Tina Marie Asikainen, who is visually impaired, and her five-year-old daughter entered the McDonalds restaurant in Fredrikstad with their guide dog Rex on Friday. 

 

“We had with Rex with us when we ordered food,” she told NRK. “He had a harness where it clearly said ‘guide dog’, but after two minutes, before we had eaten the food, one of the employees came and asked us to leave because we had a dog.” 

 

Asikainen said that the employees refused to accept her protestations she had a right under Norwegian law to bring her guide dog to the restaurant, rejecting the card she showed them to back up her right.  

 

“They were not interested in reading it. There must have been twenty customers there watching while five employees loudly asked me to go. I started to cry, which isn’t something I often do.” 

 

After she called the police, two officers stopped by at McDonalds to investigate what happened. Asikainen says the intends to formally press charges on Monday. 

 

“If this is true we regret it, for this certainly isn’t what is supposed to happen,” Kathrine Moe, Mcdonalds’ press officer in Norway said. “We obviously follow the law that visually impaired should be allowed to have guide dogs.”

 

This is not the first time Mcdonalds has had trouble with dogs for the disabled.

 

A McDonalds franchise owner in Minneapolis reached a confidential settlement in December last year, after being sued by a man with muscular dystrophy, who can not walk, and relies on his dog Max to open and close doors, pick up laundry, and remove his clothing. 

 

The local Mcdonalds refused to let Robert Mingo, 52, eat in the restaurant on two occasions.