Not without my dog! Man wins anti-discrimination case against pet chihuahua
Queensland pet owner Raymond Matthews has won an anti-discrimination claim against his local pub after his assistance chihuahua, Coo-ee, was denied entry.
Matthews' favourite watering hole was The Woombye Pub, a stone's throw from his home on the Sunshine Coast. “I’d go up there for a chicken parmi and a beer, maybe once or twice a week,” he told 7 News.
However, that all came to an end in 2017 when new management started refusing entry to Coo-ee.
“(The) dog almost got run over one night, having had to stay outside. I went back inside and got directed out and barred for a month and made out to be the bad guy - that I’d intimidated people.”
Three years of consistent refusal-of-entry to The Woombye then caused Matthews to say enough was enough and seek legal recourse.
In a case opened against the pub, the tribunal found the venue broke anti-discrimination laws and awarded Matthews $8000 in compensation.
Matthews said he tried to explain the significance of Coo-ee to the new owners but they wouldn’t listen.
“The more I tried to convince them, the more I sounded like a broken record,” he said. “I’d been to the doctor to get the dog signed off as an assistant.
“What she does is she introduces me to myriad people - the amount of hurdles I’ve got over because of the dog, just breaking the barriers down that normally exist with bureaucracy.
“I take the dog with me and it just brings people down to a level playing field and you can speak with them, you can get along with them, you’ve got a common denominator and the dog, I feel, is the one that does it.”
In a happy ending – certainly for Coo-ee at any rate – Matthews and the pup have now been welcomed into the venue.
Image: Sunrise