Editor’s note: This column was originally published in October 2023.

QUESTION: Is there any regulation dealing with people bringing their pets into grocery stores? I have seen dogs with their people in a couple of local grocery stores lately, and they did not appear to be service animals. One was actually in the child seat of the shopping cart. It seems like this would be some level of health violation.

ANSWER: It is not allowed, but there are some challenges with enforcement.

I’ll start with the definition of a service animal as explained on the Department of Justice website, whose job includes implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Service animals are defined as dogs (of any size or breed) that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”

Please note that last sentence: “Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, businesses, state and local governments and nonprofit organizations must allow service animals to accompany a person with a disability into their building and generally go anywhere the public is allowed.

“A service animal must be under the control of its handler. Under the ADA, service animals must be harnessed, leashed or tethered, unless the individual’s disability prevents using these devices or these devices interfere with the service animal’s safe, effective performance of tasks. In that case, the individual must maintain control of the animal through voice, signal, or other effective control,” the Department of Justice says.

I also spoke to Leisha Kidd-Brooks, the Longview Environmental Health manager, about this situation, and she reiterated that non-service animals are not allowed in restaurants and grocery stores. However, restaurants can let non-service dogs sit with their owner on an outdoor patio, so long as the animal doesn’t enter or leave by walking through the restaurant.

“But we cannot control grocery stores that are associated with retail,” she said, as in places like Walmart, and she said Walmart has chosen not to enforce this.

Restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses that want to exclude dogs are allowed to ask limited questions to determine if a dog is a service animal.

“When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task,” the Department of Justice says.

“Service animals do not wear bows. They’re not carried in a cute little carrier. They’re not sitting in the buggy. They do not bark… they don’t beg for food,” Kidd-Brooks said.

She described seeing a true service animal at IHOP once. She noticed a dog sitting quietly under a table at the restaurant. When a server came by and dropped something off her tray, the dog did not move.

Managers at restaurants can stop non-service animals at the door and refuse service, Kidd-Brooks said.

— Answer Line appears Wednesday and in the Weekend edition. Email questions to answerline@news-journal.com, leave a message at (903) 232-7208 or write to P.O. Box 1792, Longview, TX 75606.