Unfortunately people who do not need a service animal but want to bring their pet in to a venue make up the overwhelming majority of persons trying to bring in service animals.

This arrogance and selfishness unfairly brings a level of skepticism from venue operators and makes life unnecessarily more difficult for those in need of a service animal in a public space.

THIS ^

If one person gets bit the owner is where the lawsuit is going, legit service dog or a fake one wearing a sweater.
I do not know if each state has it's own verification paperwork or it's national, but I'm sure it's as abused as handicap parking permits are.

That being said, I was like "WTF is a dog gonna do if it's owner has a heart attack, give CPR?", and a quick google search gave the pretty amazing answer...

"Cardiac alert dogs are service dogs that have the innate ability to warn of impending drops in blood pressure (typically seen in individuals with cardiac syncope conditions) which often cause loss of consciousness. Advance warning allows the individual to take essential medication, lie down, rest, and elevate their legs if needed."

So if your friend is an attorney I would expect him to follow up with law enforcement, as I'm guessing the is a fine to be paid by the arcade, or a real big apology.

Yes, the jackasses who had to bring a peacock on a flight or take their miniature horse to the baseball game ruined the chances of those with legit service DOGS to be welcome without scrutiny.

Lots of people on this planet suck.

I have no problem with a service dog in my business.

If I don't know the person or dog, I will ask for documentation that it is indeed a service dog. I've only had one so far. I've had a few trying to bring their non service dog in wearing the service dog vest.

LTG : )

It is illegal to ask for documentation.

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html

.

I didn't know that. Thank you.

I can do two checks :

In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform?

LTG : )

My in-laws have a service dog, and in all the travels we've done together all over the US we've never been turned away anywhere even when "no pets allowed" signs were displayed. The key is that the animal must meet 2 criteria: 1) be individually trained for disability work, and 2) perform tasks that are directly related to the person's disability.

By ADA law, a true service animal must be allowed access to all public access in the business. However, if the animal is misbehaving the business owner does have the right to ask for the animal to be removed.

Here's a concise article that explains in more detail: https://pawsforpurplehearts.org/wearing-a-service-dog-vest-isnt-an-all-access-pass

I apologize for your friends treatment in my city and state. I will make sure that the Start Bar knows that I will never set foot in their place and I will also let my friends know what happened there.

I've lived in St. Louis all of my life. I will no longer try to defend this area. Every day it's something new and disgraceful. Most everything you read in the papers or hear on the news about this city, state and many of it's elected officials is the truth.

I will most likely catch some heat for saying all of this but I do not care an longer. It's hurtful and embarrassing to live here.

I encourage everyone to read this book. This shit has been going on for centuries here.

pasted_image (resized).png

You do not have the right to ask for verification sad to say.

I didn't know that. See post 6 and 7

LTG : )

I’ve been out of work for what feels like a decade and totally forgot about this kind of drama. I cannot wait to get back to work and normalcy and walking the tightrope of the law and threats of litigation.