More four-legged companions welcome: Singapore restaurants to allow assistance dogs from Nov 1
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Food Agency, together with the Ministry of Social and Family Development and Singapore Enable (SG Enable), recently announced that starting Nov 1 of this year, licensed restaurants will be allowed to permit assistance dogs to accompany their owners with physical, visual, or hearing impairments as they go to the dining areas, tea areas, and restrooms of the said restaurants.
The current Environmental Public Health (Food Hygiene) Ordinance only allows guide dogs assisting visually impaired customers to enter the establishments. However, after the new regulations take effect, assistance dogs accompanying physically and hearing-impaired customers will now be allowed as well. This adjustment is part of the government’s efforts to expand the significance of assistance dogs in public spaces, and it aligns with its goals of enabling people with disabilities to live more independently and create a more accessible and inclusive social environment.
What are the guidelines?
It is advised that assistance dogs should be properly controlled and kept on a leash when entering establishments. Moreover, the dogs should not wander around and disturb others, as well as damage any sort of property.
Additionally, service dogs are not permitted to eat inside food establishments, except for pet cafes.
The public can identify the service dogs by their harness, vest, or other identification equipment that they can wear. With this initiative, the authorities encourage restaurants to accept people with disabilities and their assistance dogs to create a more inclusive dining environment for all.
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To know more about this initiative, read Singapore Food Agency’s post here.
For further information on regulations regarding assistance dogs in public spaces such as restaurants, you can also visit the websites of K9Assistance or Guide Dogs Singapore.