Starbucks needs to be mindful of customers with service dogs

Few understand the overall impact a service dog has on a person with physical disabilities. Some service dogs have the ability to sense when a seizure is coming for their owners, while others can help their blind owners cross the street safely. It is appalling when some businesses refuse to acknowledge such animals, and worse, the people that need these animals for daily use.

This was the case for 24-year-old Amy Kaplan of Brighton, New York last week when Starbucks turned her away because of the presence of her service dog. According to NBC News, Kaplan suffered a tragic brain injury in a car accident that left her with memory issues and anxiety, and, according to USA Today, she suffers from a severe form of bipolar disorder. Her dog helps her manage these issues, so her need for it in a crowded place like Starbucks is critical.

As seen on the YouTube video that Kaplan posted of the encounter, a Starbucks employee told her that she could not “come in with [her] service dog” and that he could “see no proof that that’s a service dog,” to which Kaplan had to attempt to justify her dog’s presence in the store by referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a business is only permitted to ask a customer if his or her animal is a service animal and what service it has been trained to perform. Its placement in society is to prohibit “discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities,” according to the United States Department of Labor. The Starbucks incident with Kaplan seems to be in direct violation of the “public accommodation” aspect of this law, which is disturbing.

This isn’t the first time Starbucks is making headlines with this issue, however. Just last February, U.S. Army veteran Yancy Baer was told he could not enter a Texas store because of his service dog, Verbena, who he’d gotten after a leg amputation due to bone cancer in 2009. Baer, in an interview with Fox News, recalled that after he had stated that Verbena was a service dog, the employee said blankly, “You’re not blind.” This case, and Kaplan’s, both happened at Starbucks, but the repeat seems to point to an issue of ignorance on a larger scale.

Though there are some cases in which people have abused the use of service dogs, the need for sensitivity in such cases is still a priority for many people in need of service animals. Though there is not a specific solution to this problem, considering that no one can legally ask for a service animal’s documentation, educating people on the importance of respecting the business of service animals seems to be the most prudent policy.

In response to the actions taken against Kaplan, the regional vice president for Starbucks tried to call and email her an apology, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. Kaplan felt that the gesture was appropriate, but that Starbucks needs to better train its employees with regard to handling customers with service animals. Employees should be willing to accept the answer “this is a service dog” from a customer if asked about his or her animal, and they should not further question the customer. Even if the customer turns out to be using the explanation disingenuously, it’s better to let someone slip through the cracks once than to deny a customer his or her guaranteed rights.
Chelsea Hernandez is a senior majoring in English (creative writing). Her column, “Foot in Mouth,” runs Wednesdays.