Posted on 09/20/2002 5:14:59 PM PDT by Cagey
Reba Shaw has gotten used to explaining that her yellow Lab, Bonnet, is not a pet but a guide dog helping her move past the shadows of legal blindness.
"My dog has ridden on Amtrak, flown with me on a plane, the whole nine yards," said the 36-year-old Marietta woman, a quality assurance supervisor at SunTrust Bank. "I've had some problems, but I had always been able to educate people before."
Until, Shaw said, she and her fiance tried to get a hotel room in Helen.
In a federal lawsuit filed last month, Shaw said the Ramada Limited would not let them stay there June 21 because of its "no dogs" rule.
The desk clerk refused to give the couple a room even after speaking to the owner by phone, Shaw said. Shaw's fiance, Tim McLendon, called the police. But despite an officer's warning that service dogs should be allowed, the hotel would not budge, the lawsuit alleges.
"A dog is a dog," the owner told the officer, according to a Helen police report.
"I was in tears," Shaw said. "This whole thing really humiliated me."
She said they didn't try another hotel in Helen because "I was so scared that it would happen again. I was already hysterical."
Ramada Limited owner Ash Patel did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.
A spokesman for Cendant Hotel Group, the parent company of Ramada Franchise Systems, would not comment on the case.
But the spokesman, Emanuel Naim, said every Ramada franchisee is bound to follow certain policies. One of those policies is to grant access to customers with guide dogs.
"The policy is yes, period," Naim said.
Shaw trained with Bonnet at The Seeing Eye in Morristown, N.J., one of about a dozen such schools. Spokeswoman Melissa Campbell estimated that about 10,000 blind people use guide dogs nationwide.
The school tells students not to give up if they are wrongfully denied access.
"We talk about the importance of educating people --- don't just walk away from a hotel or restaurant," Campbell said. "Explain that it's the law."
The Georgia ADA Exchange frequently gets calls about hotels, restaurants or taxicabs that try to bar guide dogs.
"Usually the people who don't understand about assist animals are people from other countries who didn't have any laws like that in their country," director Nancy Duncan said. "They're just confused."
Shaw has self-published a book about living with her disability, which has worsened to the point where people look "like blobs," unless she's nose-to-nose with them.
Her mother, Barbara Harper, is not surprised Shaw is pursuing the lawsuit. "She doesn't go looking for trouble," Harper said, "but she won't back away from it if she's right."
Unfortunately, she's discovered that many of them still look like blobs close-up! As for Ramada, they've been in the news in recent times for hosting S&M conferences at some of their locations, notably O'Hare. Patrons became upset by the idea of their young families mingling in public areas with people from the conference. This particular owner was a fool waiting to be sued.
Turns out this dog was certified to visit patients in the ER and on the wards. He even had his own hospital picture ID with his name on it.
The owner said that most patients really enjoyed having the dog visit, as I certainly would if I were in the hospital.
This lady however, should have been allowed to have her dog.
: )
Mr. Concierge, could you please wok my dog?
RAMADA LIMITED, HELEN, GA 30545, (706) 878-1451 should anyone want to FReep them.
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