Birthday dinner disrupted over service dog issue

[responsiblek9]

http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/02/01/972111
 
Published: 12:00 AM, Mon Feb 01, 2010
Birthday dinner disrupted over service dog issue
 
Kat Royal can never recapture whatever happy memories she may have missed when her birthday dinner went terribly wrong.

But she can try to make certain the same thing doesn't happen to anyone else.

Royal was born with spina bifida, a condition that has made walking progressively more difficult for her. So when her husband, Micah, took her to the Olive Garden for her 28th birthday, they brought along her wheelchair and her service dog, Isaiah.

[Roxie]

Wow. They sure handled that situation with grace and dignity.

Roxie

[fledchen]

I think that the restaurant should have moved the family with the frightened child to a different part of the restaurant, not the couple with the service dog.

[Sheenar]

They definitely should not have put the couple with the service dog into an isolated corner of the restaurant. Talk about making someone feel unwelcome...

I think she handled the situation wonderfully and I hope good comes out of it.

[responsiblek9]

http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/02/08/973825

 
Published: 07:09 PM, Sun Feb 07, 2010
Readers say family should have moved
Kim Hasty


My column last week told of a situation involving a Fayetteville woman, Kat Royal, who was moved to the back of the Olive Garden restaurant when a child was frightened by her service dog.

[responsiblek9]

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7265351

Disabled woman says restaurant violated her rights
Updated at 06:43 PM today

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- A Fayetteville woman says her rights as a disabled person were violated at a local restaurant.

Katharine Royal was born with Spinal Bifida. It's a condition that's made it difficult for her to walk.

So she has a service dog, Isaiah, to help her get around.

"If were in need to go from the wheelchair to another chair... or the wheelchair to a bed," Royal said. "So mostly it's all mobility assistance type work."

Royal was shocked last month when an employee at the olive garden on McPherson Church Road asked her and Isaiah to change tables.

[cowlypso]

Wow... those comments on that last article are really something!

i would consider my rights violated if i had to eat in a public place with an animal! it was a birthday party, and she was in a wheel chair and what was the use for the dog? foolishness!

Give me a break. The article stated she needed the dog to transfer. Why would she need to transfer from her wheelchair to a chair at the table. She was accomodated with a table so why the complaint?

[Gretl2009]

I thought I lived in a service dog ignorant area but those people really take the cake.  Unbelievable!!!  The person who made the comment that they would feel their rights were violated by being made to eat in public with a dog...wow...I can't even begin to fathom that.