“You are so pitiful, I feel so sorry for you, you’re suffering something major aren’t you.”
Nancy, the woman in the video with the dog, talks about why she allowed the taping of her interaction with the market manager Marti Fate.
She says “I just wanted to raise awareness to people that this is what goes on at our market on a weekly basis. I heard that gays, lesbians, people with pink hair, any one at any time for any reason could be excluded from that market and very aggressively and I wanted that to stop.”
Almost a year later, this last weekend the decision was made to let Marti Fate go.
Nancy says “I was not on the bandwagon to have Marti fired nor her staff. What I had really hoped is that the community and Marti herself by seeing this, is that change would occur.”
But change took a long time in coming.
“Dogs aren’t allowed in the market. I am sorry she’s a medical service dog. Prescription dogs are not allowed in the market. She’s not a prescription dog ma’am.”
Nancy says “when people have different disabilities, it’s not always obvious by looking at the person. My dog was a medical alert dog, she would sense what was going on with me long before I was able to sense it.”
Unfortunately for Nancy her service animal Tilly, died earlier this year from a brain tumor.
But she takes comfort knowing that regardless of the treatment she received at the market, Tilly always did her job. And in future dogs like her may be welcome.
We did speak with Marti Fate on the phone. She said she did not want to comment.
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