Take your pooch out to eat

Gov. Jerry Brown just signed a bill legalizing restaurants and bars allowing pets on patios, starting Jan. 1. Given all the animal-rights activists and dog-lovers in this state, it’s surprising this took so long. Although in my experience here, this long has been allowed de facto.

In Europe, people commonly brought their dogs inside restaurants. And in some other countries, dogs also are allowed inside restaurants — in fact, inside pots as stew.

There’s also a way to take your dog or other animal almost anywhere: Register it online as a Service Animal. Some sites (do a search) let you do so for free.

And the federal Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits places from getting too nosy about the provenance of your animal’s validation. Just carry around a certificate, preferably with a picture of the animal, and you’re all set.

Of course, doing so could be a violation of property rights (pre-ADA version) if the local establishment doesn’t want you to bring in your animal. But nowadays it’s impossible to figure out what the establishment would want if the ADA didn’t exist. Everybody now is conditioned to just saying, “Service animal? OK.”

Somebody recently used an iPhone to take this video of how things are working out in a restaurant in Los Angeles: