No dogs please... (From Chard & Ilminster News)

No dogs please...

4:11pm Thursday 23rd August 2007 in Chard By Joanna Glover

A CHARD dog owner has been told her beloved pooch must stay at home the next time she fancies a drink.

Georgina Hewlett-Leigh was told she could not take her seven-month-old Great Dane, Bowyn, to sit outside of the Chard Cerdic Wetherspoon last week, despite being allowed on several occasions.

Georgina said she had taken the dog before and no one had said anything until a visit on Thursday where she and her father, Victor Groves, were told they would have to leave.

She said: "Since the smoking ban started two months ago, we've been down there sitting outside with Bow every day - sometimes twice a day - for tea or coffee.

"Staff have seen us when they were serving - most stop to stroke him and they've never said anything but now, after all this time, we are told he's not allowed at all."

Georgina said she was surprised at the change, and will be sad to have to leave him at home.

"He's my baby, he's part of my family so if I go somewhere I like to take him with me but now I can't anymore," she added.

"If he was a dangerous dog I could understand, but he's only seven months old and a complete softy."

A spokesman from Wetherspoon said: "Wetherspoon has a policy of allowing dogs into our pubs only if they are guide dogs.

"This is for reasons of hygiene, health and safety.

"We allow our managers flexibility in the way they implement polices, and it seems there may have been a change in management.

"However, we would apologise to the people in question if any confusion has been caused in this case."