A dog owner was left fuming after a Wetherspoon's staff member made his pooch sit alone for a post-walk pint – on the other side of a barrier in the street.
Jonathan and Anne Plautus were enjoying a drink at The Stanley Jefferson, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, with their quiet cockapoo Harley when they claim a "rude" staff member ordered them to leave as dogs weren't allowed.
Jonathan, 52, tied Harley to a lamp post just a few feet away from the pub's cordoned-off area to highlight the "silly" situation. Photos show the lonely-looking dog waiting next to the road while Anne, 59, sat just yards away with her pint of cider.
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The images sparked a debate on Facebook over whether Harley should have been allowed to stay with his owners, despite Wetherspoons' rules stating they do not permit dogs except assistance dogs, even in outside pavement areas, Teeside Live reports.
Jonathan, a grandad from Crook, County Durham, criticised Wetherspoons for their "harsh" rules after he was told he couldn't sit outside with his dog. He said: "It annoyed us because during that time people came out to have a smoke and they were swearing and flicking their fag ends on the path. I thought 'how can they do that and we can't sit there and have a quiet pint. We weren't causing any trouble.
I understand some dogs might be aggressive and they might not want them in the pub but I think there should be a bit of leeway outside. Harley's quiet as a mouse. We've trained him well. We only wanted to have a quick drink because it was a nice evening. I know we can't take dogs in Wetherspoons so we sat outside. A girl came out and told us we'd have to go. It was rude the way she said it as if we weren't very nice people. I thought she had a bit of an attitude. She told us why and we were surprised because there was hardly anybody else there.
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"Anne even asked if we could put the dog on the other side of the fence on a lead but she said no because we'd still have the lead in our hands. She was being a jobsworth. That's when I tied Harley to the lamp post. He looked lonely over there."
Jonathan says he didn't report the incident to Wetherspoons and will return without his cockapoo in future. However, his Facebook post about it went massively viral, and appears to have caught the eye of the company in question.
Responding to the anger, Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon stated: "Wetherspoons operates a no-dogs policy in all its pubs with the exception of assistance dogs which are welcome. The policy is set out on the company's website and was explained in the summer/autumn 2023 edition of Wetherspoon News, our customer magazine.
"The policy applies both inside our pubs and in any outside area whether owned by the company or , as in this case, the local authority where we operate under a pavement licence."
Durham County Council confirmed it has not received any complaints regarding the incident.
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