Wal-Mart clerk tries to kick my sister and her seeing eye dog out of the store.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Some people’s lack of common sense just has me baffled.

So, two of my sisters go to Wally World in Podunk, Oklahoma. One of my sisters has about 5 percent vision in her left eye. If you don’t know how much that is, close one eye, cover the other one with three fingers, and try to look out of it. That still might be more than what her vision is. She went blind from misdiagnosis of glaucoma and then, mistreatment. She was 37.

So, they go into the store with her very sweet seeing eye dog, Heidi. A very smart German Shepherd. Heidi has a sign on her that says, “Working Dog, Please Do Not Touch.” My sister has on the “blind person sunglasses” and my other sister is quite obviously explaining to her everything around her, what the smells are, how busy the place is, etc.

Mr. Brilliant comes up and says, “You aren’t allowed to have dogs here. Take it outside.”

My sighted sister says, “Um, no, this is a seeing eye dog.”

“Store policy. We don’t allow pets. You’ll have to take it out, NOW.”

“This isn’t a pet. This is a working dog. She can go anywhere.”

“No, she can’t. You need to leave.”

“I want to see the manager.”

He gets huffy, angry, is very irate. Storms off to get the manager. Manager comes, sees what’s happening, and goes apoplectic. Apologies galore. Clerk gets even more red-faced. No apologies, nothing. Well, he didn’t have much of a chance, because as soon as the manager apologized, he turned on the clerk.

You know, even if this guy didn’t know about seeing eye dogs, don’t you think common sense would have told him that a blind person in the store with a properly labeled dog would have some kind of rights?

Stupidity baffles me.

2

Petty dictators get blinded by their own ego. And there’s no mistaking a seeing eye dog, those signs are huge and cover like every part of the dog but their head and their feet.

3

Good for the manager. I hope the dumbass clerk got fired.

4

At least the manager was able to see what an idiot he was. It’s amazing how stupid people are about guide dogs, though, isn’t it? I’ve had blind friends with guide dogs, and never ceased to be astonished at what they go through. How can there be ANYONE in this country who doesn’t know guide dogs are allowed EVERYWHERE?

5

My sympatheses Heloise.

My ex was blind and had a guide dog.( In truth I loved the dog more than him but that another thread!) We could get into the strangest places with him … and then all of a sudden we’d walk into a restaurant and be told “You cant bring that dog in here.” My ex was a very calm man and he’d explain things and offer a card that he carried that was printed with the relevant law. Usually it worked with no problem… but once I very nearly called the police to come explain it to them. We finally got in but then the harrassment began, shitty service, messed up bill, stupid cashier. We should have complained but we were young…

I must say hotel managers are the best for seeing that the guide dog is properly taken care of… we had one that even offered to send a staff member up to take him out.

Better luck at Wal mart next time. Hopefully the same clerk is at the front… your sisters can smile and wave sweetly to him;)

6

Well actually not everywhere… the ICU at the hospital requested he not go in… fur in ventilators is a real hazard!

And the big cat house attendent at our zoo asked us to talk him out as he was agitating the tigers to no end!

Oh yeah… I gots lots of stories about that dog… I SO miss him…

7

I hear you, Krisfer the Cat, my sister has had some people be really awful to her, although she’s had some really nice ones as well.

What never ceases to amaze me is that some people, for some reason or other, refuse to believe that she’s actually blind. Maybe because it happened later in life, I don’t know, but some people still insist that she’s faking it. And then, they’ll do mean things to her, trying to prove she can see. I don’t even want to write about some of the embarrassing situations that she’s been put in by people that just suck!

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I know this is gonna sound rude , but i honestly don’t mean it to be . Are blind people with guide dogs required to carry bags to clean up after these dogs ? What happens if " Tippy " decides to take a dump in the shampoo isle of Walmart ? What if Tippy pees on the booth at Denny’s ? Seems a bit unfair to require stores to clean up dog dirt . And if i was eating at Lonestar and looked across the isle at a shedding dog , nice as it may be , I’d enjoy my dinner a bit less wondering if a stray hair will soon land on my steak .
I understand blind people have special needs , but isn’t there a way to find a middle ground ?

9

You know, they really do NOT give guide dogs to people who can see. That’s fairly obvious. Person+guide dog = blind. Of course, expecting people to appreciate the obvious is probably, at the least, naive of me.

Do people talk to the folks with your sister like your sister is deaf and retarded as well as blind? I’ll never forget walking into a restaurant with one friend and the hostess asking me, in that piercing stage whisper that could be heard by everyone in the restaurant, “Can she read Braille? Do you think she wants a Braille menu?” My answer: “I don’t know, why don’t you ask HER? She’s blind, not deaf!” Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the most courteous response, but she was being so RUDE! (My friend liked my answer…which is good because she’s one of those blind folks who’ll kick your butt if she thinks you’re treating her wrong!)

So where are pictures of Heidi so we can appreciate her beauty and intelligence???

10

Not as unfair as preventing blind people from using stores, restaurants, and other public places. Or at least, I imagine that’s the story from the Americans with Disabilities Act perspective.

What middle ground are you proposing? That your concern about stray dog hair trumps a blind woman’s need to eat in public or use a supermarket?

11

[Nitpick]
I think some seeing people get the guide/helper dogs to train and stuff. Not 100% sure.
[/Nitpick]

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It’s not like these dogs aren’t thoroughly trained (this is the web site of one company that trains guide dogs, with some information on the process). I’m pretty sure that most blind people are courteous enough not to let their dogs shit in anyone’s store (especially since it’d be hard to tell if anyone saw you…). As for shedding, it’s not a problem for a well groomed dog.

13

Yes, they do, but I don’t think that’s what she meant. My sister isn’t a sighted dog trainer, pretending to be blind so she can get special privileges.

14

True, true, but that’s why it’s a nitpick.

15

Can I field the question about the dog relieving itself?

Guide Dogs, at least the ones from Guide Dogs for the Blind out of San Rafael, Ca. are trained NOT to relieve themselves when their harnesses are on. Properly trained dogs can go quite a few hours between potty breaks ( And a hell of a lot longer than I can!) Their human companions are supposed to take them for potty breaks as often as possible.

As far as hair goes, gimme a break. You are far more likely to get a server’s hair in your food but you don’t seem to patronize restaurants run by skinheads. Our dog would crawl under the table and lie there quietly until we were done eating.

Mama Tiger: that was the thing that brought my blood to a boil the fastest. That and servers that would ask ME what he wanted! We got so that when they would talk to me I would sign “What?” to him. He would sign some nonsense to me and I would sign nonsense back to him. Then J, my ex, would say "Well I want this and she will have this. Many a server skulked away in embarassment!

16

I don’t know about anywhere else but in Utah the dogs are trained by 4-F kids. Those dogs can go ALMOST anywhere as long as they have their identifying 4-F “coats”(for lack of a better term since its 2 am) on. The kids with them are not allowed to pretend to be blind.

Anyone who tricks a blind person just to see if they are really blind is truly a maggot. And not worthy of inclusion in the human race.

17

Tell 'em to go back to Walmart and walk by the clerk chanting “We called Bentonville”. If his ass unclenches in a month, he’ll be lucky.

The Walmart in Cleveland, Texas had to pay a HUGE amount of money to get a woman to drop a discrimination claim over the use of a service animal. Three million comes to mind. Wally World’s lawyers are REAL careful about this issue. Now.

18

I love going to Jack Boot In The Box!

19

Isn’t Wal Mart going belly up anyway? Sue the ever lovin’ snot out of them. :slight_smile:

Seriously, what a horrid story. Well, it all ended well, and the manager was smart about it (although he could perhaps have offered $50 of free shopping or something along those lines, I suppose). But what an idiot that clerk is! How old was this brainiac?

What always amazes me about seeing eye dogs is that they’re so calm. There’s this blind guy in my neighbourhood, and I sometimes watch him shop with his dog. She’ll take him across busy streets, around kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk illegally, she’ll stop or move away when she sees someone is on a collision course with them… and all the while, her tail’s wagging and she’s giving you this grin. Almost like she’s proud to be able to do all of that! Well, she should be. That’s a German Shepherd too, BTW.

I donate to a training institute for seeing eye dogs regularly. Think I’ll make another donation, after reading this story.

20

splort

POF’d