Deaf News: Deaf man ‘thrown out’ of Gourmet Burger Kitchen ‘because he had hearing dog with him’

A story in the Mirror and widely shared on Facebook has told of how a Deaf man was allegedly asked to leave a Gormet Burger Kitchen restaurant due to having a hearing dog with him – a situation that sadly happens to many people with hearing dogs.

Another customer in the restaurant at the time expressed her disgust at what she saw, pointing out in a widely shared Facebook post that the restaurant had broken the law.

The company has now said: “This in no way reflects the values of the company and we are truly sorry for the upset that was caused. We have taken this matter very seriously. All our restaurants accept assistance dogs and we are taking immediate action to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Extract from the Mirror:

A Gourmet Burger Kitchen customer has branded the chain a ‘disgrace’ after witnessing a manager throw a deaf man out of the restaurant.

Louise DeNew says she was inside the Wimbledon branch of the restaurant in London on Saturday afternoon when a “middle-aged deaf gentleman and his wife” were thrown out – ‘because they had a hearing assistance dog with them.’

“The small dog clearly wore an assistance dog harness and the deaf gentleman tried to show the manager the dog ID card on its lead,” Louise said.

She claims that despite protests from the couple and other customers, the manager still ordered them out of the establishment.

Louise says she and her partner were so upset by the events, they put a formal complaint into the manager who, she alleges, “just shrugged and arrogantly stated it was GBK policy”.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/deaf-man-thrown-out-gourmet-11025754