Rev. Dr. William Barber II was escorted out of a movie theater in Greenville, NC, on Tuesday afternoon after he was not allowed to use his own chair to watch a movie.
Honestly, I can understand how this happened. You have assholes bringing dogs that aren’t genuine service animals everywhere because they feel entitled. So a low-wage, untrained employee makes an honest mistake when confronted with something they haven’t seen before and calls bullshit at the wrong time. He shouldn’t have been kicked out. But our society taught the untrained employee to be suspicious. It’s sad.
I feel like bringing your own chair to a movie theater, and bringing an animal that has the potential to cause real damage to either property or persons and could be loud and annoying, are two different circumstances.
But I have a little anecdote about people bringing their damn pets everywhere. Currently, I have a kiosk set up in my local mall for the holiday season (we’re almost done anyway) and I’ve seen SO MANY PEOPLE bring their pets to the mall - which isn’t pet friendly, btw - one of which is an old woman that brings her fully grown Great Dane to just roam the mall for a while. Just last night, that old woman almost lost control of her giant dog, because he decided he felt threatened by something/someone and started barking really loud and trying I snap at them. Another time just last week, someone just let their dog shit all over the floor and didn’t even bother to clean it up.
Apparently my state didn’t actually require any official paperwork, let alone training, to say your dog is a service animal. They can just fucking say it’s a service animal, even if it’s a tiny teacup poodle that they literally push around in a stroller, and no one can do a damn thing about it. And it’s not like there are rules posted that say “service animals only” - oh wait, there is!
Honestly, I can understand how this happened. You have assholes bringing dogs that aren’t genuine service animals everywhere because they feel entitled. So a low-wage, untrained employee makes an honest mistake when confronted with something they haven’t seen before and calls bullshit at the wrong time. He shouldn’t have been kicked out. But our society taught the untrained employee to be suspicious. It’s sad.
I feel like bringing your own chair to a movie theater, and bringing an animal that has the potential to cause real damage to either property or persons and could be loud and annoying, are two different circumstances.
But I have a little anecdote about people bringing their damn pets everywhere. Currently, I have a kiosk set up in my local mall for the holiday season (we’re almost done anyway) and I’ve seen SO MANY PEOPLE bring their pets to the mall - which isn’t pet friendly, btw - one of which is an old woman that brings her fully grown Great Dane to just roam the mall for a while. Just last night, that old woman almost lost control of her giant dog, because he decided he felt threatened by something/someone and started barking really loud and trying I snap at them. Another time just last week, someone just let their dog shit all over the floor and didn’t even bother to clean it up.
Apparently my state didn’t actually require any official paperwork, let alone training, to say your dog is a service animal. They can just fucking say it’s a service animal, even if it’s a tiny teacup poodle that they literally push around in a stroller, and no one can do a damn thing about it. And it’s not like there are rules posted that say “service animals only” - oh wait, there is!