'AITA for telling another customer in a restaurant it's gross to let her dog smell people's food?'

"AITA for telling another customer in a restaurant that it was disgusting to let her dog smell other people's food?"

For background: (Let me preface this by saying that I love dogs, just not next to my food.) I was picking up my food from a popular salad chain in NYC when I noticed that another customer was in there with her dog. She was holding her dog up -- it wasn't on the ground or in a bag-- and it's face and paws were all up in people's food pickup orders.

It's a dog so it was sniffing. I get it, dogs are curious especially around food. But I also saw the dog outside before going in and saw that the dog urinated on the ground prior to going into the restaurant and that it's paws stepped into its own urine. I was disgusted to see that its paws were so close to the food, in addition to its face sniffing all around everyone's food.

I noticed that not all of the lids were fully covering the food waiting for pickup. I told this person that I thought it was disgusting to hold her dog up so close to everyone's food. I left the restaurant and she followed me outside basically harassing me.

She said that her dog was a service dog. I told her I didn't know what that had to do with the fact that she was holding her dog up to other people's food and that was still disgusting for people who are picking up their own food orders.

I asked why she couldn't just put the dog on the ground or in a bag when she went inside the restaurant, but she just kept repeating that it was a service dog. I realized that I wasn't going to get through to her with my point so I left, but she just kept shouting at me as I was trying to walk away. AITA here for calling this person out and saying that it was disgusting to let her dog be so close to other people's food?

The internet did not hold back.

rockology_adam wrote:

NTA. Service dogs don't get up on counters to smell people's food. Service dogs are supposed to be well-trained enough to be in public WITHOUT causing health issues. Even if it was a service dog, unless it's helping her read her name on the labels, it has no business being near people's food.

Personally, while I love dogs in general, the entitlement of some people with their dogs in other people's space is disgusting enough that I've told restaurant staff about the health violation of having a dog on a tabletop and had the staff make them put the dog on the floor. So, you're not the problem here. She is, and her so-called "service" dog ruins the reputation of actual service dogs everywhere.

Apart-Ad-6518 wrote:

NTA. "I also saw the dog outside before going in and saw that the dog urinated on the ground prior to going into the restaurant and that it's paws stepped into its own urine. I was disgusted to see that its paws were so close to the food, in addition to its face sniffing all around everyone's food."

That is disgusting.

Service dogs are also usually well trained/behaved ime. If it is a service dog she needs to take responsibility & see that happens.

R4eth wrote:

NTA. She was lying about having a service dog. Service dogs are well trained to not be a nuisance in public. They're there to be a service to their owner. The fact this entitled owner was using the service dog name to cover up her dogs disgusting behavior was abhorrent.

These people ruin the reputation of service dogs everywhere and cause restaurants and other public places to have to be more cautious of real service dogs.

Mecistops wrote:

Last year, a woman stalked and har-ssed me because she put her bare feet on the communal table at a local coffee shop. I went to the staff to raise my concerns about her bare, sweaty feet on a table I'd literally just had my food on. She claimed that me not wanting her sweaty feet next to my pastries was discrimination against her because she had leg pain, and elevating her feet helped her enormously.

(There were plenty of chairs in the restaurant that she could have used to rest her feet on. Perhaps not a hundred percent couth, but INFINITELY less gross.) Apparently my complaint meant she was no longer allowed to use the coffee shop tables as a footrest, and she harassed me for a MONTH over it.

Accommodating a disability does not require food service industries to accommodate literal food safety issues. A service dog, for example, can very reasonably be asked to wait on the floor while the person with the dog is standing beside pickup orders. NTA.

Suitable-Tear-6179 wrote:

NTA. The issue wasn't that it's a service dog. The issue was that it's owner was holding the darned thing up to everyone's food. Putting the dog down, as you suggested, would have solved that. Heck, angling her body to the side so the dog was further away from the food would have worked. None of those actions would affect the dogs ability to do it's service.

Most people I know are very contentious on making sure their service dog blends into the setting, and couldn't be considered a nuisance/hygiene risk. I hate to say it, but this type of person makes me question if the dog was actually a service dog. Which hurts people with actual service dogs.

TurtletheMoon wrote:

NTA. Ugh. I honestly don’t know how society still exists. People who falsely claim their pets are service animals are among the worst that humanity has to offer. It’s getting to the point wherein legitimate service animals and their handlers are meeting greater resistance than ever because of prior bad experiences with untrained emotional support animals.

Without diminishing the importance of emotional support animals, they aren’t service animals. They aren’t trained for responsible interaction in crowds, and they don’t provide a service their handler is physically unable to perform for themselves. All these entitled people who want to bring Fluffy to the IHOP are actually making it harder for disabled folks to live their lives.