WDWNT has reported on plenty of skirmishes between guests waiting for attractions at Walt Disney World. Someone pushing someone. Someone violently shaking someone. Full brawls breaking out. You get the idea.
But this is a new one.
Somebody kicked a service dog.
The incident happened on July 28 as two 19-year-old women waited in line at Space Mountain with their two service dogs, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s incident report released this week.
A stranger behind them in line stepped on the tail of one of the dogs.
One woman asked him to move back, which made the man angry, the sheriff’s report said. He started yelling at them.
The other woman, who was celebrating her birthday at Walt Disney World that day, put her service dog in between them and the man.
“When the line moved forward, she took a few steps forward, and when the male moved forward as well, he stepped on and kicked the service dog,” the report said.
Fortunately, the dog, an Australian Shepherd named Meeko, wasn’t hurt. Meeko is a medical alert animal who warns the woman if she is on the verge of passing out, the sheriff’s report said.
The two women were divided. Meeko’s owner was not sure if the kick was an accident or not; the other woman thought it was intentional, the report said.
The sheriff’s office and Disney Security did not find the stranger to question him.
The women reported the incident an hour later as the Magic Kingdom was closing, so “the possibility of finding the male amongst tens of thousands of other park-goers,” the sheriff’s report noted, was “slim.”
In the end, the sheriff’s deputy decided there was not probable a crime was committed.
“It should be noted the queuing area within the Space Mountain ride is a dimly lit narrow passageway,” the sheriff’s report said. “Due to the nature of the area where the incident occurred, lack of security cameras in the area, and (the woman’s) own statement that the kick could possibly have been unintentional, I find a lack of probable cause against the unknown male for Interference with or injury to a service animal.”
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