Restaurant patio season brings in a whole slew of customers who want to eat, drink and enjoy the outdoor weather. And, this being Vancouver, sometimes those customers want to enjoy the experience with their dog. An online petition to allow dogs on restaurant patios has been gaining speed, collecting 413 supporters as of July 15, with more than half the signatures written in the previous 24 hours.
Danielle Bauer, pack leader of the petition and rising debate, has noticed a crackdown on restaurants that used to allow animals on their patios. Bauer, who has an eight-year-old Chihuahua mix named Beans, said it happened seemingly overnight and without warning.
“For years it seems that this regulation hadn’t been enforced. Suddenly it is… it’s kind of curious,” Bauer said. “[The petition] is sort of asking Vancouver Coastal Health to perhaps relax as they have in the past and leave it to the restaurant owner to make that decision.”
Tiffany Akins, a Vancouver Coastal Health spokesperson, said its environmental health officers will conduct regular inspections but also visit restaurants when there has been a complaint.
“There are potential health concerns associated with dogs in food premises,” Akins wrote in an email. “The risk is minimal but animals can transmit some communicable diseases, such as gastrointestinal illnesses, to humans.”
Bauer said she understands the health risks of animals being indoors where food is prepared, but believes the factors presented on open-air patios pose similar sanitary risks as dogs would by being nearby.
“When you choose to eat outside, there’s bugs, leaves, dirt, wind, there’s all sorts of things,” Bauer said. “There’s no reasonable expectation for absolute hygiene. That being said, I’m not asking for every patio to have dogs. What I’m asking is that restaurants have the choice, if they wish to cater to that demographic, then that’s up to them. And if they don’t, that’s up to them as well.”
Catfe, a “part cafe, part foster home for cats” and those who love them, according to its blog, has to comply to the same health and safety regulations as well, said owner Michelle Furbacher. The cafe, which opens this fall, will have to be completely separate from where the cats will be, and customers will have to get “take-out” in order for them to visit the kitty side.
“I understand and agree with concerns about keeping animals completely separate from where food is being prepared,” said Furbacher in an email. “But it would be nice to see the rules relaxed a little so some establishments could at least set aside a space if they choose to, to provide service for their animal-loving customers.”
Opening restaurant patios to allow dogs could present difficulties in other areas as well, such as staff and consumer safety and overall customer fairness as some dogs may be more disruptive than others — a liability that Bob Parrotta, provincial chair of B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association, said he personally wouldn’t be willing to take on.
“I don’t think as a restaurant operator you want to put yourself in a position where you’re going to have to make those decisions,” he said.
However Bauer pointed out that having a dog tied up right outside a patio is not a significant change than having them actually sitting inside the patio walls or fence. A marginal difference like this, she hopes, might give way to some slack for restaurant patrons who may have their dogs with them during dinner.
“We like to think of ourselves as a progressive city and it seems a fairly rigid rule,” said Bauer. “My Christmas wish would be for the provincial authority to really look and make a distinction between interior enclosed environments and the health regulations that apply to those and then perhaps take a new look at regulations that can relate to outdoor open-air environments.”
Parrotta maintains that there’s much grey matter to be considered and even he doesn’t know which is in the best interests of restaurant patrons, only that he trusts Vancouver Health to make the right decision.
“I’m not saying it’s good or bad, I don’t know,” said Parrotta. “If it was up to the restaurant association we would probably say, you know what, maybe we could try it in a small market and see how it goes because maybe there is a case for it. But at the same time we kind of trust the health authority to be coming up with the right rules for us. They’re not a bunch of dummies doing things just for spite.”
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