is the case, then I can completely understand the ban. However, if the dog is indeed a true Service Dog, then I can understand a partial ban until such time as the dog will no longer take a dump wherever it likes.
In either case, this woman needs to be retrained in proper care of a dog. A little bit of personal responsibility goes a long way.
I'd give her a second chance. If her dog is a service animal, that kind of thing happens very rarely (and never for most service animal users). I think if she goes back and it never happens again, she should be allowed in the store. If it makes the store feel better, they can require her to go back into training. If it happens again, even after training, then I would say it's reasonable to ban her. But sometimes things like that happen and since she cleaned it up herself, she took responsibility.
The service animal issue seems to be so divided. I wish more people would come up with compromises.
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