A woman recently came under scrutiny when a video surfaced of her raging at the handler of a service dog when the handler didn’t allow the woman’s two-year-old to pet the service dog. The altercation was filmed by Megan Stoff, the service dog handler. She was with her working golden retriever, Nala, in a shopping mall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when the mother approached her while holding her little girl. The mother asked Stoff if her little girl could pet Nala, and Stoff and her co-worker said no. Petting a service dog interferes with their training. But just hearing no wasn’t enough. As the entitled mom walked away, she apparently became more enraged and decided to walk back to the dog’s handler and rage some more, and she even began shouting at Megan and her co-workers.
At that point, Megan started filming the altercation. The entitled mom suggested that the owner of the service dog saying, “No,” wasn’t acceptable. She felt the woman should have said, “Please don’t touch the dog.” She added that “it was definitely very rude how she talked to me.” When the entitled woman says, “You’re filming me without my consent, and that’s illegal,” the person filming said that it’s actually not, but it is a misdemeanor to harass a service dog. I didn’t know that, but it’s a good law. These are working dogs who have a job to protect a person who needs their help. They shouldn’t be disturbed or distracted by entitled women and their kids.
The entitled mom demanded that they have a sign up that says not to touch the service dog. Megan, at that point, told the woman to walk away, and Megan also pointed to the dog’s vest, which says the words, “Please do not pet me I’m working.” Those words are written on both sides of the vest. The vest also says, “Do not touch” and “Do not pet.” When the mom figures out she’s being filmed, she threatens to call her lawyer.
YouTube
Megan told Pittsburgh Action News 4 that people with service dogs constantly deal with requests to pet the dogs. Many people don’t know they’re not supposed to pet the dogs, but most people, once they’re told, politely back off. Not this lady, however. Watch her outrageous rant below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-nXj_szQo&feature=emb_title
