A Haslemere woman has hit out at Haslemere Hall after experiencing difficulties getting tickets for herself and her emotional support animal.

Jennifer Watson has officially registered her pet cat Amani as an emotional support animal (ESA).

A medical professional has confirmed Amani is required for Jennifer’s ongoing mental health treatment and mental health wellness.

Jennifer was hoping to watch Where the Crawdads Sing with Amani, and a friend, at Haslemere Hall on Tuesday evening (August 16) – but the hall raised concerns over the impact Amani may have on other customers.

Jennifer said: “I understand that Amani as a cat does not have any legal rights of access to public places, but under the Equality Act 2010 I have the right not to be discriminated against or excluded on the basis of my mental health and for reasonable adjustments to be made.

“I have Amani to help me with social anxiety – allowing me to go out on my own and thereby alleviating the isolation that often comes as a result of social anxiety.

“Amani is transported in a pet specific stroller – which also acts as my mobility aid – as I have fibromyalgia and do struggle with my mobility.

“This has been stress inducing and anxiety inducing. Two or three years ago I would not have been strong enough to tackle this. If this had happened then it could have broken me – but now I can say it’s not okay. Nobody on the planet should be made to feel like a second-class citizen.”

Jennifer and Amani watched Top Gun at the hall in July.

Jennifer said: “I first attended Haslemere Hall to watch Top Gun with a friend, and while Amani being there was a bit surprising, the staff and volunteers were able to sort out our seating and we enjoyed the film.

“Other patrons engaged with me, asking questions which I happily answered – and when they heard Amani was for my emotional support they were all very understanding and thought it was a wonderful, albeit unusual, thing to see.”

Haslemere Hall insists it wants to work with Jennifer to find a solution.

Haslemere Hall manager Howard Bicknell said: “The Haslemere Hall is a charity and we welcome everyone of all ages and we practice diversity, equality and inclusion without exception.

“Customers with an ESA is a very new profile to us and therefore we have had to speak with a range of people to protect and support customers, staff and volunteers.

“We have to ensure that by allowing an ESA into the building what connotations will this mean to the building and other people and the future. We have researched and looked into this and wish to support the customer. However, we also have to protect our other customers who may not expect to find a cat in the building.

“We empathise greatly with the customer, and we want to ensure we are doing the right thing for everyone. We don’t want to set an untenable precedence by allowing a customer and their ESA into the building and then discovering the following week the numbers of ESAs are multiplying and are of various types that may not get along with each other.

“We are also aware of the growing number of people with allergies. We don’t want to exclude them and want to accommodate them too. We are aware we have a number of customers and volunteers who have strong allergies to fur and wouldn’t be able to attend the cinema if an ESA would affect them.

“We are doing our best to sort this out fairly for everyone and have kept in touch with our customer with what we are trying to do for them and also offered to meet them to understand the issues further.”