If Fast Food Is on the Menu, Leave Your Beast of a Dog at Home

I love dogs. I don't have one at the moment, but I've had dogs in the past, and not just as pets. I've had bird dogs, which are more than a pet; they are a partner, a companion, even a colleague, who loves the hunt as much as we do.

But some people aren't reasonable about their dogs. When working in Southern California some years ago, I stopped by a local grocery store for some supplies, and walking in just ahead of me was a 20-something guy carrying his dog. Not a little dog; a big dog, probably 50 pounds. He carried the dog in, put it in a shopping cart, and started to wheel it away until the store manager stopped him to tell him it was illegal for him to bring his dog into the store - at which point a shouted argument ensued.

I didn't stick around to see the outcome. But there are places where it's appropriate to take Fido or Spot, and places were it is not. I would argue that a fast-food restaurant is one of those places where you shouldn't take Fido - especially if Fido is a 100-pound mastiff with a penchant for shedding.

A man ignited a heated debate online after confronting a woman who brought a massive dog into a fast-food restaurant, ultimately getting her kicked out.
In a Reddit post, the diner, who goes by the username SoCalGiraffe, said he was eating lunch when a woman walked in with a 100-plus-pound Tibetan Mastiff. According to him, the dog was not a service animal, and the restaurant had a clear no-dogs-allowed policy.
The woman sat right next to him, possibly to avoid being seen with the dog, he said.
When he returned to his table after refilling his drink, he was disgusted to find long strands of the dog’s hair on his table and even on his French fries.

Yes, that is disgusting - and in California, where this may have been, judging from the poster's handle, it's illegal. It's also illegal at the federal level, although state laws vary. The FDA has this to say:

Those state codes do not go into detail about animal allowances for indoor dining, but that’s because they don’t have to. As we mentioned in the intro, as of this writing, the FDA prohibits animals in any foodservice establishment.
A foodservice establishment includes the following:
Restaurants
Cafés
Temporary foodservice establishments
Institutional kitchens
Elderly nutrition sites
Pushcarts and mobile food units
Private and public school cafeterias
Corporate cafeterias
Meat markets and delis
Food stands

But that's not really the point, although it's a valid one.

Here is an example of the breed of the dog in question:

Sorry, I love dogs, but I don't want this one right next to me while I'm eating in a restaurant. pic.twitter.com/ntPnfzNohz
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) August 23, 2025

That beast should have been left at home. If the diner was returning from, or going to, someplace like a park where they wanted the dog along, she should have either gone through the drive-through or retrieved her pooch before or after going to the restaurant. This was an act of gross inconsideration of the people around her.

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We see it a lot - people who can't leave their dogs at home, even if they're going to eat. Now, the older couple we saw the other day, who had a mini-dog of some kind, one of those ones who would lose a fight to a mouse or an aggressive cockroach, and who brought their mini-mutt inside in an enclosed carrier, nobody cares about that. But a giant beast that sheds all over other people's food?

Leave it at home when you're going to eat. For the luvva Pete, leave it at home.

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