What To Do If A Restarant Refusesyuor Service Dog?

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Commodity contributed by Matthew C. Berger

If you're like us, you've seen countless articles and stories in the news recently about the literal menagerie of animals taking to the air with their humans on airlines and boarding with their humans in apartment buildings as "emotional support animals." You may, then, be forgiven for request yourself, "if these animals are immune on planes and in apartments, do I need to allow them into my restaurant, too?"

Fear not, for even though federal and New York state and city laws offer patrons of public accommodations—which include restaurants and dining establishments—significant latitude with their service animals, information technology is unlikely your customers will be forced to dine adjacent to an emotional support peacock, squirrel, or rabbit whatsoever time in the almost hereafter. However, information technology is likely that you have, or will soon, be faced with a client seeking to enter your eating place with a dog. Are you required to permit the domestic dog into your restaurant? How practise you know if the dog is actually a "service canis familiaris?" What are your obligations and rights as a eating place owner when it comes to allowing dogs entrance into your business? To help you navigate the different laws governing service dogs, the answers to these questions are discussed beneath.

What is a "Identify of Public Accommodation"?

Here in New York City, admittance of "service" animals—not pets or emotional support animals—to places of public adaptation is governed by federal constabulary (the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA")), state law (the New York Land Human being Rights Constabulary ("NYSHRL")), and urban center law (the New York Urban center Human being Rights Constabulary ("NYCHRL")). Public accommodations include, but are non limited to, restaurants, hotels, theaters, medical or dental offices, pharmacies, retail stores, grocery stores, museums, libraries, parks, schools, gyms, day intendance centers, banks, hair salons, taxis, factories, warehouses, and office buildings. Under the ADA, the NYSHRL, and the NYCHRL, a place of "public accommodation" is generally divers every bit (1) a private entity that owns, operates, leases, or leases to, a place of public adaptation, (two) a provider, whether licensed or unlicensed, of goods, services, facilities, accommodations, advantages or privileges of whatsoever kind, and a place, whether licensed or unlicensed, where goods, services, facilities, accommodations, advantages or privileges of whatsoever kind are extended, offered, sold, or otherwise fabricated available, or (3) a not-residential commercial facility whose operations touch on commerce.

Must a Restaurant Allow Service Dogs?

Yes, unequivocally. Under the ADA, the NYSHRL, and the NYCHRL, places of public adaptation, including restaurants, are prohibited from discriminating confronting individuals with disabilities or perceived disabilities (whether the disability is physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or whatever other mental disability) or denying comprisal to and/or the equal use and enjoyment of any public facility because an individual has a disability. Appropriately, restaurants must permit individuals with disabilities to bring their service dogs onto the business premise in all areas customers are mostly allowed or the public is invited (even if the eating house has a "no pets" policy or animals are prohibited by state or local wellness codes). Additionally, restaurants must admit service dogs for costless; they may not impose whatever deposit, fee, or surcharge to admit a service domestic dog, although a fee may exist imposed if the service dog causes damage (every bit long as the restaurant charges non-disabled customers for the aforementioned blazon of harm).

However, the restaurant is not responsible for the care or supervision of the service dog, nor is it required to provide food or a special location for the creature. Further, restaurants may exclude or remove a service dog if information technology misbehaves in a manner that poses a threat to the health or safety of others, such as if the dog urinates or defecates indoors, or menaces or bites at other patrons (and the disabled patron is unable to command it). If, however, a service dog must be excluded or removed from the premises, the restaurant should give the individual with a inability the pick of continuing to enjoy the goods or services without having the fauna on the premises, or find an culling for the private, such as, for case, offering have out from the restaurant.

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How Do I Know If a Dog is Truly a "Service Animal"?

service dogs restaurants While some service dogs wear special collars or harnesses (all easily purchased on Amazon), and others have identification papers (over again, hands obtained for purchase online), individuals are not required to conduct documentation for their service domestic dog, and restaurants may not require documentation or proof that the canis familiaris is a trained service animal before admitting the service dog onto its premises. So how, then, can you be sure the dog is a trained service creature?

The brusque answer is y'all can never be 100% sure. Even so, there are 2—and only two—questions that a restaurant may ask an private who seeks admittance with a service dog: (one) is the beast required because of a disability; and (2) what piece of work has the beast been trained to perform? If the individual responds "yes" to the starting time question and credibly describes the services performed by the dog to alleviate some aspect of his or her disability, the patron and the dog must be admitted.

While the tasks that service dogs are trained to perform are many, by and large service animals are trained to perform piece of work or tasks direct related to the individual's disability, such as:

Assisting with navigation (blindness)
Assisting with stability and balance (mobility impairments)
Alerting individuals to sounds (deafness) or allergens
Pulling wheelchairs
Conveying and retrieving items (mobility impairments)
Seizure assistance
Interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors (psychiatric and neurological disabilities)

While this list is not extensive, the mutual theme is that the dog is trained to perform a specific, defined task or tasks related to a disability. Appropriately, "comfort" or "emotional support" dogs that are used for emotional back up, well-being, condolement, or companionship do not autumn inside the definition of a "service beast" and are therefore not required to be admitted to the restaurant.

It may be daunting the commencement time you need to make a judgment call on whether to admit a service canis familiaris, merely as long every bit you sympathize that federal, state, and metropolis police offer broad protections to individuals with disabilities, and you call back the two questions you are permitted to ask, you lot volition find the process less intimidating than it appears. And when in doubt, err on the side of albeit customers with service dogs, every bit the fines for violations of the ADA, NYSHRL, and/or NYCHRL tin can exist steep.

For more information about this commodity, advice and counsel regarding your rights and responsibilities as a public accommodation provider, or for service creature training for your employees, please contact Carolyn D. Richmond at 212.878.7983 or crichmond@foxrothschild.com, Glenn S. Grindlinger at 212.905.2305 or ggrindlinger@foxrothschild.com, Matthew C. Berger at 646.601.7658 or mberger@foxrothschild.com, or any other member of Fox Rothschild LLP'southward Labor & Employment Department. Visit us on the web at https://www.foxrothschild.com/hospitality/.