A viral confrontation between a service dog handler and the mother of a two-year-old child after the child expressed a wish to pet a dog, which was denied.

The footage, filmed December 19 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shows the mother expressing upset after filmer Megan Stoff said her daughter wasn’t allowed to pet the dog.

The woman in the video can be heard arguing with the handler saying: “You should have a sign saying you can’t pet!” The mother told Newsflare that it had not been made obvious, as the tags weren't visible from a distance, and that since the video has gone viral she has become scared to go out in public.

Stoff can be heard replying to the shouting woman: “It’s illegal to harass service dogs!"

"You should walk away now," says one of the handlers when the woman in the video continues to argue.

Megan told Newsflare that "the mother walked away and continued about her business. Suddenly she came back to argue because she was mad the handler didn’t apologise to her."

However, the mother has a different version of events. "I went to Ross Park Mall with my daughter, who is two years old, and my friend. We had a great time," she told Newsflare, clearly shaken by her newfound social media fame.

"My daughter and I went to the lady and said 'can we pet your dog'. Before I could even say 'can we pet' she said 'no' and turned her head. So I said, 'okay, come on, lets go, get in the Starbucks line, I don't know why we can't pet the dogs'. We were going into the Starbucks line and the owner of the company, told me to F-*-*-K off ... it was really upsetting to hear someone say 'eff off' in front of my daughter ... I don't think that's okay, we don't speak that vulgar language around her."

But with regards to her question she said she really didn't know the dogs were not meant for petting. "Dogs are on the floor, and people like me are five foot seven. Normal height."

"You can see people eye to eye, you can't see patches on dogs that are at floor level," she added. "These vests were not bright yellow, they were black." She said that the patches were not particularly obvious to the public eye from a distance.

She believes she's been treated unfairly and says that she has to keep a hood over her head when she goes shopping because she's so scared of people noticing her. "I have been totally blasted," she said. "It isn't okay, it was a simple thing they made so big. Nobody heard my side of the story."

"Everyone that is on her dog page, everyone on her page about dogs, about service animals, they were harassing me, in my message requests, they said that I was a c**t, that I'm a b***h, that I'm this that I'm that," she added. "They're putting it on different news pages saying that I'm an angry mother lashing out on service animal training because of them saying no."

A group of service dog handlers were at the mall when a mother with her daughter approached them, asking if her daughter could pet the service dogs. Handler responds and says, “no.” The mother walked away and continued about her business. Suddenly she came back to argue because she was mad the handler didn’t apologize to her.