The 3 huge health issues are:

1. the way food is stored
2. the temperature that food is kept
3. general sanitation of the place and especially the sanitation of the employees.

Anything else, including a dog is hardly relevant

Not to mention that a gas pipeline UNDER your restaurant is probably alot more dangerous than a doggie in the market. I'm just sayin'.....

Do we need this thread?

A dog in a restaurant serving food is probably the least dangerous part of our nation's food supply.

val7101 - LOL. And I agree... it's much more unsanitary to bring kids into places with food. They are little germ factories.

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What else have you seen?

Quote:god forbid a piece of hair fly through the air and work its way around the room and land RIGHT in that sandwich you were ordering.

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Absolutely. I can't believe there's people out there that want to cause harm to dogs.

Am i the only one disturbed by what bigtruck wrote below?

"It is against the law, and repugnant. Dogs are animals. Humans are animals. Both of which should be slain in bulk."

You're right, restaurants close often and for a lot of different reasons. I didn't do a very good job of saying what I meant, which is this: A handful of longstanding establishments that I chose not to patronize due to my own dog allergies - such as the Ray's pizza on 6th and 11th and the Bread Cafe on Bleecker and Christopher - received Cs (the lowest possible grade) when NYC implemented its new health inspection grade-posting rules. The connection I meant to draw was between the dogs and those sanitation scores, but I jumped to the conclusion that the subsequent closure of these restaurants was related to decreased business upon posting those scores. But you're right, there are a ton of other reasons why they might have closed, such as the loss of St. Vincents or the economy in general.

I'm not buying the dog - closing correlation. I'm thinking the number of restaurants that close every year that never allowed dogs is way higher than than the ones that did. Fact is most restaurants fail. And I don't sit in restaurants, except outside in the summer with my dog, it's got to be in and out, because despite the fact that I think most people should worship my dog as much as I do, my logical self thinks it's rude.
Having said that, I think people WALKING their dogs into restaurants and bodegas is pretty gross. I don't care how well trained they are you just never know when they'll decide they smell something that they want to pee on. Of course you could say that about some toddlers too......just kidding.....mostly....

I like dogs, but I'm allergic, so I usually don't patronize businesses that allow customers to bring in dogs. (At least not restaurants, or anywhere that's more than a quick in-and-out trip.) It's just a respiratory comfort thing.

I worked in the West Village for several years, and there were a few restaurants that I enjoyed for lunch until, one by one, they started letting people bring their dogs in. So I stopped going to those places, no big deal ... but when NYC implemented their grading system, every single one of those restaurants closed. Every one. So I now believe that there's a correlation between dogs and the general sanitation of the place. If the managers are willing to look the other way on the dog thing, maybe they're missing some other things, too.

Guess what? I pick my pom up and bring her in the pizzeria and chinese place all the time for take out. I pop her in a bag and bring her into C town and various bodegas all the time too. AND I will never stop. Feel free to bitch at me if you see us!
In the meantime can you ask the parents of all those snotty coughing sneezing toddlers to tie them up to a parking meter before they go into a food store? THAT would be awesome.

I love, love, LOVE most dogs but hate that it's acceptable to bring them into places where I shop, especially where food is present.

Small dogs left tied up outside are sadly too often stolen and used as bait in dog fighting. Dog owners should be very careful about leaving their pets unsupervised. I used to volunteer at one of the local shelters and people would come in heartbroken looking for dogs that had been stolen after being tied to a parking meeter while they did a little shopping. I don't know what the current situation is in Jersey City re: dog fights. But I would advise everyone to be aware of this risk.

I am curious about animals visiting food establishments. It seems that when human patrons step foot in delis, take out places, coffee shops, and restaurants they bring their pets mostly dogs. Instead of leashing them up outside of just leaving them at the house until they return the animals are free to brush against the other pet free patrons shedding their strands of fur & fleas causing the two-legged mammals to flee instead. Is there a law preventing their entry in such venues ?