Mom Is Told She And Her Child Can’t Pet Service Dog & Causes A Scene About Owner’s ‘Rude’ Reply

Feb 23, 2023 by apost team

Encounters with strangers can sometimes be uncomfortable, especially when one is overstepping a boundary. Unfortunately, in this story from 2018, one woman experienced such an encounter when someone had asked to pet her service dog, which she'd declined. The person in question then flipped out and caused a scene at the mall where the incident happened.

Megan Stoff, along with her dog, Nala, was visiting a local shopping mall that is located in Pittsburgh. While at the mall, a mother of a young child approached Stoff and asked if they could pet the service dog that happened to be on duty.

Stoff stated that she gets questioned all the time about whether strangers can pet her service dogs, and she always responds in the same way, telling them "No." The reason she can't let anyone pet Nala is that the dog is working and in training and this would disrupt the learning process. After the mom received the answer from Stoff, she walked on by, which led her to think it was the end of the conversation. But she was wrong.

Only a few minutes had passed before the mom had come back around to her. With her daughter dangling in her arms, the mom attempted to start an argument with Stoff. She was extremely irritated over Stoff's response to her and wouldn't let it go.

She told Stoff that instead of telling her "No," she should have answered in a different manner that showed more empathy. She would have rather heard that Stoff was "sorry" and that the dog was in training.

She then went on to complain that Stoff didn't have signage to let others know that they should not ask to pet the service dogs. Nala had on and wears a vest every time she is in training, and the vest is covered with patches denoting she is a service dog. 

Unfortunately, the incident escalated to the point where the mom even went as far as calling mall security. Stoff was astonished by how much this mom was willing to harass her simply for being told "No." As the mom left the scene, she even threatened to "call (her) lawyer."

Stoff told Yahoo:

“People ask us all the time, so I just said, ‘no.’ All the dogs are working so it’s my go-to answer. And they walked away. No big deal, right?” She continued: "This lady went out of her way to come back with her child and yell at us for saying ‘no.’ … And we should ‘have a sign or something.'”

After a video of the incident went viral, the mom became known as "Service Dog Sally." In an interview with Bored Panda, Stoff explained that she has autism and cannot "speak very efficiently at all," which makes it hard for her to explain to strangers why Nala can't be petted.

Meanwhile, the mom elaborated via local news outlet WTAE that she had initially accepted Stoff's "rude" answer that she and her child couldn't pet Nala, but came back for another reason — she “heard a woman from the group tell (them) to f*** off" and since she was holding her daughter "when she used profanity," she decided to confront them.

apost.com

Do you think Megan Stoff did the right thing, or do you agree with the mom? Maybe you have a completely different idea of how the situation should've gone down. Let us know your opinion, then pass this on to those you know.