Disabled vet, service dog denied entry to grocery

Posted 2015-11-05 02:26 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

NEW ORLEANS — The Office of the Louisiana Attorney General is looking in to why a disabled U.S. Army veteran was told he could not shop at a grocery store with his service dog.

Sgt. Robert Wright said he was not allowed to shop for groceries at a local store twice, because he depends on a service dog.

“The owner told me that he wasn’t going to serve us,” Wright said. “We needed to get out of his store.”

Sgt. Robert Wright got his Bull Terrier ‘Penny’ eight months ago and said she changed his life.

“Yes indeed. It’s nothing like it. You wouldn’t believe how I was before and how I am now. It’s like night and day,” said Wright, who serviced from 1968 to 1971.

With mental disabilities of PTSD and depression, and physical ones such as heart disease, diabetes, lung cancer, COPD and a stroke, Wright said he can’t function without her.

Wright has filed a complaint with New Orleans Police Department, and he also had investigators from the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office take his statement after he tried to shop at the Downman Road Discount Market and was turned away twice.

“He just told me he knew the law and he had enough money to pay the fine and we were put out of his store,” Wright said. “I was just trying to get some onions and sausage. That was it.”

Turning away service dogs can result in a fine up to $500, six months in jail or both.

Co-owner Sam Hamed said he was unaware of the service dog law. Hamed said his store has an extensive meat counter, and he thought the health department could shut him down if dogs came in.

“Health department doesn’t allow us to have any dogs in the store because we serve food and we serve, like, hot food and raw meat,” Hamed said.

U.S. law states service dogs can go to restaurants and salad bar lines but not in a kitchen where food is prepared. A business can ask the dog owner to leave if the dog is not acting under complete control of the owner.

The supermarket now says this was a misunderstanding, and Sgt. Wright is welcome back.

“Now if the health department is fine with it, I guess we gonna have to be fine with it too because it’s part of the law,” Hamed said.

Downman Road Discount Market will need to respond in writing when they get the attorney general’s complaint.

The store owners said some customers are scared of dogs, and Sgt. Wright said he hopes people will understand service dogs are kind and highly trained.

These service dogs are supplied free to veterans from the non profit program DoggoneExpress. They are saved from local shelters and trained in Louisiana prisons. There are many veterans on the waiting list. More information about the program can be found here.