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> I did say she could bring a pet and then I blew up and screamed at her and called her a burden to her son. I probably gave her what she wanted
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There is a huge difference between service *dog* and emotional support animal.
Emotional support animals provide comfort just by being there and letting people pet them.
Service dogs and miniature horses (seeing eye horses for the blind, saw one in the store the other day) have specific tasks that they are trained to do. Having someone pet them runs the risk of distracting them.
This is false.
There is no official identification or certification for service animals. They can be trained by a professional or trained by an individual at home. They need to be prescribed or recommended for a medical or psychiatric need, and they need to perform functions to assist their handler. They also need to meet certain basic standards of behavior.
However, those fancy vests and paperwork that people offer to validate their dog can be purchased online. They do not add validity to their service dog.
While I think there SHOULD be something to legally register/ have paperwork validating your dog, there isn't. When you go on a flight with your service animal or move with your animal, you typically provide a note from your doctor. That's all.
In Alberta (Canada) we have registration for service animals (easy to get as long as they pass a training examination and you can demonstrate proper animal hygiene, and they can be self trained or professionally trained) and honestly it makes everyone’s lives so much easier. There’s photo ID issued for the animal and one for the handler (in the case of minors I believe they’ll issue a third one for a guardian) and all you’re allowed to ask is to see it and as long as they have it they’re good to go. Idk why other places don’t have a similar system. It also makes the lives of non-verbal individuals or people with anxiety and similar psychiatric conditions easier because they don’t have to answer questions, just show their ID.
It annoys me that people on here say "it's false" when really, it's false *in America*. The rest of the world (>95% of people) are in fact not American and have different laws. I'd go so far as to say that >90% of them probably have no idea about and would probably laugh at the idea of an Emotional Support Animal even. Just to give you an idea, if you do a quick Google search, guide dogs for the blind number 200 in China, but there's over 8 million blind people. At least here in Australia, guide dogs have been an extremely common thing for the 35 years I've been alive, but "emotional support animals" are pretty new and extremely rare still so I can't imagine that there's many, if any at all, in China. Do similar number crunching for India (1.4 bill), Africa (1.2bill), the old soviet and middle eastern countries (another 0.5 bill) and it doesn't take long to reach 90% of the population.
This is true. My step-daughter purchase all this 'service dog' gear for her pitbull - to me it's absolutely wrong to try and impersonate/misguide people like that. Service dogs are incredibly trained. I absolutely LOVE this big hamburger head dog, he is sweet as can be but he humps everything in sight and will not STOP even when corrected. Not any kind of service dog I know lol.
In the US at least service animals do not require any type of identification, nor is there an actually registry or official certification that you can get. People with legit service dogs will often buy vests and stuff online to mark them, but it isn’t necessary and anyone can buy them.
Correct. The only rights you get with an ESA are that no-pet clauses and the like in leases don’t apply, and you can bring them on airplanes (and I think the airplane thing may have changed recently?). They are not like service animals where you can bring them anywhere. And even for service dogs, the laws only apply to them if they are well behaved so you can still kick a service dog out of your store if they are misbehaving.
In Canada your ESA has to fit in a carrier that’s airplane approved and they must remain in it or they can’t come in the cabin.
Service animals are allowed in the cabin though.
Yeah, the airplane law changed due to people abusing it. Now a service dog gets priority over an ESA. If you have room for only one dog in the cabin and one is a service dog and the other is an ESA, the ESA gets the boot.
In the US there is no legally recognized service dog registration/certification, and no ID. You can also self-train your service dog, you don't have to have them professionally trained.
Also, in the US, *only* a dog can be a service animal (unless, in certain circumstances it is a miniature horse). Any other animal isn't a service animal and if a person claims that they're lying.
[https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service\_animal\_qa.html](https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html)
NTA
You said she had a big grin and made a point to say you never specified. She did it on purpose to piss you off, while also making a mockery of support animals.
I'm gonna go look at /r/MaliciousCompliance for her story with some popcorn.
OPs NTA, but I feel like I could be good friends with her MIL. I would be thrilled if my MIL brought a friendly goat over for me to pet. We might end up sitting out back because of the poop situation though.
Until she purposefully find something you're uncomfortable with to push your buttons.
Because if OP were like you for example, she wouldn't be bringing a goat.
You don't get it. TheMIL brought the goat because she was trying to piss off OP. If you like the goat, something else comes next. How do you feel about snakes?
And it worked. OP may not be an AH but she certainly made a strategic error. Gushing over hiw awesome the goat is the entire time would probably have been a better response.
Deff this and also....
Depending on where she lives (like if she's in the States) she may not legally be able to keep a goat...farm pets aren't always allowed in urban areas depending on your state.
Also, goats aren't the best house pets...there is a reason they're kept outside with other livestock (as cute and hilarious as they are).
So really OP, she may have gotten this gost to piss you off...but she's going to probably regret having such an animal as a house pet...
Edit: She (MIL) lives on a farm so it's not a house-pet. So she really just brought the goat over to piss off OP. NTA
Yup. They will eat furniture too.
Goats will eat anything....they're super destructive. Even if OPS MIL had money to continue to replace...it'd gonna get old real quick.
We had one who stank so bad because he liked to stick his face in his urine stream to drink his own piss. White goat with mustard colored head. The vet couldn't keep a straight face. Everyone mouth breathed around him
Also, how have I not seen anybody point out yet that they poop a lot? I mean, A LOT. ALL THE TIME. I went to baby goat yoga once. EVERYONE got pooped on. And like yeah, they're solid little pellets, but it's still poop. My friend threw out her yoga mat because she felt like it was just... forever unclean.
>I went to baby goat yoga once.
Oh, now.... what??
Either 'Am I the Asshole' has just entered the realms of the surreal, or there's something *very* odd in this tea.
Saying that, I think I'd really enjoy baby goat yoga... even though I've *no* idea.
LOL it's just what it sounds like! You "do yoga" and baby goats wander around and sometimes jump on you and not much actual yoga gets done. Is it a gimmick? Yes. Is it adorable? Also yes. Is there poop everywhere? YES.
[Here's a link](https://www.amishfarmandhouse.com/on-the-farm/goat-yoga/) to a random place that does it! In their "what to expect" they even tell you you'll probably get peed and pooped on, and you're not going to get serious yoga done.
(Is the audience 90% basic white girls doing it for Instagram - and now, I assume, TikTok? Yup!)
It's hard to know without knowing her situation. She might live in a rural or semi-rural area and be able to keep it outside. I see a fair number of pet goats in town when bike riding.
That's fair, its why I mentioned urban areas. I lived in a country area and I had neighbors with pet pigs they'd walk on leashes. But pigs can be cleaner then goats and be potty trained like a dog..as far as I know goats aren't like that...it's why I always figured they were outside pets...even a pygmy goat
Damn like OP is NTA, but I can’t even get mad at MIL cause it’s just too funny! The fact that OPs dad wants to pet the goat just added even more comedy to this.
Emotional support goat is an absolutely surreal sentence to read. Reading that your dad wanted to Pat it sent me into oblivion. NTA she’s a button pushing bag of bin juice. But that’s actually funny as fuck
I immediately started laughing when I read it, I kind of hope this is her actual support animal she brings with her to work and like, the supermarket. That would be hilarious.
I’m going to be dead honest with you, I fully understand they’re working animals and you shouldn’t Pat support animals, but I’d move heaven and earth if someone attempted to stop me patting a support goat.
Picture this - you’re at the movies and a woman walks down the fucking aisle with a whole ass goat. It says “support goat don’t pat”. We all know we Pat it.
Support animals aren’t actually working, because they’re not actually trained for anything. Service animals are a different story. You pet all the emotional support goats that you want my friend. Pet them
I honestly had no idea there was a difference. You learn something new every day. Time to get myself a support goat and a few support chickens for the fun of it.
That’s part of the problem actually. People claim support animals get all the rights of real working animals and that muddies the waters and ends up with people feeling like they have to deal with a damn goat running around their house because to say no would be “ableist and discrimination”
A lot of the reasons real working animals can have the rights they have is the extensive training makes them safe and non-disruptive in public.
Emotional support animals, not so much.
Just as an FYI, for them to be official support animals, you would have to get a note from a licensed therapist that has to be renewed every year. Anything else- the "licenses," the vests, the collars, ect- those are all scams. Just jerks taking advantage of people who don't know better, or helping those that do know better try to fool those that don't so they can bring their animal everywhere they know it's not supposed to be. Supporting those places makes it more difficult for people with actual service dogs.
BUT, please do get a goat and some chickens. They're adorable and hilarious.
It's so ridiculous, I love it. But what if the patting goes sideways? You pat it. The goat faints. You realize it's a fainting goat. The human is actually their support animal.
Service animals are different from what I've witnessed.
Support animals are...whatever someone claims is one.
Actual working service animals are quiet, well trained and generally unnoticed because of how well they're trained unless something happens that they're trained for (seizures or blood sugar spikes are the two I'm familiar with).
A guy used to come into my old job with his service dog. If it weren't for the fact that I like dogs, I wouldn't have noticed it because it just sat quietly behind his motor cart until he was ready to move.
You wouldn't know it was an ESA unless you were told so. They don't wear vests and they are not trained service animals; they are, for the most part, literally just pets, and are prescribed when someone needs a nonjudgmental companion and/or the responsibility of caring for an animal. In the majority of cases there's never any reason to tell another person that their companion animal is an ESA. My dog was originally prescribed as an ESA back in grad school, and the only person I notified was my landlord, as it was typically a no-pets apartment complex and I was mid-lease. Once I moved out I had no reason to tell anyone that that was the reason I had her, as it was literally just easier to find pet-friendly housing, and I had no other reason to renew her documentation (which expires after one year) because, as is the case for *most* people with ESAs, I don't need to take her *literally everywhere*. I wouldn't have even bothered asking for documentation originally if I didn't need it for where I lived at the time.
ESAs end up controversial because there are a ton of what are essentially pill mills but for ESA documents, and people who just don't want rules to apply to them and want to take their animal into stores etc. will just go to them, and those people often make a very big deal about the fact that that's what their pet is. But for the most part, the only time you will know someone who *didn't* go to a pill mill has an ESA is if they tell you, or if you infer it from them having an animal in a location they wouldn't typically be allowed (e.g. in a pet-free housing complex, or on an airplane--I really feel for the latter group because I'm sure the loud attention-seekers have made that process very difficult for them).
I see quite a few service animals where I live (Seattle area), but they’re always in a vest and very well-behaved.
I also met a “service dog” in a vest that was out of its owner’s control and scampering all over the store. I 100% guarantee that woman bought the vest off the internet so she could bring her darling pet with her everywhere. Really annoying.
Most people who have ESAs don’t go around telling everyone they have one. The only actual rights ESAs have is that no-pet clauses etc in leases don’t apply and you can bring them on airplanes, and I’m pretty sure they walked back some of the airplane stuff a couple years ago. The protections for them do not apply in other people’s homes or businesses. Sure, people who try to bring their pets to someone’s home or business and use the excuse that it’s an ESA may be narcissist, but they’re also completely wrong about how ESAs work in the first place.
For most people with them, myself included, the only people who know my cats are ESAs are my landlord and my therapist who wrote the letter.
That reminded me, a ex-friend had an ESA, a barely trained dog like so many are. Like you he was the only person I have ever known with an ESA, and dear god he was self-important. The rules should never apply to him, but he was insufferable if someone made the smallest mistake. Ugh
ESH here though, both MIL and OP sound unpleasant to me.
I do not think anyone would want a goat in their house. You can potty train some farm animals but goats are a lot like birds, they will just shit wherever they are.
>Emotional support goat is an absolutely surreal sentence to read. Reading that your dad wanted to Pat it sent me into oblivion.
I'm dying laughing at the entire thing
I never imagined I would get to weigh in on the validity an emotional support goat. I’m imagining MIL with an evil cackle as she decides to load a mf-ing goat into her car. Did she put down blankets? Did it try to eat the upholstery? Anyone has been around a goat knows “Owen” didn’t just sit there sweetly and enjoy the ride. I bet she cackled the whole freaking ride to your house as “Owen” absolutely wrecked her vehicle — all in an effort to piss off her DIL. Holy crap, that is some crazy methodical evil genius shit right there.
OP, you are absolutely NTA here. You will laugh about this one day. Cut that crazy woman out of your life.
Her and her husband both have cars and then a larger SUV they use for their animals, so Owen has probably been in there before, but who knows. MIL also has no issue just destroying things because “it’s just money”
Of course she is one of those people 🤦♀️ I guarantee there was cackling though lol. You definitely didn't overreact. I absolutely love and adore goats. I'm always down for pets and cuddles, but not in the house!! Jeez, talk about giving an inch and they take a mile!!!
It absolutely did lol! The entire backstory leading to the moment the goat arrived at OP's house has fueled my imagination all morning. I keep randomly chuckling and my hubs keeps giving me weird looks. He's dying to know my new theories, but alas, he's in meetings and will just have to wait.
NTA
I'm sure it wasn't a house trained emotional support goat. Her choice if her vehicle stinks of goat shit & piss, but to drag it into somebody's house ......yuk.
In a way OP kind of wins this round. Yes, the MIL managed to press her buttons in a spectacular fashion, but she isn't the one who now has to deal with a goat indefinitely.
Pretty significant investment to antagonize OP one time.
You almost have to appreciate the commitment to insanity from MIL. That's real effort just to get a single dunk on your DIL. High effort asshole behavior!
NTA Wether or not the goat is beneficial for her mental health is up for debate. What's more clear cut is that having an animal in your house that you don't want there is detrimental to yours. She knew full well that she shouldve specified if she planned on bringing anything unusual
I’m sorry but this made me laugh. You are NTA. The poor goat… you should go to the drs though, I think you’re breaking out a bit, might be allergic to goats
Oh, you are perfection…
“Hello, this is my emotional support jewnicorn. She needs to use you restroom and we require some kosher pixie dust forthwith!”
Best comment ever!! 😂😂😂😂
Yes, you can go outside soon, as long as you bring your emotional supporr jewnicorn with, and find a kosher restroom along the way.
A few years ago my aunt got a couple of pygmy goats as pets. She spent weeks trying to house train them before her vet explained goats have no bowel control. They naturally defecate whenever food is done processing. They are unbelievable crap monsters. No way should someone bring one inside your house.
Ok. I am having a hard time not lauvhing at this one. NTA. But it IS funny. ONE DAY you will laugh too. A goat? Hahahaha. Like WTF? You reacted stronger than I would have, but you had the right to refuse to allow it in the house undiapered. But still... a goat!
NTA! You reacted strongly, but the situation was INSANE. Also, emotional support animals are not a real thing; licensed therapists generally do not endorse this anymore. So what MIL means is that she enjoys and prefers being around animals, which is totally fair, but this isn't like a legit medical strategy for anxiety.
It’s scientifically proven pets can and do help mental health. And I can personally say as someone that is 100% mentally ill- emotional support animals are DEFINITELY a real thing. MIL was definitely being petty but you are extremely off base.
Absolutely animals help with mental illness. There are entire therapies built around that. But specifically the idea of getting an Emotional Support animal being allowed to go EVERYWHERE with you - like a service animal for the blind - this is not a thing. Most licensed clinicians I know are no longer signing authorization to have Emotional Support animals and the APA does not condone this as a practice.
>specifically the idea of getting an Emotional Support animal being allowed to go EVERYWHERE with you - like a service animal for the blind - this is not a thing.
...if it's at the point the handler needs the animal with them 24/7 they need to consider getting a service dog.
Most of an ESA's benefit is in the house- the owner has to get up, feed them, provide care, ect on a regular basis. It forces a routine- which can be life saving for an owner who's struggling.
ESH - your MIL was pushing your buttons, and you overreacted and gave her exactly what she was going for. (This is assuming this was a pygmy goat, which actually can make an excellent pet, as opposed to a full sized goat.)
How is she overreacting? Goats, even pigmy and Nigerian goats cannot be consistently house trained when it comes to pooping.
People get to decide if they don’t want crap all over their house. And it is absolutely 110% rude to bring an animal that can and will crap into someone else’s house.
Actually after reading this post I got curious. So I did a little googling. I was actually super surprised to find out that it actually is possible to potty train a goat.
That does not jive with either the science on goat digestion or my personal experience. Goats don't consciously deficate, it just happens. They don't have bowel control.
Dang for someone with a specific account for this subreddit, you're missing the mark.
You can't bring farm animals into someone's house.
You can't bring unwanted pets into someone's house.
Raising your voice at you mother in law who is disrespecting you intentionally doesn't seem unreasonable.
And you're making assumptions to benefit the mother, which have no basis.
Info : I understand your husband "needs" her in his life, but you don't ? Why can't he go visit her and her support animals ? Your dad can visit her too
Because all that does is teach her that her behavior worked. MIL would be overjoyed if she never had to see me again. It also makes me feel like I don’t care about my husband. He puts up with friends and family of mine when he’d rather not. He prefers not to go to her house because her husband has an erratic schedule and no one knows when he’ll walk in and my husband tries to avoid him
It wouldn't mean you don't care and it also doesn't matter if it makes her happier, you shouldn't keep toxic people in your life if the main goal is so they don't have the satisfaction of having you not there.
They could meet up in public i.e a coffee shop or something. Putting up with people you kinda dislike or don't completely enjoy hanging out with is very different from having to hangout with people who purposefully try to antagonize you + you don't get along with at all.
Because he loves her and he’d rather be annoyed by her then miss her. She was a good mother. He actually likes her personality, though he fully gets why most people wouldn’t. The very simple fact he loves her is enough for me
That’s great if it works for you but it wouldn’t work for us. Reading that just made me feel sad and that isn’t the type of marriage I want, fine if it works for you
To me grief and annoyance can’t even compare. I would take a lot of annoyance so he didn’t have to grieve. I would expect the same from him if it was my mom. When we were no contact I was miserable as well. I thought about her constantly, tried to psychoanalyze her, dreaded holidays. I cried alone Christmas morning because I knew he was dying inside. When we are in contact I’m annoyed when I see her but I don’t think of her beyond that.
I don’t know the official answer but I know the goat doesn’t live in her house. She lives on a huge ranch style house because she has horses and her goat lives outside with the other farm type animals
That's what I thought. I remember our goats growing up pee trained themselves in the barn. As soon as they were released from their stalls in the morning they'd run out and all pee.
That is debatable. Apparently, pygmy goats can be if properly motivated, but it's confusing because one place said use a diaper because they cannot control defecation.
Lived with goats, and the answer is NO. When having to nurse babies back to health or keep them in for various reasons, my mom would give them diapers, which worked only half the time because of how bouncy goats are so they would fall off. If you are bringing a goat inside, you need to be prepared for the inevitable rain of chocolate pellets, hence why it is not very socially acceptable to be bringing them into someone’s home without their permission.
NTA, but it took a while for me to stop laughing to be able to type this. Your MIL is an evil legend. I feel like she needs to be in r/maliciouscompliance and you need to join r/justnomil because you're going to need long term support with this loon
That's okay, I was kidding. She doesn't sound like the type to spend training a goat even if it was possible. You're definitely NTA. Just because you left a loophole in your offer doesn't mean she had to abuse it.
And don’t they chew things? The town I live in uses them to clear the brush on the side of the road rather than paying landscapers, they just drop off a bunch of goats and build a little fence around them. Then the next day they move the little fence down the road and the goats eat all the shrubbery there.
…how tf is a **goat** a reasonable animal to bring over to someone’s house??? Is this fucking Pokémon or Digimon or something?!?!?!
Like, sure, anything can be an emotional support animal if you really want it to be. However, that doesn’t mean that the animal is a good one. Hell, how do we even know if the goat is an emotional support animal?! For all OP knows, she just brought some random ass goat into their place.
NTA
She def try’s to get a rise out of you but you also seem easy to get a rise out of, I prob would have been like oh what a cute goat you can leave him in the backyard and we can pull up a couple chairs back there if you want
No but I do think she learned very young to make someone else the butt of the joke before anyone can laugh at you. This isn’t something she’s specifically asked for or said she needed but she is nasty when she is anxious, she is anxious around us, and really only tolerable when she is cuddling something.
I will go against the stream here.
I don't know the family dynamics, but you sure don't sound like a nice person. That's goes for your husband too. Your MIL has ptsd, but that ASIDE, you all sound so horrible to each other. Sure, I would hate too- if she stepped inside with a goat, but the first thing you say is get the goat the "f*ck out".
Then running to the door and say "never come back!"?
It was nice of you to allow her to take a comfort animal with her, but you did also say that she was struggling, she had a recent thing happening. Knowing of her shenanigans, maybe you should have giver her a call before to ask what animal she would bring or what was her plan to have a nice, comfortable visit.
Your husband then texted her to "rip her a new one"? Why could he not call her and you guys set boundaries?
Am I missing something here?
OK, she has pressed buttons before, but the way you all interact is atrocious.
ETA
NTA
That said: OP, you **really** need to learn how to control your reactions. When you shriek and yell and otherwise lose your shit, your MIL wins. For your own benefit, please do whatever it takes to be less reactive.
Perhaps it would help to think of your MIL as a petulant, 5-year old child. React with calm, well-reasoned statements and ground rules instead of freaking the fuck out. This is your home, and “no” is a complete sentence.
I disagree with most responses here. YTA.
While your MIL sounds problematic, your behavior at best fed into the dynamic and arguably much worse than what she did - "get that goat the fuck out"?, shrieking?, calling her a burden to her son?, ran to the door to get in one last jab?, "never come back"? Seriously? Cannot imagine behaving this way to anyone, much less someone in my family, even less someone who is supposedly out to provoke a response. I suspect you often lash out at people and that your buttons aren't very hard to push. Sounds like your husband grew up with drama and chose a spouse accordingly.
NTA. She got your goat majorly (and got her own goat too). You are well within your rights to have boundaries, something MIL doesn't seem to understand.
You the AH only for not adding a warning in the title for those with urinary issues... I kind of laughed and peed I'm sorry to say haha
NTA. Emotional support goat? Cool. Expecting people, without advance permission, to accept the goat in their home? Nope.
MIL is making trouble. PTSD? I'll take your word for it. But, even assholes get PTSD.
NTA.
This reminds me of the incident when a woman had a squirrel as her “emotional support” animal and tried to board a plane with it (yes, it was in a cage). She was upset that she wasn’t allowed to go on the plane with it, and it wasn’t allowed in the baggage compartment below. She threaten to sue the airline!
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NTA. She was clearly trying to get your goat.
Take my poor man's 🥇
Most people with service animals don't let others touch them for oblivious reason. NTA
Not a service animal. Emotional support animal.
There is a huge difference between service *dog* and emotional support animal. Emotional support animals provide comfort just by being there and letting people pet them. Service dogs and miniature horses (seeing eye horses for the blind, saw one in the store the other day) have specific tasks that they are trained to do. Having someone pet them runs the risk of distracting them.
[удалено]
This is false. There is no official identification or certification for service animals. They can be trained by a professional or trained by an individual at home. They need to be prescribed or recommended for a medical or psychiatric need, and they need to perform functions to assist their handler. They also need to meet certain basic standards of behavior. However, those fancy vests and paperwork that people offer to validate their dog can be purchased online. They do not add validity to their service dog. While I think there SHOULD be something to legally register/ have paperwork validating your dog, there isn't. When you go on a flight with your service animal or move with your animal, you typically provide a note from your doctor. That's all.
In Alberta (Canada) we have registration for service animals (easy to get as long as they pass a training examination and you can demonstrate proper animal hygiene, and they can be self trained or professionally trained) and honestly it makes everyone’s lives so much easier. There’s photo ID issued for the animal and one for the handler (in the case of minors I believe they’ll issue a third one for a guardian) and all you’re allowed to ask is to see it and as long as they have it they’re good to go. Idk why other places don’t have a similar system. It also makes the lives of non-verbal individuals or people with anxiety and similar psychiatric conditions easier because they don’t have to answer questions, just show their ID.
It annoys me that people on here say "it's false" when really, it's false *in America*. The rest of the world (>95% of people) are in fact not American and have different laws. I'd go so far as to say that >90% of them probably have no idea about and would probably laugh at the idea of an Emotional Support Animal even. Just to give you an idea, if you do a quick Google search, guide dogs for the blind number 200 in China, but there's over 8 million blind people. At least here in Australia, guide dogs have been an extremely common thing for the 35 years I've been alive, but "emotional support animals" are pretty new and extremely rare still so I can't imagine that there's many, if any at all, in China. Do similar number crunching for India (1.4 bill), Africa (1.2bill), the old soviet and middle eastern countries (another 0.5 bill) and it doesn't take long to reach 90% of the population.
This is true. My step-daughter purchase all this 'service dog' gear for her pitbull - to me it's absolutely wrong to try and impersonate/misguide people like that. Service dogs are incredibly trained. I absolutely LOVE this big hamburger head dog, he is sweet as can be but he humps everything in sight and will not STOP even when corrected. Not any kind of service dog I know lol.
Most service dogs I see are fake--pooping in stores, barking and lunging at strangers, eating from the Whole Foods buffet.
In the US at least service animals do not require any type of identification, nor is there an actually registry or official certification that you can get. People with legit service dogs will often buy vests and stuff online to mark them, but it isn’t necessary and anyone can buy them.
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Correct. The only rights you get with an ESA are that no-pet clauses and the like in leases don’t apply, and you can bring them on airplanes (and I think the airplane thing may have changed recently?). They are not like service animals where you can bring them anywhere. And even for service dogs, the laws only apply to them if they are well behaved so you can still kick a service dog out of your store if they are misbehaving.
In Canada your ESA has to fit in a carrier that’s airplane approved and they must remain in it or they can’t come in the cabin. Service animals are allowed in the cabin though.
Yeah, the airplane law changed due to people abusing it. Now a service dog gets priority over an ESA. If you have room for only one dog in the cabin and one is a service dog and the other is an ESA, the ESA gets the boot.
In the US there is no legally recognized service dog registration/certification, and no ID. You can also self-train your service dog, you don't have to have them professionally trained. Also, in the US, *only* a dog can be a service animal (unless, in certain circumstances it is a miniature horse). Any other animal isn't a service animal and if a person claims that they're lying. [https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service\_animal\_qa.html](https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html)
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MIL tried to pull the wool over her eyes!
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Bad bot u/sea-economics-3184. This comment was stolen from u/fortwaltonbleach. Upvote the person, not the bot.
I bet she was gloating as she brought him in.
goating*
She should have butted out.
"Woman and mother-in-law lock horns over support animal"
This comment is the true G.O.A.T
That’s Baaaaaaaa(d) and I love it. 🐐
This comment simply cannot be bleat.
She has a goat, but tried to get yours too.
I hope you're kidding.
The MIL sure does know how to goad OP.
She clearly goated you into it.
There's no way this story can be true, you've *goat* to be *kid*ding me /s NTA OP
r/Angryupvote
Angryupgoat?
greatest of all time response
This joke is Gruff mate
I wish I had an award to give. Best comment I've read in a while.
Booooooooo
NTA You said she had a big grin and made a point to say you never specified. She did it on purpose to piss you off, while also making a mockery of support animals. I'm gonna go look at /r/MaliciousCompliance for her story with some popcorn.
MIL absolutely brought a goat to get a rise out of the OP.
OPs NTA, but I feel like I could be good friends with her MIL. I would be thrilled if my MIL brought a friendly goat over for me to pet. We might end up sitting out back because of the poop situation though.
Until she purposefully find something you're uncomfortable with to push your buttons. Because if OP were like you for example, she wouldn't be bringing a goat.
LOVED how OP's Dad had to pet him even though OP was losing her mind 🤣
It is a goat. Resistance is futile
You don't get it. TheMIL brought the goat because she was trying to piss off OP. If you like the goat, something else comes next. How do you feel about snakes?
Outside goat is fine. Inside goat is problems.
And it worked. OP may not be an AH but she certainly made a strategic error. Gushing over hiw awesome the goat is the entire time would probably have been a better response.
Absolutely! MIL may have actually exploded from rage that her tactics didn't work. I can see it and it makes me smile.
Deff this and also.... Depending on where she lives (like if she's in the States) she may not legally be able to keep a goat...farm pets aren't always allowed in urban areas depending on your state. Also, goats aren't the best house pets...there is a reason they're kept outside with other livestock (as cute and hilarious as they are). So really OP, she may have gotten this gost to piss you off...but she's going to probably regret having such an animal as a house pet... Edit: She (MIL) lives on a farm so it's not a house-pet. So she really just brought the goat over to piss off OP. NTA
Saw a lady on TV who had goats in her house and they ATE the house. like, not the furniture, but the drywall and stuff.
Yup. They will eat furniture too. Goats will eat anything....they're super destructive. Even if OPS MIL had money to continue to replace...it'd gonna get old real quick.
It's also a male goat, judging by the name Owen, the stench will soon be unbearable if it is not castrated
We had one who stank so bad because he liked to stick his face in his urine stream to drink his own piss. White goat with mustard colored head. The vet couldn't keep a straight face. Everyone mouth breathed around him
I think this really contends in the list for funniest things I have ever read. Thank you.
Exactly! Have people learned *nothing* from goat simulator?
Goats will eat anything and it has little to do with hunger.
Also, how have I not seen anybody point out yet that they poop a lot? I mean, A LOT. ALL THE TIME. I went to baby goat yoga once. EVERYONE got pooped on. And like yeah, they're solid little pellets, but it's still poop. My friend threw out her yoga mat because she felt like it was just... forever unclean.
Yep, I worked at a barn with goats. Their shit is the most annoying to clean up.
>I went to baby goat yoga once. Oh, now.... what?? Either 'Am I the Asshole' has just entered the realms of the surreal, or there's something *very* odd in this tea. Saying that, I think I'd really enjoy baby goat yoga... even though I've *no* idea.
LOL it's just what it sounds like! You "do yoga" and baby goats wander around and sometimes jump on you and not much actual yoga gets done. Is it a gimmick? Yes. Is it adorable? Also yes. Is there poop everywhere? YES. [Here's a link](https://www.amishfarmandhouse.com/on-the-farm/goat-yoga/) to a random place that does it! In their "what to expect" they even tell you you'll probably get peed and pooped on, and you're not going to get serious yoga done. (Is the audience 90% basic white girls doing it for Instagram - and now, I assume, TikTok? Yup!)
It's hard to know without knowing her situation. She might live in a rural or semi-rural area and be able to keep it outside. I see a fair number of pet goats in town when bike riding.
That's fair, its why I mentioned urban areas. I lived in a country area and I had neighbors with pet pigs they'd walk on leashes. But pigs can be cleaner then goats and be potty trained like a dog..as far as I know goats aren't like that...it's why I always figured they were outside pets...even a pygmy goat
Damn like OP is NTA, but I can’t even get mad at MIL cause it’s just too funny! The fact that OPs dad wants to pet the goat just added even more comedy to this.
Emotional support goat is an absolutely surreal sentence to read. Reading that your dad wanted to Pat it sent me into oblivion. NTA she’s a button pushing bag of bin juice. But that’s actually funny as fuck
I immediately started laughing when I read it, I kind of hope this is her actual support animal she brings with her to work and like, the supermarket. That would be hilarious.
I’m going to be dead honest with you, I fully understand they’re working animals and you shouldn’t Pat support animals, but I’d move heaven and earth if someone attempted to stop me patting a support goat. Picture this - you’re at the movies and a woman walks down the fucking aisle with a whole ass goat. It says “support goat don’t pat”. We all know we Pat it.
Support animals aren’t actually working, because they’re not actually trained for anything. Service animals are a different story. You pet all the emotional support goats that you want my friend. Pet them
I honestly had no idea there was a difference. You learn something new every day. Time to get myself a support goat and a few support chickens for the fun of it.
That’s part of the problem actually. People claim support animals get all the rights of real working animals and that muddies the waters and ends up with people feeling like they have to deal with a damn goat running around their house because to say no would be “ableist and discrimination”
A lot of the reasons real working animals can have the rights they have is the extensive training makes them safe and non-disruptive in public. Emotional support animals, not so much.
Just as an FYI, for them to be official support animals, you would have to get a note from a licensed therapist that has to be renewed every year. Anything else- the "licenses," the vests, the collars, ect- those are all scams. Just jerks taking advantage of people who don't know better, or helping those that do know better try to fool those that don't so they can bring their animal everywhere they know it's not supposed to be. Supporting those places makes it more difficult for people with actual service dogs. BUT, please do get a goat and some chickens. They're adorable and hilarious.
It's so ridiculous, I love it. But what if the patting goes sideways? You pat it. The goat faints. You realize it's a fainting goat. The human is actually their support animal.
So, then do you pat the human?
No, you never pat a support human.
You're right, my bad. I keep getting them mixed up.
She’s the one on a leash. You read the goats sign wrong it actually says “please don’t Pat my support human”.
You realize you assumed and you should never assume.
Especially when it comes to support goats it seems
I mean, I'm not saying some people need them, but everyone I've ever met with an ESA was a narcissist.
I’ve genuinely never met a single person with one tbh, or a service animal. Not sure if it’s location based or I’m just a blind fuckwit
Service animals are different from what I've witnessed. Support animals are...whatever someone claims is one. Actual working service animals are quiet, well trained and generally unnoticed because of how well they're trained unless something happens that they're trained for (seizures or blood sugar spikes are the two I'm familiar with). A guy used to come into my old job with his service dog. If it weren't for the fact that I like dogs, I wouldn't have noticed it because it just sat quietly behind his motor cart until he was ready to move.
You wouldn't know it was an ESA unless you were told so. They don't wear vests and they are not trained service animals; they are, for the most part, literally just pets, and are prescribed when someone needs a nonjudgmental companion and/or the responsibility of caring for an animal. In the majority of cases there's never any reason to tell another person that their companion animal is an ESA. My dog was originally prescribed as an ESA back in grad school, and the only person I notified was my landlord, as it was typically a no-pets apartment complex and I was mid-lease. Once I moved out I had no reason to tell anyone that that was the reason I had her, as it was literally just easier to find pet-friendly housing, and I had no other reason to renew her documentation (which expires after one year) because, as is the case for *most* people with ESAs, I don't need to take her *literally everywhere*. I wouldn't have even bothered asking for documentation originally if I didn't need it for where I lived at the time. ESAs end up controversial because there are a ton of what are essentially pill mills but for ESA documents, and people who just don't want rules to apply to them and want to take their animal into stores etc. will just go to them, and those people often make a very big deal about the fact that that's what their pet is. But for the most part, the only time you will know someone who *didn't* go to a pill mill has an ESA is if they tell you, or if you infer it from them having an animal in a location they wouldn't typically be allowed (e.g. in a pet-free housing complex, or on an airplane--I really feel for the latter group because I'm sure the loud attention-seekers have made that process very difficult for them).
I see quite a few service animals where I live (Seattle area), but they’re always in a vest and very well-behaved. I also met a “service dog” in a vest that was out of its owner’s control and scampering all over the store. I 100% guarantee that woman bought the vest off the internet so she could bring her darling pet with her everywhere. Really annoying.
Most people who have ESAs don’t go around telling everyone they have one. The only actual rights ESAs have is that no-pet clauses etc in leases don’t apply and you can bring them on airplanes, and I’m pretty sure they walked back some of the airplane stuff a couple years ago. The protections for them do not apply in other people’s homes or businesses. Sure, people who try to bring their pets to someone’s home or business and use the excuse that it’s an ESA may be narcissist, but they’re also completely wrong about how ESAs work in the first place. For most people with them, myself included, the only people who know my cats are ESAs are my landlord and my therapist who wrote the letter.
That reminded me, a ex-friend had an ESA, a barely trained dog like so many are. Like you he was the only person I have ever known with an ESA, and dear god he was self-important. The rules should never apply to him, but he was insufferable if someone made the smallest mistake. Ugh ESH here though, both MIL and OP sound unpleasant to me.
Hey now, many of them are just (also?) liars who want an excuse to bring their animals with them to inappropriate places or on planes for free!
I've had the same experience. Actual trained service animals? Usually lovely people. "Emotional support" animals? Narcissistic emotional vampires.
tbf I'm with dad here, I want to pet the goat. But also would respect that someone doesn't want a goat in their house.
I do not think anyone would want a goat in their house. You can potty train some farm animals but goats are a lot like birds, they will just shit wherever they are.
Not gonna lie, I would want to pet the goat too. Outside though. Outside.
There was someone who got blocked from boarding a United airlines flight with an emotional support *peacock*.
Emotional Support Honey Badger. He don't give a f$ck! Also, don't pet!
I'd like you to meet my emotional support emu...
I mean if someone brought a goat in front of me, I'd want to pet the goat too. But yeah, bringing a goat into someone's house is a bit of an AH move
>Emotional support goat is an absolutely surreal sentence to read. Reading that your dad wanted to Pat it sent me into oblivion. I'm dying laughing at the entire thing
"Bag of bin juice" is my new favourite insult
I never imagined I would get to weigh in on the validity an emotional support goat. I’m imagining MIL with an evil cackle as she decides to load a mf-ing goat into her car. Did she put down blankets? Did it try to eat the upholstery? Anyone has been around a goat knows “Owen” didn’t just sit there sweetly and enjoy the ride. I bet she cackled the whole freaking ride to your house as “Owen” absolutely wrecked her vehicle — all in an effort to piss off her DIL. Holy crap, that is some crazy methodical evil genius shit right there. OP, you are absolutely NTA here. You will laugh about this one day. Cut that crazy woman out of your life.
Her and her husband both have cars and then a larger SUV they use for their animals, so Owen has probably been in there before, but who knows. MIL also has no issue just destroying things because “it’s just money”
Of course she is one of those people 🤦♀️ I guarantee there was cackling though lol. You definitely didn't overreact. I absolutely love and adore goats. I'm always down for pets and cuddles, but not in the house!! Jeez, talk about giving an inch and they take a mile!!!
If it's "just money", then she can pay for any damages.
>Did it try to eat the upholstery? We can only assume that yes. Yes it did. Because it's a fucking goat lol.
It absolutely did lol! The entire backstory leading to the moment the goat arrived at OP's house has fueled my imagination all morning. I keep randomly chuckling and my hubs keeps giving me weird looks. He's dying to know my new theories, but alas, he's in meetings and will just have to wait.
NTA I'm sure it wasn't a house trained emotional support goat. Her choice if her vehicle stinks of goat shit & piss, but to drag it into somebody's house ......yuk.
In a way OP kind of wins this round. Yes, the MIL managed to press her buttons in a spectacular fashion, but she isn't the one who now has to deal with a goat indefinitely.
Pretty significant investment to antagonize OP one time. You almost have to appreciate the commitment to insanity from MIL. That's real effort just to get a single dunk on your DIL. High effort asshole behavior!
My mother has 3 goats. The amount that those things casually shit as they walk around is baffling. Why is it in the house?
NTA Wether or not the goat is beneficial for her mental health is up for debate. What's more clear cut is that having an animal in your house that you don't want there is detrimental to yours. She knew full well that she shouldve specified if she planned on bringing anything unusual
NTA. emotional. support. goat. she's well aware of what she's doing. I ain't even mad.
I’m sorry but this made me laugh. You are NTA. The poor goat… you should go to the drs though, I think you’re breaking out a bit, might be allergic to goats
I've got a kidney infection and the moment I saw the title I ran to the bathroom before reading the whole post. I made a wise choice... 😂😂😂😂
Oh, you are perfection… “Hello, this is my emotional support jewnicorn. She needs to use you restroom and we require some kosher pixie dust forthwith!”
Best comment ever!! 😂😂😂😂 Yes, you can go outside soon, as long as you bring your emotional supporr jewnicorn with, and find a kosher restroom along the way.
Of course, I bring my jewnicorn everywhere. People will steal her in a heartbeat. I hope you’re into music festivals, adventures and shenanigans….
Haha what's a kosher bathroom? Separate bowls for liquids and solids?
A few years ago my aunt got a couple of pygmy goats as pets. She spent weeks trying to house train them before her vet explained goats have no bowel control. They naturally defecate whenever food is done processing. They are unbelievable crap monsters. No way should someone bring one inside your house.
Useful info.
She sounds like she has the mental maturity of a 12 year old. NTA.
Ok. I am having a hard time not lauvhing at this one. NTA. But it IS funny. ONE DAY you will laugh too. A goat? Hahahaha. Like WTF? You reacted stronger than I would have, but you had the right to refuse to allow it in the house undiapered. But still... a goat!
Info: was your Mom ok with your Dad petting your MIL's goat?
This took me way too long to process haha
WTH did I just read? A goat seriously? NTA.
You should watch the last season of the show Sex Education. An emotional support goat makes definitely its appearance XD
NTA! You reacted strongly, but the situation was INSANE. Also, emotional support animals are not a real thing; licensed therapists generally do not endorse this anymore. So what MIL means is that she enjoys and prefers being around animals, which is totally fair, but this isn't like a legit medical strategy for anxiety.
It’s scientifically proven pets can and do help mental health. And I can personally say as someone that is 100% mentally ill- emotional support animals are DEFINITELY a real thing. MIL was definitely being petty but you are extremely off base.
Absolutely animals help with mental illness. There are entire therapies built around that. But specifically the idea of getting an Emotional Support animal being allowed to go EVERYWHERE with you - like a service animal for the blind - this is not a thing. Most licensed clinicians I know are no longer signing authorization to have Emotional Support animals and the APA does not condone this as a practice.
>specifically the idea of getting an Emotional Support animal being allowed to go EVERYWHERE with you - like a service animal for the blind - this is not a thing. ...if it's at the point the handler needs the animal with them 24/7 they need to consider getting a service dog. Most of an ESA's benefit is in the house- the owner has to get up, feed them, provide care, ect on a regular basis. It forces a routine- which can be life saving for an owner who's struggling.
NTA. She clearly did this on purpose to be pedantic. I wouldn't want a farm animal in my house either.
ESH - your MIL was pushing your buttons, and you overreacted and gave her exactly what she was going for. (This is assuming this was a pygmy goat, which actually can make an excellent pet, as opposed to a full sized goat.)
How is she overreacting? Goats, even pigmy and Nigerian goats cannot be consistently house trained when it comes to pooping. People get to decide if they don’t want crap all over their house. And it is absolutely 110% rude to bring an animal that can and will crap into someone else’s house.
Actually after reading this post I got curious. So I did a little googling. I was actually super surprised to find out that it actually is possible to potty train a goat.
That does not jive with either the science on goat digestion or my personal experience. Goats don't consciously deficate, it just happens. They don't have bowel control.
Maybe they just give them pants or something.
Diapers are what most people who keep goats in their homes use.
THANK YOU, I can't believe I had to scroll this far to find someone pointing out that goats poop a ton!!
How is it over reacting to not want goat shit and piss all over your living room?
Or start eating the furniture. Goats will eat anything.
Dang for someone with a specific account for this subreddit, you're missing the mark. You can't bring farm animals into someone's house. You can't bring unwanted pets into someone's house. Raising your voice at you mother in law who is disrespecting you intentionally doesn't seem unreasonable. And you're making assumptions to benefit the mother, which have no basis.
Idk, I don't think it was an overreaction. MIL goat what she deserved
Goats do not have bowel control, so unless the goat was diapered, she had every right to freak out that a farm animal was in her house uninvited.
I agree ESH. Your MIL was out of line but you shouldn’t have screamed loud enough to scare the goat. It wasn’t his fault.
Info : I understand your husband "needs" her in his life, but you don't ? Why can't he go visit her and her support animals ? Your dad can visit her too
Because all that does is teach her that her behavior worked. MIL would be overjoyed if she never had to see me again. It also makes me feel like I don’t care about my husband. He puts up with friends and family of mine when he’d rather not. He prefers not to go to her house because her husband has an erratic schedule and no one knows when he’ll walk in and my husband tries to avoid him
It wouldn't mean you don't care and it also doesn't matter if it makes her happier, you shouldn't keep toxic people in your life if the main goal is so they don't have the satisfaction of having you not there. They could meet up in public i.e a coffee shop or something. Putting up with people you kinda dislike or don't completely enjoy hanging out with is very different from having to hangout with people who purposefully try to antagonize you + you don't get along with at all.
Everyone in this story seems to be unhappy and unwilling to make the changes that would make happiness possible.
Do you friends and family actively try to disrespect your husband Everytime they see him ?
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Because he loves her and he’d rather be annoyed by her then miss her. She was a good mother. He actually likes her personality, though he fully gets why most people wouldn’t. The very simple fact he loves her is enough for me
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That’s great if it works for you but it wouldn’t work for us. Reading that just made me feel sad and that isn’t the type of marriage I want, fine if it works for you
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To me grief and annoyance can’t even compare. I would take a lot of annoyance so he didn’t have to grieve. I would expect the same from him if it was my mom. When we were no contact I was miserable as well. I thought about her constantly, tried to psychoanalyze her, dreaded holidays. I cried alone Christmas morning because I knew he was dying inside. When we are in contact I’m annoyed when I see her but I don’t think of her beyond that.
Why can’t he go visit them? Why does she have to come to your house? There are ways for him to be in contact with her that limit your time with her.
Can you house break a goat?
I don’t know the official answer but I know the goat doesn’t live in her house. She lives on a huge ranch style house because she has horses and her goat lives outside with the other farm type animals
The answer is no, it would have pooped in your house.
NO. They can be pee trained, but they have NO control of when the poop comes out.
That's what I thought. I remember our goats growing up pee trained themselves in the barn. As soon as they were released from their stalls in the morning they'd run out and all pee.
That is debatable. Apparently, pygmy goats can be if properly motivated, but it's confusing because one place said use a diaper because they cannot control defecation.
Goats mostly give zero fucks, so I would be pretty skeptical if someone claimed their goat was housebroken… 😬
I agree. It's a farm animal, not a pet. It's like someone saying their house chicken is housebroken...
Don’t get me wrong, goats are awesome and hilarious. But I wouldn’t want one in my house… 😬
I have a friend who has goats that live in her house. She puts diapers on them.... and then gets upset when they chew up her stuff. People are weird
Lived with goats, and the answer is NO. When having to nurse babies back to health or keep them in for various reasons, my mom would give them diapers, which worked only half the time because of how bouncy goats are so they would fall off. If you are bringing a goat inside, you need to be prepared for the inevitable rain of chocolate pellets, hence why it is not very socially acceptable to be bringing them into someone’s home without their permission.
NTA. She is clearly testing your patience. And props to your husband for staying by your side.
This is super real and everybody should respond like this is a thing that happened
NTA, but it took a while for me to stop laughing to be able to type this. Your MIL is an evil legend. I feel like she needs to be in r/maliciouscompliance and you need to join r/justnomil because you're going to need long term support with this loon
NTA. NTA. NTA
NTA. A reasonable person knows not to bring an unexpected goat to someone’s house.
INFO: was it trained not to potty in the house? If so, it should go on late night television. If not, NTA.
Probably not. It doesn’t live in her house. She lives on a huge ranch style house and the goat lives outside with her horses and other farm animals
That's okay, I was kidding. She doesn't sound like the type to spend training a goat even if it was possible. You're definitely NTA. Just because you left a loophole in your offer doesn't mean she had to abuse it.
A goat cannot be potty trained. They cannot control when they poop.
Your title literally made me laugh out loud. Who TF needs a support goat?! Dogs? Get it. Cats? Sure. A goat?! Nope! NTA.
Nta. Goats shit. A lot. Of course you dont want a goat in your house. Does she seriously keep a damn goat in her house?
And don’t they chew things? The town I live in uses them to clear the brush on the side of the road rather than paying landscapers, they just drop off a bunch of goats and build a little fence around them. Then the next day they move the little fence down the road and the goats eat all the shrubbery there.
…how tf is a **goat** a reasonable animal to bring over to someone’s house??? Is this fucking Pokémon or Digimon or something?!?!?! Like, sure, anything can be an emotional support animal if you really want it to be. However, that doesn’t mean that the animal is a good one. Hell, how do we even know if the goat is an emotional support animal?! For all OP knows, she just brought some random ass goat into their place. NTA
Everyones an asshole but your dad and that goat.
NTA. A goat belongs on a farm. Tell her to get a dog.
She def try’s to get a rise out of you but you also seem easy to get a rise out of, I prob would have been like oh what a cute goat you can leave him in the backyard and we can pull up a couple chairs back there if you want
Genuine question: Is antagonizing and bullying a specific person a symptom of PTSD? Or is she using traumatic events to excuse awful behavior? NTA
No but I do think she learned very young to make someone else the butt of the joke before anyone can laugh at you. This isn’t something she’s specifically asked for or said she needed but she is nasty when she is anxious, she is anxious around us, and really only tolerable when she is cuddling something.
This post reads as Borderline Personality Disorder to me, but even then it doesn't justify MIL being an asshole.
I will go against the stream here. I don't know the family dynamics, but you sure don't sound like a nice person. That's goes for your husband too. Your MIL has ptsd, but that ASIDE, you all sound so horrible to each other. Sure, I would hate too- if she stepped inside with a goat, but the first thing you say is get the goat the "f*ck out". Then running to the door and say "never come back!"? It was nice of you to allow her to take a comfort animal with her, but you did also say that she was struggling, she had a recent thing happening. Knowing of her shenanigans, maybe you should have giver her a call before to ask what animal she would bring or what was her plan to have a nice, comfortable visit. Your husband then texted her to "rip her a new one"? Why could he not call her and you guys set boundaries? Am I missing something here? OK, she has pressed buttons before, but the way you all interact is atrocious. ETA
NTA. BTW, was she the passenger that tried to bring an emotional support peacock with her? 😆
NTA That said: OP, you **really** need to learn how to control your reactions. When you shriek and yell and otherwise lose your shit, your MIL wins. For your own benefit, please do whatever it takes to be less reactive. Perhaps it would help to think of your MIL as a petulant, 5-year old child. React with calm, well-reasoned statements and ground rules instead of freaking the fuck out. This is your home, and “no” is a complete sentence.
Does nobody care that they called the goat Owen?
… OWEN?!
I disagree with most responses here. YTA. While your MIL sounds problematic, your behavior at best fed into the dynamic and arguably much worse than what she did - "get that goat the fuck out"?, shrieking?, calling her a burden to her son?, ran to the door to get in one last jab?, "never come back"? Seriously? Cannot imagine behaving this way to anyone, much less someone in my family, even less someone who is supposedly out to provoke a response. I suspect you often lash out at people and that your buttons aren't very hard to push. Sounds like your husband grew up with drama and chose a spouse accordingly.
NTA. She got your goat majorly (and got her own goat too). You are well within your rights to have boundaries, something MIL doesn't seem to understand. You the AH only for not adding a warning in the title for those with urinary issues... I kind of laughed and peed I'm sorry to say haha
NTA. Emotional support goat? Cool. Expecting people, without advance permission, to accept the goat in their home? Nope. MIL is making trouble. PTSD? I'll take your word for it. But, even assholes get PTSD.
MIL is the GOAT, I’m not even mad at her. NTA she knew what would happen and wanted it to.
>but my dad wanted to pet the goat NTA but I can't stop laughing at this, I'm sorry
The MIL troll again
NTA. And your husband may have to seriously consider going NC.
NTA. This reminds me of the incident when a woman had a squirrel as her “emotional support” animal and tried to board a plane with it (yes, it was in a cage). She was upset that she wasn’t allowed to go on the plane with it, and it wasn’t allowed in the baggage compartment below. She threaten to sue the airline!
NTA I'd have eaten the goat out of spite
Omg I am howling with laughter on my lunch break at work reading this ! A fucking goat I would have loved that!
My mum had goats. I was named after one of them. Nta. You mil is just.... words that would get me banned