Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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Grande-Venti rant about possible fake service animals at my store?? Help Please! (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by sbucksbarista
I’m very confused. The store I work at is in a plaza that allows dogs, but none of the food/restaurants allow dogs in store unless they are service animals of course. The other day, we had a woman come in with a dog that was wearing a service dog vest to get an iced coffee fixed that she ordered at a different store (I guess she was just passing by ours?). We did not say anything about the dog and we gave her a brand new iced coffee despite only having the sweetener missing in hers. She went to the condo bar to put in milk and her dog started barking and tried to bite another customer. He looked like he was throwing a tantrum and did NOT look like he was a service dog. From the experience I’ve had with a friend’s service dog, they do not bark and DEFINITELY do not try to bite other people unless they are told to or their owner is in immediate danger. Is it possible she just bought the vest and put it on her dog so she could come in our store without getting yelled at? The dog was very clearly not trained and I have no idea what provoked her dog to act out like that. I started working at this job to save up my own money to get a service dog since my brother was recently diagnosed with a disability and he can’t work, and seeing someone’s “service dog” act out like that made me very upset because I feel like if I can finally afford to help out my brother his dog is either going to act out like that, or she is just abusing the policy and abusing laws everywhere that allow disabled people to have service animals. With all that being said, is possible hers was not actually a service dog? Isn’t it illegal to do that? What can my store do to not distrust every animal that comes into our store wearing a service dog vest?
PleaseFeedTheBirds 11 points 3y ago
If an animal is acting in a way that endangers other customers, you have full rights to ask the owner to remove them. The safety of those in your store is more important than anyone's right to be there. Service animal or not.
ashykiinz 8 points 3y ago
From what I've read online we are not allowed to tell customers they can't come in because their service animal is "fake". We aren't allowed to ask for any kind of certificate to prove it. So you just kind of have to deal with it.
PleaseFeedTheBirds 6 points 3y ago
We can't ask them to leave on the grounds that the animal isn't really a service animal, but we can ask anyone to remove a safety risk.
ashykiinz 2 points 3y ago
Yes. I should have been more clear. Thank you :)
PawtismSpeaks 1 points 3y ago
The ADA specifically allows the removal of even a legitimate service dog if it’s not housebroken (potties inside), out of control (barking all crazy would count, a single bark would not, and could be an alert), or is a direct threat to others (trying to bite someone definitely counts, as could growling/ snarling at someone unprovoked).
Also, you can ask two questions (and only two questions). The first is “is that a service dog required for a disability?” Obviously any fool can lie to this. The second is “what work or tasks is it trained to perform” (note: do not ask them specifically what their disability is, just the dogs tasks). This one, the fakers usually aren’t prepared for.
It’s not as much about a right answer as it is about wrong answers here. Any tasks that would mitigate someone disability would count. Wrong answers include “emotional support” (the ADA is very clear that ESAs are NOT covered), and “you can’t ask me that!” (You can, and anyone with a legitimate service dog will be aware of it and prepared to answer it). Obviously you should only ask these if the disability isn’t readily apparent. Please don’t ask a clearly blind person what their dog does. Yes, they’ll probably answer it, but it would be considered incredibly rude (and unnecessary).
Anyway I hope that helps, I’ve included the ADA FAQ info below. You may want to print this out to keep up at work for you coworkers too. It’s 8 pages, but a pretty fast read.
https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.pdf
Also, you can ask two questions (and only two questions). The first is “is that a service dog required for a disability?” Obviously any fool can lie to this. The second is “what work or tasks is it trained to perform” (note: do not ask them specifically what their disability is, just the dogs tasks). This one, the fakers usually aren’t prepared for.
It’s not as much about a right answer as it is about wrong answers here. Any tasks that would mitigate someone disability would count. Wrong answers include “emotional support” (the ADA is very clear that ESAs are NOT covered), and “you can’t ask me that!” (You can, and anyone with a legitimate service dog will be aware of it and prepared to answer it). Obviously you should only ask these if the disability isn’t readily apparent. Please don’t ask a clearly blind person what their dog does. Yes, they’ll probably answer it, but it would be considered incredibly rude (and unnecessary).
Anyway I hope that helps, I’ve included the ADA FAQ info below. You may want to print this out to keep up at work for you coworkers too. It’s 8 pages, but a pretty fast read.
https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.pdf
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