A woman brought a feces-covered dog into Target and called it a service animal, then admitted it was only for emotional support

A Minnesota woman is facing backlash after another shopper says she brought her dog into a Target while it was soiled with feces, then gave shifting answers about what kind of animal it actually was. According to The Nerd Stash, a shopper who posts as Sydney says she noticed the woman carrying a white dog inside a Plymouth, Minnesota Target and described it in her video as “covered in poop.”

The footage itself doesn’t capture the mess directly, though a separate image she added to the comment section backs up her claim, showing what appears to be a soiled patch on the animal. When asked whether the dog was a certified service animal, the woman replied, “Yes, she is.” Asked what task it was trained to perform, she said, “My son died a tragic death, and she helps me heal.”

The TikToker followed up, “So she’s an emotional support animal?” The woman answered, “Exactly,” prompting the response, “She’s not a service animal, correct?” That question was met with silence. Her concern throughout, she says, was sanitary rather than personal, given the dog’s condition and its presence near the store’s produce section.

The claim raised both a food-safety issue and a legal one

She says she brought the issue to a Target manager identified only as Jesse, but the pair were never asked to leave. A “No pets allowed, service animals only” sign, she pointed out, was posted at the entrance the whole time. That distinction has real backing in federal food safety rules.

Under FDA Food Code section 6-501.115, animals are generally barred from retail food establishments. An exception exists specifically for trained service animals in customer-facing areas, but emotional support animals do not qualify for it. Minnesota also has its own law directly addressing this kind of situation. Since 2018, according to Orvis News, state statutes have made it a petty misdemeanor to misrepresent a pet as a service animal in order to claim rights the animal isn’t actually entitled to.

A similar dispute over the line between real service animals and emotional support pets played out when an autistic shopper’s service dog was accused of being fake by another customer during a separate store confrontation. The sign described in the video lines up with Target’s own nationwide policy. The retailer maintains a strict no-pets rule across its stores, allowing only ADA-recognized service animals inside, largely because most Target locations include a grocery section subject to the same FDA food-safety rules. Emotional support animals are explicitly excluded from that exception, regardless of location.

Target has not issued a public statement responding to the video, and the store’s specific location and the identity of the woman with the dog remain unconfirmed beyond what was shown on camera.