Madam, - My son visited Germany recently and was invited out to dinner by his host on the evening prior to his departure home.
As he approached the table in a top-class restaurant he was bitten on the shin by a dog that was underneath a table next to the one at which he was to sit. He had stood on the dog's paw and the dog reacted in the way any dog would. My son had to go to hospital for an anti-tetanus injection and the evening was a total write-off.
It seems there is no legal restriction on bringing pets into restaurants and other public places where food is sold in Germany. I believe it is the same in France.
I have heard stories of pets being allowed to sit on their own chairs at restaurant tables and take part in the meal with the doting "parents", who treat the animals as substitute children. I suspect that to ban animals from these locations would be politically unpopular and no government would risk introducing legislation to do so.
However, we have such a law here and we hold the reins of the EU presidency for the next six months. It provides us with an opportunity to propose legislation to ban all pets from places where food is consumed on premises frequented by the public or sold over the counter throughout the EU. We look forward to the new member countries joining, but I suspect some of them may have the same lax attitude as the Germans and French.
The law would have an EU imprimatur so this would let governments off the hook. At least it would be more welcome than the EU's attempt to give us straight bananas! - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN M. REDMOND, Hazelbrook Road, Terenure, Dublin 6W