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Citizen complaint of the day: South Boston Starbucks going to the dogs
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Comments
Hahah I love that dog hamming
Hahah I love that dog hamming it up for the camera!
I don't know, I'm cool with well-behaved dogs in places if they're away from food and not bothering people. I've brought my dog to the patios of some restaurants in the Cambridge area (granted I either worked there at the time or made sure it was fine with the owner and other patrons before doing so) and also in Montreal and random places in Vermont.
Though last week I saw a Pomeranian running wild through the CVS in Downtown Crossing, barking at people and peeing on displays while the owner waited in line for prescriptions. That's way over the line (though it was hilarious, the dog was having a great time), on top of everything the employees at that location deal with enough on a daily basis with the humans in that area.
goat
I've seen a pet goat on a lead in outdoor restaurant/cafe seating in Manhattan.
yah, but when the JP feral cats...
..start showing up for a warm chai and milk, then what?
Got no problem with it.
Maybe its just me but unless the dog in line is biting people or making a mess, I have no problem with it. The 2 dogs in the picture look like they are better behaved than some of the yuppies I've seen in that Starbucks. It's a good bet they are friendlier too.
no problem with dogs...
in stores.... it's the people that bring their dogs into stores that is the problem:
a well-trained pet should be able to fetch a regular and a cruller and deliver to the owner tied up to the parking meter without checking their email, texting, small-barking with other dogs, doing what dogs do, and generally forget about their lonesome whimpering owner outside.
My Thanks
As a dog owner who has put a ridiculous amount of time, effort, and money into seeing that his little buddy is well-behaved, sociable, and obedient in public settings, my thanks. He's just a corgi, so I don't have to contend with the big-dog stigma, but just the same, I recognize that when we are in a store, or just out on the street, that we are representatives of the dog-owning community; and that's a responsibility we both take very seriously.
While, starbucks is challenging because of health codes, I do hope that more and more businesses become more dog friendly. It's better for dogs, because unfortunately, there will be those awful owners who will just tie them out, or leave them in the car.
But this is why obedience training is so important. Yes, it's time and effort, but when I can go shopping with my dog, or have meal on the patio with the knowledge that my dog will be on his best behavior... it's more than worth it.
WTF people?
I am starting to see more and more dogs in restaurants.
I like dogs, too
I've got no problem with dogs in certain places, but I've also seen people have very strong allergic reactions to dogs, something that can happen well after the dogs have left. Bringing your dog into an eatery is both short-sighted and selfish.
Why would a dog
being in line in Starbucks, on the floor, for two minutes be any more likely to trigger an allergy than if it passed you on the sidewalk outside? I know folks with bad dog allergies but unless they're in a confined space with a dog or touching it, not a problem. I doubt that anyone here is actually sitting down at a table with their dog.
It'd be great if there were
It'd be great if there were hitching posts outside places with lots of dog-toting customers to tether the dog to (you'd be surprised how hard it can be sometimes to find something to tie your dog to) or window service for people that can't come inside because of a dog. Everyone's needs are met with little effort or inconvenience.
Adorable!
Adorable!
The same
People who pick up their dog crap then throw the bag in the gutter.
No, I think those are other
No, I think those are other people.
Take a look at the original picture in the complaint, and tell
me: does that dude look more like a so-called yuppie, or somebody from the old-school-Southie side of the divide?
The dog itself isn't really a good clue: I see plenty of old-timers walking little dogs like that around my City Point neighborhood.
Not good to stereotype
Not good to stereotype
What, is this your first time on Uhub?
Scoob made the comment earlier: "The 2 dogs in the picture look like they are better behaved than some of the yuppies I've seen in that Starbucks. It's a good bet they are friendlier too."
Some Southie old-timers seem pretty confident of their yuppie spider sense. I'm just curious: how exactly do they know who's a yuppie? Do they all wear suits or yoga pants? Boat shoes? Their choice of space saver?
My point is that you can't tell by the dog. Also, the dog's owner in this photo isn't wearing any of the stereotypical yuppie signifiers often cited by self-styled old-school Southie types on this board.
Yuppie signifiers???? Old
Yuppie signifiers???? Old-timers??? Who's profiling? You are.
Just fell off the turnip truck into Uhub, too?
I can only assume this is your first time here, anon, or you'd already know about Uhub's years-old discussions of gentrification-driven tensions between self-styled longtime Southie residents and more lately-arrived "yuppies". The threads here are endless: double parking on Broadway, improper use of space savers, foo-foo new restaurants and bars and shops, resident-only parking on weekends, etc., etc.
You've hit on exactly what I'm getting at, which is how people on both sides of this obvious divide identify "the other". There is indeed stereotyping going on by all parties; Scoob's earlier comment is from someone who clearly thinks he knows a Southie yuppie when he sees one. ("Profiling" is something different: it's usually used in the context of law enforcement or homeland security authorities singling out minorities for extra scrutiny.)
My question is: how do you think you know who's a yuppie and who's old-school? And my point is: it's not always as obvious as you might think. Yuppies sometimes wear scally caps; old-school types often have teeny pedigreed yappy dogs. The guy in the picture is a good example: what bucket would you put him in?
Huh?
I may be missing something obvious, but why would it matter either way?
My point is that in just about any Southie thread here,
someone is quick to jump on one camp or another as "badly-behaved", "rude", "self-entitled", "unfriendly", etc., and it cuts both ways. I was just struck by the ambiguity of the guy in this picture, and used it to make the point that the old stereotypes have giant holes in them. I'm arguing against them, not trying to reinforce them.
someone is quick to jump on
...and who did that here? Again, am I missing something, or did you just decide to fire a pre-emptive shot across the bows?
That ship had sailed by Comment #2
See Scoob above on ill-behaved, unfriendly yuppies in that Starbucks.
what is the law exactly? anyone know?
if you leave your dog tied up outside, someone will steal your puppy!
No Animals
No Animals where food is cooked or served, except for service dogs.
True. But here's a little known fact
If you bring a dog into an establishment and claim it's a service animal if questioned by the staff, the staff legally cannot challenge you to prove to them it is a service animal.
Which is one of the reasons why so many entitled dog owners force everyone else to put up with their pets in places like Starbucks.
Yup
This is the catch 22 to the law.
However, shame on the people who use the loophole to force their pets on everyone else simply because they cannot be asked.
And its unfair to the business. Now they could get a citation for trying to enforce a law that they can't enforce because they can't ask.
Law only applies to staff, right?
Nothing stopping every customer who's already in the place from starting to ostentatiously cough and itch...
Almost correct
You cannot ask about the person's disability, but you can ask about the service animal. You can ask the following:
if it is a service animal, and what tasks the animal has been trained to perform.
http://www.ada.gov/svcanimb.htm
If the animal has not been trained to perform any tasks, it is not a real service animal.
There are at this point more fake service animals than real service animals out there, as any idiot can buy a "certificate" or a marked vest on the internet.
"Comfort"
You say you had some traumatic experience and the dog provides much needed comfort. This is the golden ticket to bringing a dog anywhere, at any time, irrespective of the dog or the truth.
I love dogs. My username name is dog. But it's really infuriating you can disrupt many people's lives for your own personal enjoyment.
Not quite as bad as that.
Not that there aren't plenty of people lying that their dog is a service animal when it is not, but the rules draw a distinction between "emotional support animals" (a.k.a. 'comfort') and service animals. Service animals are trained to perform a specific job to assist a person with a disability. For example, PTSD dogs are trained to detect a PTSD crisis, turn on a light, bring medication, hop up on the bed and lick the face of someone having a nightmare flashback, etc.
Service dogs are allowed in food establishment. Emotional support dogs, therapy dogs, etc., are not. Someone who asks to bring his "comfort animal" into a restaurant is not entitled to do so under the law.
Read the hilarious article
in the New Yorker from a few weeks back about phony emotional support animals--at this point it's a free for all. The reporter brings--at different times--a turtle, a pig, an alpaca, and a full grown tom turkey into various establishments including Chanel and the Four Seasons in boston for tea claiming that they are support animals.
Link
It was a funny article, but it also made my blood boil; so many entitled idiots abusing a system set up for people with very real needs.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/pets-allowed
An older lady brought her dog
An older lady brought her dog on the #7 bus Saturday. I thought it was inconsiderate to bring an animal into a confined space.
I've seen dogs in Sephora too. I think it's gross to bring animals around food and makeup-testing venues.
dogs are allowed on the T
it's up to the driver's discretion if it's too crowded for a dog to get on a bus, but they are allowed.
dogs are also allowed on the subway, except for rush hour.
I guess I'm just not used to
I guess I'm just not used to the trend of bringing dogs out on the town. They look out of place to me.
Is it a new trend?
I'll defer to the historians, but it's my sense that many years ago it was much more common to see dogs in the workplace, etc. than it is now. For example, many fire stations used to have a dog (usually a dalmation) but no longer.
Compared to some of the people on the T
the animals I see are better behaved, cleaner, and more predictable.
ayup
At least they can't take up an extra seat by throwing their over-sized shoulder bag on it!
Generally speaking, I find that dogs on buses/trains are fine, because a dog will have to be well adjusted just to be on the damn things. I've been part-time service dog training, and a good portion of that involves getting them to watch the commuter rail buzz by without losing their s*.
And that's how it is with dogs... if they are reactive in any way whatsoever, they're just going to go buckwild on a bus or train, in which case, even the most entitled of owners would think twice before bringing their dog on board. And if there is a dog there, it's because the owner is conscientious of their dog's tolerance to big loud scary things, and decided that they were up to the challenge.
It's Not Just Gross, It's Inhumane To Test Makeup On Animals!
What?
So I'm supposed to buy my pitbull a $30 tube of mascara without testing it on her first? Now THAT would be inhumane. Pitties have notoriously short eyelashes, you know.
Food?
Sephora has food?
No
Sephora doesn't have food. I have shitty grammar skills.
Anything is food if you're brave enough.
*nm*
That would have been a
perfect tag line for Buzzys Fabulous Gross Beast.
It's Just Like Europe!
So, it's cool!
Normally the only
animals allowed in business establishments are service animals (seeing eye dogs, hearing dogs, assistance dogs). They are trained and vetted. These are pets. Businesses have no way of knowing how the animal will behave and these pets can cause problems for service animals.
Pets are not prohibited by
Pets are not prohibited by law in businesses other than restaurants (though of course business owners can make their own rules).
At the DD on Newbury there's
At the DD on Newbury there's always people bringing dogs in. They get tangled up in the line divider thing, jump on the counter and some owners even toss donut ppieces to them. It's very unsanitary and the employees always seem too timid to say anything since a lot of angry foreign tourists are usually the ones bringing them in.
Angry foreign tourists
bring their pets to Boston? That must have been some flight with Fido...
"Foreign"
= "from west of 495".
I mean, I guess...scratching my head here...
Tossing doughnut pieces?
I can't really imagine that people are literally placing their animals on the counter at DD's but as far as eating doughnuts off the floor...again--who cares? How is it unsanitary or affecting you in any way?
Longstanding health regulations at the Federal and state
level prohibit animals (except service animals) in restaurants, and maybe the city has some regulations about them, too. The only way I've seen this skirted in Boston is on outdoor patios, with the animals leashed so they're sitting outside the patio area. I can think of plenty of reasons why this is a good idea, and I like dogs.
Mentioning counter top space
Mentioning counter top space at Dunks, honestly I hate seeing kids being propped up on the counter tops either. Seeing a kid sitting on the counter I think is very unsanitary, as would a dog.
If the sample set here is any
If the sample set here is any indication, a ballot measure to repeal Boston's ban on pets in food serving establishments would pass handily.
Who's with me???