Groom humiliates cousin and her 'Great Dane therapy dog' at his wedding. AITA?
When this man feels like he may have humiliated his cousin, he asks Reddit:
'AITA for embarrassing my cousin in front of everyone at my wedding?'
I(28M) and my wife(29F) got married in May. We had the wedding at this beautiful hotel. We had about 150 people attending. I have one friend(29M) who has a service dog and is in a wheelchair. He was in an accident a few years ago and is paralyzed from the waist. His dog is always well behaved and nobody made a fuss.
My cousin(32F) has a Great Dane that is untrained and nobody in the family likes the dog. I made it clear to her many times the dog was not welcome to the wedding. Well the day of the wedding, she shows up late with her dog on a leash.
My father and I were furious and told her to leave with the dog. She refused and then let the dog off the leash. She promised he would be on his best behavior. He started jumping on people, tried to play with my friend's service dog and overall was upsetting everyone there.
My cousin's defense was that he's a therapy dog and she can't leave without him. She then pointed out that my friend brought a dog to the wedding, so it wasn't a big deal. I started yelling at her that there was a huge difference between a well trained service dog and her dog. Everyone was starring at us at this point and she grabbed her dog and left crying.
My Aunt approached me after the wedding that I didn't have to embarrass cousin like that and she was struggling with mental health. I explained that I had told her many times before the wedding that the dog was not welcome.
My cousin is now trying to paint me as the bad guy. She's sent me multiple messages demanding an apology.
AITA for embarrassing my cousin in front of everyone at my wedding?
Let's see what internet users had to say.
blueavole writes:
A real therapy dog is well trained, on a leash, and near it’s person. It isn’t running around jumping on people. This dog isn’t even well trained.
It might make her happy but not essential for her. What she is doing is the equivalent of taking a handicapped parking spot because she thinks her ankle might hurt.
And if Aunt had bothered to correct this behavior before , cousin wouldn’t have embarrassed herself. NTA.
novelad9 writes:
NTA - And this is where people who have emotional support animals (and I am one of them) need to understand the difference between a service animal (which cost tens of thousands of dollars to train because they perform life saving services) and why they are allowed in businesses and on all transportation and ESA’s.
My niece has diabetes and has a service dog that keeps her from passing out or going into a coma. She underwent rigorous training with this dog, after the dog went through even more training, all of which was estimated at over $30k.
And people like your cousin are why my niece is harassed and side-eyed because she “looks normal” and they can’t always see her insulin pump.
I’m sorry your cousin was so disrespectful at your wedding OP! You did the right thing as her dog was disruptive to everyone.
travelingpants8 writes:
Your cousin embarrassed herself. Having an untrained dog is embarrassing as is. You’re also better than me…I would’ve called security to have her and her dog removed. I’m not fighting with anyone on my wedding day. NTA.