Disagreement Over Service Dogs
By Laurie Ciprianol.cipriano@krdo.com
COLORADO SPRINGS – A Woodland Park man says he and his service dogs were thrown out of a local hotel. He says that is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The manager of the Marriott Hotel, however, says that is not what happened.
“We had been down there since Monday,” said Jonathan Jergensen. “We’d been commuting.” He took his boys there each day to take the state required C-SAP test.
Wednesday Jonathan and his wife decided to have lunch in the lobby while their boys completed their tests. “We just decided to go in and sit down and get comfortable,” said Jonathan.
Jonathan has cerebral palsy and his service dog Buddy is always by his side. His wife is also disabled and her dog was there too. During lunch one of the dogs started barking. “He let out a big woof cause he had to go out and go potty,” said Jonathan. “The manager at that point came over and told us that we had to leave because Marriott had a no pet policy and it was disturbing the guests. Buddy kind of looked at him and went grrrr.”
The manager would not talk to NEWSCHANNEL 13 on camera, but he did tell us that one of Jonathan’s dogs was barking and even jumped up on the bar to try and get some food. The manager said he asked Jonathan several times to keep the dogs from barking.
Jonathan told the manager that Buddy is a registered service dog. “I patiently showed him Buddy’s credentials,” said Jonathan. “They’re evident. They’re right here on the bag.”
Jonathan felt that he had a right to have his dogs with him. “They’re violating sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act. That entitles me to have a service animal anywhere that I go.”
The manager told NEWSCHANNEL 13 that service dogs are welcome at his hotel. He saidhe did not ask the Jorgensens to leave the hotel. He explained that customers were complaining about the dogs’ disruptive behavior, and he says he asked Jonathan to remove his dogs from the lobby, not the hotel.
As for the next step, Jonathan says he is sending a letter of complaint to the hotel chain and the Department of Justice.
NEWSCHANNEL 13 did receive phone calls from some parents whose kids were also taking the C-SAP test. The callers explained that the dogs were barking and whining so loudly that it was disruptive to the students while they were being tested.
