Ian Bell is a 55-year-old who lives alone in the small seaside town of Silloth, England who was recently denied service at a KFC in the much bigger city of Carlisle which is about 20 miles inland. According to Bell, he was driving his horse-drawn cart with his horse, Jon Jon, when a manager stepped out of the restaurant and asked him to leave for the health and safety of other customers.
In an interview, Bell told SWNS,
“I had lined up behind some cars and was about to order a Bargain Bucket when all of a sudden this manager came out and said ‘you’re not allowed through.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I’d done nothing wrong. Jon Jon was behaving himself, he was quiet as a lamb – he’s a very well-behaved horse. In the end I had to go to McDonald’s for a Big Mac. No one there batted an eyelid, they didn’t say anything to me at all, they just served me my food.”
He went on to explain that a horse-drawn carriage is a fairly common way to get around in his town and he’d like an apology from KFC as well as accommodating other travelers and Gypsies that would like to use their drive thru.
A KFC spokesperson issued a statement saying,
“Hold your horses Carlisle. We’re not looking to stirrup trouble and we’re sorry for Ian and Jon Jon’s experience – but the safety of our guests is really important, so we can’t allow horse-drawn vehicles in our drive thrus.”
Bell says that this incident won’t stop him from driving the carriage around and he even joked that he’s going to try Burger King’s drive thru to see what its policy on horses is.
For a further look into the life of gypsy travelers watch the video below.