Posted by The Extra Spoon on Jan 5th 2018
How is this adorable puppy going viral inciting hate and harassment?!
Zira, the puppy went viral earlier today foir being one of the cutest little puppies you've ever seen in a shopping cart. Not everyone thought this was cute, however. In fact of many of service dog handlers who know that pets are only welcome in pet friendly stores took no time in jumping onto the status to tell her the dangers of shopping with a pet and how it can harm someone with a service animal.
"A shopping cart? Pet friendly?!" Wait! Now before you get your pitchforks, please listen.
We're here to teach love, acceptance, and to educate about service animals. When one openly admits to being wrong or uninformed and apologizes, we need to give them the benefit of the doubt and open our arms to them, welcome them, and thank them for being kind enough to take the time to educate themselves on our behalf.
That said, you all know how some of the service dog community can be unrelenting. That's not fair to Zira, and it makes us all look just as bad. Anything after this point would be considered bullying, and bullying is NEVER okay.
Zira made a mistake.
Zira admitted her mistake.
Zira used her mistake to educate the public.
Zira couldn't have handled this any better. Many of us would have buckled under the THOUSANDS of bullies attacking someone over an innocent mistake they admitted but Zira respectfully apologized.
Instead of spreading more hate, share a little love, visit @zirathecorgi on instagram and give her some love and spread the message if you see her being bullied online. That's just not fair when you expect her to respect us.
Let's learn from this experience. I learned a few things and I'm very happy with how Zira has approached this situation. Thank you Zira, we'll try and get the message out that you're now trying to educate and that you really are sorry.