New York is going to the dogs \u2014\u00a0and nobody knows that like Tamara, an NYC med spa owner who is sick and tired of watching the Big Apple\u2019s descent into canine-driven chaos. <\/p>\n
Day after day, the pampering proprietress told The Post, she\u2019s forced into confrontations with her privileged clientele who drag their furry friends into her pristine wellness sanctuary, leaving grubby paw prints \u2014\u00a0or worse \u2013 all over floors and furniture. <\/p>\n
Tamara, who asked that her last name not be used to avoid any ire from angry customers, said she\u2019s a dog mom herself \u2014\u00a0albeit one that feels permissiveness towards pets in the Big Apple has simply gone too far. Some particularly pushy clients even assume they can bring their non-service dogs into the room with them while they get Botox or filler, she complained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a medical procedure at the end of the day,\u201d Tamara said. \u201cIt\u2019s really frustrating because then we have to be the bad guy. We have to say, not only is this against code, and it might make other people feel uncomfortable, it\u2019s also a big distraction to the provider that\u2019s performing the treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
An increasing amount of dog-friendly restaurants are sprouting up over Gotham, like Brooklyn seafood hotspot Sea Wolf. Emmy Park<\/p>\n
Tamara\u2019s story is being repeated over and over again in New York, of late \u2014\u00a0people who love and claim four-legged friends of their own are simply fed up with the number of leash-toting Gothamites who insist on bending the rules. <\/p>\n
Or, at least, they\u2019re skirting the social contract by bringing their fur babies practically everywhere they go. <\/p>\n
At Sea Wolf, dogs are not only allowed, but encouraged. Emmy Park<\/p>\n
And boy, they do go everywhere. Once seen mostly in public parks, non-service pups are showing up in supermarkets, small businesses, big-box stores, and even inside restaurants (including some with dog-friendly menus<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0where incidents like a high profile corgi bite<\/a> in a trendy Williamsburg bakery and cafe are becoming more common, leaving a growing chorus of frustrated folks to paw back at a pets-first trend that shows no sign of slowing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a dog\u2019s not making noise and just hanging out with their owner, that\u2019s totally fine, but we all know that\u2019s not usually the case,\u201d Ana Hernandez, a 35-year-old from Lower Manhattan, told The Post. \u201cThere\u2019s this entitlement where it\u2019s like, \u2018My needs matter more than yours, I want my pet with me and I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re uncomfortable.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ana Hernandez classifies herself as a dog lover, but does not believe dogs belong everywhere their owners go in NYC.<\/p>\n Hernandez, who owns a golden doodle, gets particularly peeved when she encounters dogs lounging on the floors of NYC bodegas, emphasizing that \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have to walk over a dog leash to get to where I need to be because you\u2019re not holding your dog tightly next to you.\u201d <\/p>\n She also gets annoyed when she sees pups in city grocery stores, sharing that she\u2019s seen \u201ca lot of them,\u201d specifically at the Key Foods on Fulton Street in FiDi.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always like, alright, why are they here?\u201d said Hernandez. \u201cEven if they\u2019re not doing anything, just knowing that maybe their tail could be wagging and hit some of the produce \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s a weird situation to be in\u2026We need to reinforce that dogs are still dogs, no matter how much we love them and treat them as our children.\u201d<\/p>\n Gunther, a golden doodle owned by Hernandez, has accompanied her into indoor public spaces on occasion. However, Hernandez is keen on keeping him tightly leashed.<\/p>\n Johnny Gold, the manager at this Key Foods, responded to The Post\u2019s request for comment and clarified that the 10 to 15 customers who regularly shop for food with their pups are \u201call service dogs,\u201d and that the store asks to see certification.<\/p>\n While city and state health codes technically ban furry pets that aren\u2019t licensed service dogs from joining their owners in certain indoor public spaces \u2014 especially ones that sell or serve food like grocery stores and restaurants \u2014 pressure to conform to social norms and a lack of rule enforcement have made the practice rampant in NYC.<\/p>\n Khris Black, a 28-year-old born-and-raised Brooklynite, has seen this uptick firsthand over the last ten years and shared that he\u2019s seen local store owners have a \u201cdifferent kind of reaction\u201d to people who are newer to the neighborhood, bringing their dogs into indoor public spaces.<\/p>\n Hernandez shared that she\u2019s seen dogs in the Key Food on Fulton Street, though manager Johny Gold insists those pooches are all service animals. Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s that certain subset of people who are moving to more urban areas of Brooklyn, the Bronx, or certain parts of Queens, where [not bringing dogs in stores] is an understood thing \u2014 we don\u2019t do that here. But then they\u2019re like, \u2018Well, this is what I do,’\u201d Black told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd because businesses see that as a new form of money, it\u2019s like, \u2018Let\u2019s make them happy.\u2019\u2026It causes more of a problem to tell people, \u2018Hey, I don\u2019t want that dog around\u2019 than to just let them do it,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Service dogs, of course, are the exception to this. Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act<\/a>, originally passed in 1990 and updated with new requirements in 2010, a service animal is defined as \u201ca dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.\u201d<\/p>\n Khris Black does not bring his Yorkshire-terrier mix Major into most Brooklyn stores, but has noticed an uptick in people new to his neighborhood who do.<\/p>\n Black shared that NYC businesses often let people bring in non-service dogs appease customers.<\/p>\n While this covers dogs who perform a range of tasks \u2014 from alerting the hearing impaired to calming a person with PTSD during an anxiety attack \u2014 it does not include dogs whose sole purpose is to provide comfort or emotional support.<\/p>\n According to the city<\/a>, businesses can legally ask if a dog is a service dog and what task the dog performs, but they cannot ask for proof of disability or service animal certification (which the ADA doesn\u2019t require for service dogs anyway) \u2014 leading some business workers to feel at a loss for how to handle customers they suspect may be fibbing about their dog\u2019s status.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re often caught in the middle of what we can legally ask and what people expect of us,\u201d a Manhattan Trader Joe\u2019s<\/a> employee who asked to remain anonymous told The Post, adding that people do try to come into the store \u201ca lot\u201d with their dogs. \u201cCustomers want us to go up and yell at (these) people and hurl them out of the store, and be like, \u2018What\u2019s wrong with you?\u2019 But that\u2019s illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes things difficult for people who actually have service animals and our customers,\u201d the employee added. \u201cPeople legitimately have heart conditions or can be visually impaired. If you have a bunch of animals around that aren\u2019t trained, it just makes all those interactions more difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Beloved grocery stores like Trader Joe\u2019s have a no-dogs policy, but some say the chain doesn\u2019t actually enforce it. Robert Miller<\/p>\n Sterling Quinn, a 30-year-old fashion designer and entrepreneur based in SoHo who has had her maltipoo, Petals, for eight of the nine years she\u2019s lived in the Big Apple, said that she understands such concerns \u2014 but still takes Petals virtually everywhere she goes, from the subway to coffee shops, to the grocery store and the hair salon.<\/p>\n Though Quinn classifies her maltipoo as a service dog who is \u201ctrained to detect biochemical changes within the body and respond to them\u201d when her PTSD flares \u2014 and even got a $50 badge that shows his status from servicedogscertifications.org<\/a> \u2014\u00a0 she admitted that she and Petals have regularly been met with resistance in indoor public settings.<\/p>\n \u201cI had this experience at Trader Joe\u2019s the other day where I had him in a bag in the cart, so he\u2019s not touching anything \u2014 and I was (told), \u2018Excuse me ma\u2019am, we can\u2019t have dogs in the cart,\u201d Quinn told The Post. \u201cI go, \u2018He\u2019s in a carrier.\u2019 They go, \u2018Well, there\u2019s people who are allergic to dogs\u2019 \u2014 I say, \u2018He\u2019s hypoallergenic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Sterling Quinn brings her maltipoo Petals virtually everywhere she goes in NYC.<\/p>\n Quinn has received pushback when she tries to bring Petals into certain public establishments but classifies him as a service dog.<\/p>\n \u201cIn (these situations), I respond that it is legally within my rights to have a service dog,\u201d Quinn continued. \u201cYou are denying someone with a disability. That would be the same as denying someone in a wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n