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28
Aug 2024
McDonald’s apologises to ‘humiliated’ Harrogate guide dog owner
McDonald’s has apologised to a guide dog owner who was refused entry to its Harrogate restaurant.
Helen McGrath, who is registered blind, said she was left “completely embarrassed and humiliated” by the incident at the fast food chain’s Cambridge Road restaurant on Sunday night.
Ms McGrath said a female member of staff “shouted across the store that I could not come in with my dog” when she entered.
She explained Burley was a guide dog and asked to speak with the manager only to discover the person shouting at her was the manager.
She added:
I asked if she had received any training on the Equality Act which states that assistance dogs cannot be refused access. As I was talking she walked away.
I asked another staff member to get a superior. A chap arrived and said the girl is a trainee manager — he was not even looking at me. I was shouted at across the store, myself, my daughter and her friend were completely embarrassed and humiliated. We left the store and will never return.
McDonald's restaurant on Cambridge Road, Harrogate.
Ms McGrath, who works and volunteers for Vision Support Harrogate District, which supports visually impaired people, has written to Alistair Macrow, chief executive for McDonald’s UK and Ireland, and Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, about her experience.
She told the Stray Ferret it was becoming increasingly difficult for people suffering sight loss to access the town centre in Harrogate and “at times dangerous due to uncontrolled pet dogs”.
A McDonald’s spokesperson said:
We apologise to Ms McGrath, and express our extreme disappointment that the experience fell well below the standards we expect in our restaurants. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and welcoming business, and this mistake does not reflect our values. The employees working at the time have been spoken with, and the franchisee is working to ensure that all employees at the restaurant are absolutely clear that assistance dogs are welcome in our restaurants.
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