Last Updated on: 25th February 2023, 02:39 pm
None of this should be happening. There’s little excuse for not knowing as a business owner that service dogs are allowed in your establishment in everything but very specific, extreme circumstances. But none of this should be happening either.
Others have shown up to the restaurant parking lot, just to see the place in person. One couple said they planned on calling in a food order and not picking it up. On social media, people are encouraging others to leave negative reviews.
On Yelp, at 3:30 p.m., the restaurant had 81 reviews. Of those, 58 of those were posted after Wednesday evening.
Yes, Joe Public. I know you’re mad. And I get that you have the best of intentions here, trying to stick up for this poor guy by making the owners lives as difficult as they made his. But for the love of god, please stop. You’re not helping. This is not the kind of support that disabled people need or want. I’m telling you this as a disabled person myself.
In my life, many of you have tried to “help” me when it looks to you like things are going wrong. Sometimes it’s very much appreciated. But honestly, a lot of you have no idea what you’re doing. You make scenes where none need to be made. You yell at the wrong person. You yell at the right person but for the wrong reason. You dish out terrible advice like you’re some kind of expert on me. And at the end of it all you’ve only made things worse and then I have to deal with the consequences. Sometimes that can be as simple as explaining to a waitress or a cab driver that I’ve never met you before and that you’re pretty far out to lunch, actually. But other times it’s much worse, coming in the form of somebody who maybe could have learned something positive taking away the lesson that disabled people are even worse than they thought and are something to be feared, avoided and even resented.
If you don’t like what you saw at Miltons, don’t spend your money there. And by all means, make sure people know why. But this fake negative reviews and not picking up orders business isn’t at all productive. Don’t stoop to their level. Punch up. Spend your Miltons money on a donation to an organization that helps people get supports they need to better their lives. A school that trains service dogs for autistic people is a good example in this case. And use the time you won’t be spending in their dining room to find ways you can help out constructively in the community. You shouldn’t have to look far.
Being an asshole is easy. It might even make you feel good about yourself for a minute. But if you really want to do something that’s going to make a difference, put in the work on being an ally.
In the video, the man is heard saying the dog is his service animal.
On Wednesday evening police attended Milton’s Grill & Bar on King Street East in Kitchener in response to the incident.
The video is 4:30 minutes long and shows a man being confronted by two other men telling him to leave. At times, the men are seen grabbing and even dragging him by his feet. His dog stayed largely out of the frame.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” the man is heard saying in the video.
“Yes you have. You’re f-ing disrupting my business,” one of the men replied. “You’re trespassing.”People can be heard in the background calling for the men to stop touching him. “Just leave him alone.”
It’s unclear what occurred between the two parties leading up to the start of this video. The Record has reached out to members of the family of the man who was told to leave, but has not heard back.