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Hair Of The Dog: Law Would Let Pets Inside Breweries

File photo. SEAN BUETER/WFDD

There's a new bill on tap in the General Assembly that would let certain breweries decide for themselves if pets are allowed inside their businesses.

Jon Hardister (R-Guilford) co-sponsored a bill last week that would change the current health laws. If approved, it would allow breweries that have taps to let pets in their tasting rooms.

That's a privilege state law already gives to North Carolina wineries.

Guilford County health inspectors recently determined that Joymongers – a Greensboro brewery that also has a Winston-Salem location – was violating the law by allowing pets inside their business.

Hardister says he worked with the Guilford County Health Department, state health officials and the Craft Brewers Guild to write the bill.  

He says a taproom that serves drinks but doesn't prepare foods shouldn't have to meet the same standards as a restaurant.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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