[nagdu] Woman says cab driver refused her a ride because ofseeing-eye dog

Tue Aug 6 17:24:40 UTC 2013

Hello,
There are two Chapters in Riverside area.
The first is The San Bernardino Riverside chapter and Pam chase 
is the President.
The second is the Southwest Riverside chapter and Jeri Siqueiros 
is the President.
You can get both there contact info by going to the NFBC website 
which is nfbcal.org and click on chapters.
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Robert Stigile
phone: 818-381-9568
e-mail: rstigile at gmail.com
Skype: robertstigile1
Twitter: rstigile

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Rusty Perez <rustys.lists at gmail.com
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog 
Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Tue, 6 Aug 2013 08:38:39 -0700
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Woman says cab driver refused her a ride 
because ofseeing-eye dog

Hi folks,
about 13 years ago when I was in Dallas for a convention, I 
called a
cab late one night to drive me to my hotel.  I waited for a long 
time
and finally discovered that the cab had come  and driven off   
when he
realized I had a dog with me.  The second cab which came a while 
later,
explained to me that some folks have a religeous objection to 
having
dogs in their cabs.
I was pretty upset, but did nothing about it.
Rusty

Rusty

On 8/6/13, Ginger Kutsch <GingerKutsch at yahoo.com> wrote:
 Woman says cab driver refused her a ride because of seeing-eye 
dog

 By Bob Heye KATU News and KATU.com StaffPublished: Aug 2, 2013

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Woman-says-cab-driver-refused-her-
a-ride-beca
 use-of-seeing-eye-dog-218052101.html

 PORTLAND, Ore.  - A woman who is blind says a Broadway Cab 
driver refused
 her
 service because she had a seeing-eye dog with her.

 It all unfolded at Union Station, and an Amtrak worker confirmed 
what
 happened to Deb Marinos.

 Marinos had gotten off the train and was trying to get to OHSU 
for a
 scheduled checkup but a Broadway Cab driver, and then a second 
cab driver
 both refused to give her a ride.

 "I have a little tiny bit of vision," she said.  "I'm what's 
called legally
 blind, but I have no peripheral vision.  So the dog provides me 
the ability
 to cross streets and find curbs and doors."

 Marinos rides Amtrak all the time - commuting to work in Salem 
and Portland
 and also traveling the country to conferences and legislative 
assemblies in
 her job as a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the Oregon 
Council of
 the Blind.

 She was stunned when she went to get into a Broadway Cab and the 
driver
 refused to let her in.

 "And he says, 'No, she has a dog.  I'm not takin' her.  No dogs.  
Dogs aren't
 allowed by the company.'"

 A second Broadway driver said he'd take her, but he already had 
a fare.  The
 next cab back was a Sassy Cab, a subsidiary of Broadway Cab.

 "The cab behind him, Sassy Cab, says 'No, I don't do dogs 
either,'" Marinos
 said.  "And then the fourth cab got out to see what all the fun 
was about
 and
 they said, 'OK, we'll take you.'"

 An Amtrak helper known as Red Cap argued with the cab drivers' 
refusals.

 "Amtrak is so incredibly good at taking care of us, and the Red 
Cap today
 was just absolutely.  He was just like all over them and could 
not believe
 it
 - that they'd never had that before where they've had someone 
turned down,"
 Marinos said.

 And if you think allergies to dogs is behind all this, Marinos 
said that's
 not a factor.  She's allergic to dogs.  Her service dog breed is
 hypoallergenic.

 KATU didn't get a response from Broadway Cab Thursday night.  
City
 regulations say "No driver shall ...  refuse to transport to his 
requested
 destination any passenger of proper demeanor who is able to 
demonstrate the
 ability to pay the fare."

 Marinos met both of those requirements.

 A city spokesperson said the city is starting a formal 
investigation into
 the incident and that Broadway Cab is cooperating with 
investigators.

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