Tia Wackerhagen

Review of Lazy Ranch

This review does not concern the content of the pa...

This review does not concern the content of the park itself, but it's management of policies: My daughter has special needs and has a registered ADA service dog. First and foremost, it does say on the website that there are no service animals, however I did not see this as it's not exactly prominent on the website. We paid our fee to enter and after getting though the gate, an employee saw the dog in the back of my SUV and said we had to leave because service animals are not allowed. I'm pretty familiar with ADA law so I asked to speak to a manager. The employee took me to meet a "manager". This individual had no idea what he was talking about. When I challenged the policy his answer was "well, it's private property".. incorrect response as it doesn't matter if you have private property (most establishments are) in regards to MOST ADA laws. Then he stated another response that was also a very weak excuse. No one could tell me what the ADA laws in regards to zoo's are. I was given a refund and asked to leave. It wasn't the most polite experience. No "sorry", and not even an explanation prior to leaving.

I contacted the US ADA office and asked about this situation and here are the facts (this is for you Lazy 5 so you can at least have the common business sense and courtesy to know the law and respond to your patrons accordingly): Zoo's do have leniency in regards to service animals . If the zoo animals feel threatened by a dog, they themselves can pose a threat (I totally get that). However, they DO have to make reasonable accommodations to allow service animals in. That might be an area where families with ADA dogs can go in which it is known the zoo animals won't feel threatened, dog in the very back of the car in a drive though zoo, etc.

It is NOT the fact that I wasn't allowed in with our service animal, it was the fact that your establishment has no clue on what the actual law is and didn't have the common decency to give me a response. I don't actually think the person I talked to was a manager even. This gives us the feeling that you do not care about the special needs population, which is not a good business practice. Side note: I did send an email to Lazy 5 with this information and no response. Again, not too concerned with the special needs population it appears.