Restaurant Manager Refuses To Serve Soldier Over Guide Dog
By
Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 17, 2006
FAYETTEVILLE,
NORTH CAROLINA--A Fayetteville pizza restaurant has lost at least three
customers -- and faces a possible discrimination lawsuit -- after refusing to
serve a U.S. soldier, his wife, and a friend over a guide dog.
According to the Fayetteville Observer, Sergeant Major Colin Rich, who
has been blind since he was shot in the back of the head while in combat in
Afghanistan four years ago, was turned away Monday afternoon by the manager of
Tony's Pizza in the Bordeaux Shopping Center. The manager apparently told Rich
that his Labrador retriever mix, Indi, violated health codes and would have to
leave.
Rich said that when he pulled out a laminated, pocket-size version of
the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act to explain that the law requires all
public places to admit service animals, the manager got angry and refused to
listen.
The manager later said he felt bad about the situation, but did not
apologize or tell Rich that he and the dog could stay.
Rich said he has contacted a lawyer and is thinking about filing an ADA
complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
He added that he and his wife decided to take their business to another
pizza restaurant in town.
Related:
"Guide dog gets blind man booted from restaurant"
(Fayetteville Observer)
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=244662
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Reproduced here under special arrangement
with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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