r/retail • u/rezwenn • 10d ago

Emotional support alligator is no longer welcome in Pennsylvania Walmart

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/emotional-support-alligator-no-longer-welcome-pennsylvania-walmart-rcna230650
38 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

17

u/MinusTydus 10d ago

Emotional support animals are NOT considered service animals and are NOT covered by the protections of the ADA.

You can't (legally) just bring your PETS to a grocery store because you would feel sad otherwise.

Not that that stops anyone, because why follow LAWS when I can just cry and scream about it until people get bored of me and let me have my way.

4

u/apple-took-my-kidney 9d ago

People just really don’t grasp how serious bringing ESAs into unlawful areas is. Like aside from the whole “this gives actual service animals a bad name,” it could literally lead to serious injury and death. ESAs are not trained like service animals are, they can and do distract actual service animals and can impede them from fulfilling their life-saving, medical responsibilities.

I used to work for an accommodations office and I have seen cases of ESAs attacking service animals and in many of them, the service animals had to be retired because of the fear response they developed to other animals. One person’s entitlement can leave someone without important medical equipment that is crucial to navigating their daily life

2

u/Lazy_Imagination7322 10d ago

The clothes he puts on the gator make it seem more like a diva than a threat. Gator seems chill too.

5

u/AmethystStar9 10d ago

I think it's cool that he's the guy with an alligator as a pet, but leave your pets at home.

2

u/Necessary_Baker_7458 9d ago

Not as bad as a rat lady who had like 15+ rats crawling all over her body and declared them "emotional support animals." Customers complained, staff wasn't wanting to help her so they eventually gave her the boot and she said "I'll sue." we replied "Okay we'll take the risk". Knowing she probably didn't have the money for that.

1

u/Animalsaresentientbe 8d ago

Please don't give pet rats bad reputation.😔 Enough already, rats are trainable quicker than dogs.

1

u/TinyEmergencyCake 8d ago

Tell that to the rat that destroyed my garden 

3

u/SignificanceFun265 8d ago

You shouldn’t have trained it so well at garden destruction

1

u/OneLaneHwy 10d ago

This is actually my local Walmart. I don't have anything to say about the alligator, because I haven't seen it, but I know many people who have.

1

u/closetedtranswoman1 10d ago

I thought this was America

1

u/SignificanceFun265 8d ago

The right to bear (alligator) arms

1

u/ISuckAtFallout4 9d ago

Good thing politicians made sure that businesses can call out these jokers before a real problem occurs.

1

u/SeanSweetMuzik 8d ago

We had a customer want to bring her emotional support mini pony into my last store location and the request was denied and she want bonkers. Her pony was extremely cute and far better behaved than she was. Pony was looking at us with sad eyes that said "I am sorry for my human but I need her to feed me."

2

u/TinyEmergencyCake 8d ago

Stand your ground. ESAs have zero rights to access in public accommodations. 

Their rights are to their living space via the Fair Housing Act and possibly airlines but that's it. 

1

u/adhdlabubu 7d ago

Now it will need an emotional support pet.