Row over dog in Bernera cafe has escalated out of control

Claire Kellerman, left, with her late aunt and adoptive mother, Sally. Picture: Getty Images | Getty Images

A dispute over whether a dog can enter a cafe may sound trivial. However, in Bernera on the Western Isles, it has blown up into a legal dispute involving thousands of pounds.

According to Claire Kellerman – the niece and adoptive daughter of the late actress, Sally Kellerman, who played Major Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan in the 1970 hit film, M*A*S*H – her dog, Lady Turquina Snowfire, was denied access to the cafe despite being an assistance animal.

Her decision to sue the Bernera Community Association, a not-for-profit charity, has put its future at risk and prompted a backlash from some Western Isles politicians who described the case as “vexatious”. Now Labour peer George Foulkes has resigned as a patron of the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre in protest at its support for Kellerman, while the Scottish Legal Aid Board has also come under fire for its role.

It is hard to see who is possibly going to emerge from this dismal affair as the ‘winner’. Sometimes litigation is necessary to resolve disputes, but there surely could have been a more conciliatory way to settle this one.