QFC, Quality Food Center, Owned by Kroger allows dogs in their Cap Hill store

People with dogs are going into grocery stores here in Seattle. All the owners of the stores can do is to ask if the dog is a service animal and the dog owner can lie and say yes.

I have seen dogs in shopping carts (at the Capitol Hill QFC), defecating on the floor, fighting with other dogs and more recently fornicating, yes, fornicating while the dog owners stood by chatting.

This concerns me as I literally almost died from an animal allergy. Spent eleven days in the trauma ward at Harborview. The firemen called the hospital to see if I had survived.

I do understand the plight of the disabled person. I was a para-transit driver for almost 3 years and know about service animals and the rights of the people who use them.

What I am proposing here is that a true service animal have an identifying tag of some sort that is regulated by the government. Something that distinguishes them from other animals. Disabled persons need a placard for their car to park in designated areas , I also think they should have something for their service animals so others who are not using service animals can not take advantage of the situation.

Comments

[Brittany Couts]

I 100% agree. The federal government has already defined what a disabled person is. Now, they need to define what a service animal for a disabled person is, and implement a licensing system. A registry with with a federally provided tag sounds great.

The safety of not only shoppers but their children is at stake any time a non-service animal is present. Even the nicest dogs can snap at the blink of an eye, especially among strangers in an unfamiliar environment. I think stores might finally get the full understanding of liability when a child is injured from a pet while in their store. I don't wish it, but I think it's an eventuality.

On a selfish note, I'm tired of worrying about putting my produce in a cart where a dog's a***ole was not an hour ago.

I'd be happy to sign an online petition to the government, I just don't know the process. Do we start at the city, the county, the state? Or do we go federal out of the gate?

I can't decide if petitioning at grocery stores would be more or less effective than an online petition...

And for the record, I love pets and I hope to have a dog soon. But I won't be bringing him into the supermarket unless I suffer a horrible accident and have him trained to assist me.

[Jax]

It is funny that you post this now. I, just the other day, had to deal with a woman who brought a large dog into the restaurant I work in. The dog was very badly behaved. I have been the the food business for 10 years and I know exactly how a service dog behaves and how I should behave around a service dog. For example, when I approached the table the dog began to wag it's tail and raise it's head toward me for a pet. Service dogs do not do this! Of course I had to ask the lady if her dog was a service dog and she showed me a very small tag on it's coller saying service animal. I tried to explain that because of health department rules I had to ask because we could be shut down for allowing dogs into our business. To that she replied it wasn't her responsibility nor did she care if her bringing her dog in would cause that. I tried to apologize and tell her that I wasn't trying to be rude just following rules and orders from my boss. Again, she stated she didn't care and that I should just leave her and her dog alone. I know that you stated that service animals should have some kind of identifier but I feel that many just like this women would take advantage of that as well. I think that there should be more rules that help protect businesses. The identification is a great idea and would help cut down on the impostor service animals but I am sure that just like this lady many would find a way to continue to duck the rules.