GUIDE dog owners from Bradford have joined a national campaign to highlight how some cab drivers illegally turn away their animals.

The group has called on Westminster to introduce tougher sentences for drivers who refuse to transport assistance dogs.

In a recent survey, 49 per cent of guide dog owners said they had been refused taxi or minicab access because of their animals.

One guide dog owner from Bradford, who asked not to be named, said she had been a victim of such discrimination.

The woman said she was left stranded by a driver after he refused to let her guide dog in his car, claiming he had an allergy despite not having an exemption certificate on display in his vehicle.

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She said: “Being refused with my guide dog is extremely frustrating and inconvenient.

“A taxi refusal leaves you scared to go out and do things, and I live in constant fear of not knowing if I will be refused again and worrying about how I would get home.

“It shatters your confidence and make you feel scared, rejected, and traumatised, and sometimes it makes me feel like I don’t want to go out.”

Shabbir Master, from the Hackney Carriage Owners and Drivers Association in Bradford, said Hackney carriages had very strict terms on allowing guide dogs in their cabs.

We are very straight in our terms, and that is that we do not refuse guide dogs for any customer," he said.

“This is because firstly it is illegal to refuse access to guide dogs and their owners, and secondly we believe that a person with a guide dog needs that service from us and we have no problem with allowing them in our taxis.

“Whoever it is that refuses access does it off their own back, and has no support from us or the taxi trade.

“If I found out that someone was doing this I would report them straight away.”

Andrew Leon, engagement officer at the Guide Dogs Association said cab drivers turning away people with guide dogs was a big issue and called on councils to introduce harsher penalties for those that did.

“The impact it has on a person is that they cannot get to hospital, or pick their children up, or get to where they want to go, and the humiliation and offensiveness when someone is subjected to this level of discrimination, is a big problem," he said.

“Disabled people in wheelchairs don’t get turned away by taxis, so why should visually impaired people, who are also disabled, be treated differently?"

A Bradford Council spokesman said: “Drivers must convey safely in the vehicle a guide dog or any other animal which normally assists a blind or disabled passenger, except where a particular driver has a Council issued Exemption Certificate exempting him/her from carrying animals.

“In such a case the Exemption Certificate must be displayed in a position visible to the public and kept in a clean and legible condition.”