McDonald's forces blind woman to leave in tears because she was accompanied by her guide dog
The restaurant in Fredrikstad, Norway now faces police action
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A McDonald’s restaurant in Norway could face police action after members of staff reportedly forced a blind woman to leave because she was accompanied by her guide dog.
Fredrikstad resident Tina Marie Asikainen wrote on Facebook to complain that she and her five-year-old daughter were made to leave the fast food outlet in tears by five employees “loudly asking me to go”.
As in the UK, it is against the law in Norway for restaurant owners to discriminate against or deny access to a disabled person who is accompanied by a guide dog.
Ms Asikainen told the Norwegian news website NRK that she tried to visit McDonald’s on Friday with black Labrador Rex, who was clearly wearing a fluorescent harness marked “guide dog”.
“We had with Rex with us when we ordered food,” she said. “But after two minutes, before we had eaten the food, one of the employees came and asked us to leave because we had a dog.”
She tried to explain that the dog was a guide dog and showed her handler’s identity card to staff – but said: “They were not interested in reading it. There must have been twenty customers there watching while five employees loudly asked me to go. I started to cry, which isn’t something I often do.”
Writing on Facebook, Ms Asikainen said she called the police, who arrived and “rebuked” the staff, but said it was “such a bad experience, I was completely in tears, it was so embarrassing”. Her posts on the matter over the weekend have been shared thousands of times.
Speaking to NRK, Østfold Police spokesperson Terje Norang confirmed officers had been called out to reports of a woman with a guide dog being rejected from McDonald’s, and said they were expecting her to press charges.
In a statement to the AFP news agency, Kathrine Moe, a press officer for McDonald’s in Norway, said: “If this is true we regret it, for this certainly isn’t what is supposed to happen.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments