Woman screams at person for moving her dog away from elevator, 'that's my service animal.'

Hell hath no fury like a pet owner whose pet was touched without consent.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, the OP asked if they were wrong for touching a woman's service dog without permission. They wrote:

"AITA for grabbing someone’s service dog without permission?"

Okay, let me give you some context. I was staying at one of those beach resorts that have like 20 different floors with my family and our condo was on one of the highest floors.

Something important to note was that the elevators were sketchy as hell (the doors shut really hard and fast with no warning and the sensor to see if something was still in the way of the door was really bad and didn’t respond to smaller things like your hand). Me and my siblings were heading down to the beach and a woman who was probably late 60s to early 70s got on a floor down from us.

After a few seconds a really small dog followed her on. This dog had no leash, vest, harness, or even a collar. It was tiny so I wasn’t sure if the sensor would pick up on it, not to mention the dog was moving pretty slow. I panicked because she didn’t acknowledge it at all, so I assumed it slipped out of her condo without her realizing it.

I thought the doors were gonna close on the dog, so I gently pushed it over the threshold by it’s butt. I just wanted to make sure her dog didn’t get hurt. It wasn’t the best way to deal with it in hindsight, but it was a split of the second decision.

The woman freaked out when she saw and yelled at me for the minute long elevator ride, saying that it was her on duty service animal and I had no right to touch it. I’m physically disabled so I know the importance of never touching or distracting someone’s service animal. Had I known, I wouldn’t have ever touched her dog and probably would have put myself between the doors instead.

My siblings told me that it wasn’t my fault and that she was just a Karen and that in that state a service animal on duty is required to wear a vest, but at the end of the day, I still touched someone’s service animal without permission and it bothers me to this day. AITA?

Redditors had so much to say about this.

StAlvis wrote:

"This dog had no leash, vest, harness, or even a collar."

That's no f#$king service dog. NTA.

CatteNappe wrote:

NTA, and there's every reason to doubt it was someone's service animal. Without the vest, and along with her attitude and response, it sounds like an entitled old lady trying to pass of her pet as an emotional support dog.

Labornurse-ret wrote:

NTA. You were trying to be kind, and prevent harm to the dog. It's very odd for even a pet dog to be out in public without a leash. There was no indication that this was a service dog. You did absolutely nothing wrong.

lovemysweetdoggy wrote:

NTA, but I’d advise against touching any dog strangers unless you ask their parent first. Not only can they be service dogs, but they can also be reactive and you don’t want to stress them out and end up with a dog bite. It sounds like your heart was in the right place though for this little guy.

OP is NTA here, it sounds like that lady was lying about her dog's status as a service dog.