Some restaurant customers became concerned when a couple brought in a “service snake”.
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A couple brought a snake into a restaurant in Nixa, Missouri, and claimed it was the man’s “service animal”.
There have also been cases of cats, parrots, monkeys, and even miniature horses being granted certification as service animals, permitting them to mingle in spaces typically reserved for humans only.
Lisa Loeffelholz was dining at the restaurant at the time.
When Loeffelholz took a photo and told her server, she was informed by the manager to just chill out, lady-this snake is a hero.
Her mother, Terri Pitts, was so scared by the snake that she started trembling.
But just the sight of the woman apparently pulling the animal and then handing it over to the man at the table was enough to make Loeffelholz confront the snake handlers about their slippery excuse. “And I’m allowed to have it because it helps me with my depression, ‘” she told the station, adding that it was “no different than a dog”. And I’m allowed to have it because it helps me with my depression … They say when they complained to the manager, he said there was nothing he could do because the man claimed the snake was his service animal. “He said, ‘No, it’s my service animal”.
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, a service animal is defined ” as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability.
Jill Finney, the City of Nixa’s communications director said because the snake “posed a public safety concern,” if they had been called, Nixa police or animal control would have responded.
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“Management didn’t know what to do because they didn’t want to violate anybody’s rights, and that’s understandable, but the patron could have then called 911. It doesn’t have to be the restaurant that does that”.
