A man was recently permanently banned from every Bucc-ee's convenience store for an incident involving his service animal duck, Wrinkle. Some folks are calling Bucc-ee's reaction "petty" "condescending" and "truly disgusting."

Was it a fair response to the man's action or a total overreaction from Bucc-ee's employees?

I'll give you the facts and let you decide.

In an honestly hilarious and charming video posted to YouTube, Hugh Menaim brings Wrinkle the Duck into the world's largest location of Bucc-ees in Sevierville, Tenessee. Wrinkle is honestly rather well-behaved and mostly confined to a stroller or held by Hugh. Hugh allows folks to pet the duck, take pictures, give the duck "fist-bumps" and even hands out $2 bills to kids.

It is fair to say that Hugh is up to some antics and is pushing some limits. However, the way some of the staff handled the situation is why some folks are saying they will boycott Bucc-ee's in the future.

The first employee we see in the video is nice enough. The gentleman shoveling snow in the parking lot asks questions about Wrinkle and gives the duck some nice pets. So far, so good.

Then, at about the 6-minute mark, we see an employee begin to scold Hugh for bringing in the duck, saying only service dogs are allowed, to which Hugh replies that Wrinkle is a service duck, and continues to go into the store. She doesn't look very friendly.

Then another employee approaches Hugh and Wrinkle, saying that pets are not allowed. Hugh again informs the employees that Wrinkle is a service animal. The woman then makes a huge (and possibly illegal) faux-pas by asking "what she does," i.e. what medical service she is providing to Hugh. Another customer informs her that she is not allowed to ask.

After some moments of shopping, another employee appears to tell Hugh he must leave the store, this time explaining that the animal must be contained on a leash. Hugh then removes Wrinkle from the stroller (in which she was contained) and places her on the ground with an imaginary leash.

To be fair he may have gone too far here, but it was the 3rd time he had to explain his service animal to an employee. The woman then gets visibly angry and says she will call the police. 

Hugh then makes his purchase of some water bottles and leaves but is approached by police on the outside, informing him that he has been permanently banned from all Bucc-ees.

Additionally, he is told that his duck was caught on camera nibbling a toy, which Hugh was going to buy before he was harassed by the last employee. You can see it in his basket in the photo above. Hugh pays for the animal with $50, telling yet another humorless employee to keep the change and the stuffed animal, as it is now a reminder of a horrible experience.

Quite adorably, the responding police officers pet and admire Wrinkle, just like the customers at Bucc-ee's did. It seems only the employees had a problem with Wrinkle.

Did Hugh take everything too far, or were Bucc-ee's employees vindictive and mean-spirited? Clearly, the woman who indirectly asked about Hugh's disability was in the wrong, but were the rest "simply doing their jobs?"

Is a permanent ban from all Bucc-ees an appropriate response?   I'll let you decide for yourself, but as for me, I'll just say that Bucc-ee's seems to be a lot less joyous place than I thought it was before I saw the video.

You can watch the entire video here: