An autistic Auckland boy was told that he was unable to dine at a McDonald’s restaurant after his clearly labelled service dog was rejected as a ‘pet’.
Shane Wheeler stopped at Bombay McDonald’s to buy his children dinner on the way south. Wheeler’s son Noah is autistic and has a companion dog to keep him calm. The dog wears an ‘assistance dog’ vest at all times, but that wasn’t enough for the employee, which told the family that pets weren’t allowed inside.
“It went back and forward for a couple of minutes and I was just so embarrassed and angry about the whole thing that I just had to get out before I yelled at the guy,” Wheeler said. “This guy was adamant that Nitro was a pet and not an assistance dog.”
Wheeler left with his children and drove on to Mercer, as Noah’s restrictive diet meant that he still wanted his chicken nuggets.
“I just went through the drive through there. I wasn't brave enough to go inside, not after all that. I didn't want to go to the next one, but my autistic son wanted chicken nuggets and I had to get over my ego and hurt feelings and do what he needs and makes him okay.”
McDonald’s spokesperson Simon Kenny apologised for the incident and said that it was McDonald’s policy to serve customers with assistance dogs.
“It appears there has been an oversight by a staff member in this case and we apologise for the incident,” he said. “On receiving the complaint the franchisee investigated with restaurant staff and will be following up with the customer. It's the first complaint of this nature he has received and he will be reminding all staff of our policy.”
Autism New Zealand chief executive Dane Dougan said that while awareness of autism was increasing but this incident showed that there was still work to do.
"At the end of the day it's not a great situation for the family to be in and for us it's all about training and understanding. We know that the whole world can't move and change for everything we need, but just having an understand of an awareness of autism makes a big difference to the community. And in this situation you would have hoped or thought that explaining why would have made a significance difference and they would have been allowed in.”
