Dining with Dogs – A Guide to Serving Customers with Furry Friends, A Blog by Fox Rothschild, LLP

Part I – Service Pets – A Blog by the Law Offices of Fox Rothschild, LLP – Carly Klein

Dogs are a human’s best friend – but are they the hospitality industry’s best friend, too? Restaurant owners may be wondering what their rights, responsibilities, and options are with respect to letting our furry friends patronize establishments with their humans.

There are different standards applicable to service-pets vs. non-service pets. This post focuses on the former and only sets forth information pertaining to service animals.

Use of Service Animals in Service Establishments

Service animals are allowed in any restaurant in California, pursuant to federal and California law, with certain stipulations. These guidelines are intended to provide direction on how restaurants can manage customers that bring animals into restaurant locations.

Legal Framework

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

An individual with a disability’s use of a service animal is protected by the ADA. The ADA requires reasonable accommodation by public entities and accommodations for “service animals”, meaning “any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability.” In some cases, miniature horses can be service-animals also. The ADA explicitly does not apply to emotional support animals.

California State Law

California law states that “interfering” with rights of a disabled person (such as disallowing them access) or interfering with their right to use a service animal is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine.

While service animals in training are not covered under the ADA, the California Disabled Persons Act allows people with disabilities, and individuals who train service animals, to bring a dog into any public place for the purpose of training the dog to provide a disability-related service. The dog must be on a leash and must wear a county-issued tag that identifies the dog as a service or assistance animal in training. The dog’s handler will be liable for any damage that the dog does to the premises or facilities.

Under California law, misrepresenting that a dog is a trained service animal is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and/or up to a $1,000 fine.

Who Are Service Animals?

Service animals are trained to perform a variety of tasks that can aid someone with physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, or psychiatric disabilities. The following are examples of responsibilities a service dog may be trained to do for its owner:

• Pulling wheelchairs
• Retrieving items (i.e., medicine, telephones, remotes, shoes, wallet)
• Navigating for visually impaired individuals
• Helping persons with anxiety disorders, PTSD, or other emotional illness by alerting their handlers to avoid anxiety triggers, by recognizing and blocking behaviors, etc.
• Reminding an individual to take medication
• Alerting hearing-impaired individuals of certain sounds or the presence of others
• Assisting their individual during a seizure
• Summoning help in the event of a fainting or seizure
• Calming an individual with a psychiatric disability during episodes of destructive or impulsive behavior
• Sniffing out allergens for individuals with life-threatening food allergies
• Providing balance support for individuals with mobility disabilities

Service animals do not need to be officially certified to be considered a service animal. They are also not required to wear a vest, collar, or other identification to indicate they are a service animal. The only requirement to be a service animal is that the dog be individually trained to benefit the person with a disability. Finally, service animals in training are not legally considered as service animals and are not afforded the same protections under the ADA.

Training Your Employees on Compliance with the ADA and California Law

According to the ADA, a business cannot ask for proof of a customer’s disability or that the animal is a service animal. Employees should greet and treat a customer with a service animal with the same hospitality as any other customer. The business is not responsible for providing food or water for the service animal; however. employees may offer a dog bowl with fresh water to the service animal.

A service animal must be under the control of its handler. Under the ADA, service animals must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless the individual’s disability prevents using these devices or these devices interfere with the service animal’s safe, effective performance of tasks. In that case, the individual must maintain control of the animal through voice, signal, or other effective controls.

The following Do’s and Don’ts provide additional clarity on training restaurant employees to handle customers with service animals:

DOs

• Employees may ask ONLY the following questions of customers with service animals: (1) if animal is required due to disability and (2) what tasks it is trained to perform for the individual.
• Employees can ask the customer to keep the animal on the floor if the animal is on a chair or table.
• Employees can intervene if an animal becomes disruptive, such as barking, growling, walking away from its handler, or bothering other customers. Allow the customer a moment to restrain and/or calm the animal, but if the behavior persists or if the animal urinates or defecates in the restaurant you can ask the customer to remove the animal.
• Employees should involve their manager immediately if a customer becomes disruptive or upset.

DONTs

• Employees cannot ask a customer if they have a disability or for proof of a disability.
• Employees cannot ask a customer for proof that the animal is a service animal such as asking for documentation or proof of certification or licensing.
• Employees cannot refuse service to the customer because they have a disability and a service animal.
• Employees cannot refuse service to the customer because they have allergies to the service animal.
• Employees cannot isolate patrons with disabilities who use service animals from other patrons, treat them less favorably than other patrons, or charge them fees that are not charged to other patrons without animals.
• Employees should not ask to pet the animal as this can be considered disrespectful to the handler and can distract the animal while it is working.

Employees cannot ask a person with a disability to remove their service animal from the premises unless: (1) the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it or (2) the dog is not housebroken. When there is a legitimate reason to ask that a service animal be removed, staff must offer the person with a disability, the opportunity to obtain goods or services without the animal’s presence.

In short, restaurants must welcome furry friends who are certifiably of service to their owners.  Owners and employers can use these guidelines to train their employees and communicate such rules to customers.

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