Snake wasn't on the menu of a Missouri restaurant, but that's
what patrons got -- along with a side of rattled nerves.
A reptile,
thought to be a boa constrictor, was brought into an eatery in Nixa, Missouri,
this week, sending some fleeing.
Lisa Loeffelholz
told CNN affiliate
KYTV that she spotted
a man and a woman holding the snake and "it started to slither down into the
booth behind her."
Loeffelholz said
she notified the restaurant manager -- who said the couple insisted the snake
was a service animal and the restaurant should allow it to stay.
But just the
sight of the woman apparently pulling the animal and then handing it over to
the man at the table was enough to make Loeffelholz confront the snake handlers
about their slippery excuse.
"He said, 'It's my service animal. And I'm allowed to have
it because it helps me with my depression,'" she told the affiliate.
The snake may
have had a calming effect on the couple, but by no means can it legally be
deemed a service animal.
The American with Disabilities Act states "only dogs are recognized
as service animals."
And if the snake
posed a concern for public safety, then patrons could have notified police or
animal control, according to Nixa city's communications director, Jill Finney.
"Management
didn't know what to do, because they didn't want to violate anybody's rights,
and that's understandable," Finney told the affiliate.
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