Retired Marine spreading awareness after being booted from bar for service dog

UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A former Marine is spreading awareness regarding service animals after being kicked out of a Uniontown bar for bringing his dog inside the business.

Eric Strump, a former Marine Sergeant, posted a video on Facebook after being told dogs were not allowed by employees at Darby’s. The Facebook video he posted has been viewed more than 100,000 times.

“I cannot sit here and say the staff of the bar was disrespectful. They were not,” Strump said.

Strump said he showed the staff his dog, Dixie’s, service ID and a hotline number, and told them they could not legally kick him out of the bar. He said he told them to call the police. Employees called the owner instead.

“It honestly seemed like a very, very big misunderstanding on her part of the law,” Strump said.

Darby’s owner told Channel 11’s Cara Sapida that she was asleep when she received the call about a dog in the bar and said she told the employee dogs were not allowed. She said a few minutes later she received another call explaining that it was a service dog, and she then said it was allowed to stay.

Strump said that the message was not relayed to him.

“If there was word that I was allowed to stay, it didn't reach me or the bouncer, and I had two friends with me and we were definitely walked out of the bar. Not aggressively, they were respectful. I was simply asked to leave,” Strump said.

Strump said he does not have any hard feelings and will not be taking legal action. He just wants to raise awareness so that it does not happen to another veteran

“Just to kinda give a voice to the issue and hopefully help someone else out,” Strump said of his goal in publicizing what happened.

The business has been receiving phone calls from across the country and others from the community saying they will never go to the pub again.

The owner did reach out and apologize to Strump. Her stepson is a Marine and said she wanted to make it very clear to Strump that she supports him. She told Channel 11 that she works hard to give back to the community and has helped raise thousands of dollars for local charities over the years.

After 10 years of service, Strump said he hopes to attend Penn State to study astrobiology.

Cox Media Group