DeAngelis argues that Whole Foods should never have permitted the dog to remain inside the grocery store. Whole Foods prohibits pets in its stores but allows service animals as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Under federal law, a service dog must be individually trained to perform work or tasks related to a person’s disability. Animals that provide emotional support or companionship alone do not qualify as service animals under the ADA. Businesses generally must allow legitimate service animals even when pets are otherwise prohibited. However, a service dog may be removed if it is out of control and its handler does not take effective steps to control it.
DeAngelis alleges the dog that attacked her was not a service animal and accuses Whole Foods of failing to reasonably enforce its policies governing animals inside the store. The complaint also claims the company failed to exercise reasonable care in controlling and regulating animals allowed onto its property. Whole Foods had not publicly responded to the allegations when the lawsuit was first reported.
The lawsuit also comes as DeAngelis‘ profile at Fox Business continues to rise. Correspondent Dylan Byers recently reported that she could be among those considered for the time slot previously occupied by Maria Bartiromo.
The case comes amid a broader debate over severe dog attacks and whether certain breeds are associated with more serious injuries. Some trauma-center studies have found that injuries attributed to pit bull-type dogs are more likely to require surgery or result in severe trauma than attacks involving some other identified breeds.
A 2026 study involving 276 dog-bite patients found that attacks identified as involving pit bulls were significantly more likely to result in surgical intervention. The researchers cautioned, however, that breed identification by victims or witnesses can be unreliable. A broader review of U.S. research has similarly found pit bull-type dogs and German shepherds among the breeds frequently associated with serious bite injuries.
Breed-specific statistics remain controversial because mixed breeds can be difficult to classify visually and researchers lack universally accepted estimates of the total population of pit bull-type dogs in the United States. DogsBite.org, an advocacy organization that tracks severe dog attacks, has reported that pit bulls were involved in roughly two-thirds of the fatalities it documented between 2005 and 2019. That figure is based on the organization’s own classification methods rather than federal breed-specific fatality data.
Those broader arguments, however, are separate from DeAngelis‘ lawsuit. Her case will ultimately turn on what happened inside the Columbus Circle Whole Foods, whether the dog should have been allowed inside and whether the company had a legal duty to prevent the attack.
