According to the American Kennel Association, the corgi is a “strong and sturdily built,” dog that “gives an impression of substance in a small space.” Well, some people seemed to feel a certain corgi was giving the impression of a bit too much substance in his Instagram photo, and they wanted to let everyone know about it.
When a corgi owner posted a picture on Instagram of “Pax” getting groomed at PetSmart, some commenters on Instagram decided to chime in with unwelcome comments about the dog’s weight. This led other people to jump in and defend Pax which, of course, led to rebuttals. The thread is currently over 550 comments long (and growing).
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf6ljrklAYd/?taken-by=pcacorgis
“That poor dog is so obese,” wrote the first commenter to mention Pax’s weight.
“Crazy lady above has obviously never seen any of the other photos of Pax,” said a friend of the original poster.”Or perhaps she’s never seen a corgi sit down. She needs to learn that she doesn’t always have to share her hot take opinion.”
“This is so accurate,” Pax’s owner responded, “not to mention he’s super hairy and fluffy like most corgis but worse than my other two so that probably makes it look worse in a pic like this. He weighs 26 lbs and the vet says he’s perfect. If I had an obese dog, I’d definitely be taking care of that situation and not be in denial! He’s far from obese though so that’s why she’s so dumb.”
The dispute could have ended right there, but the woman who commented on the dog’s weight decided to keep fighting. “[C]an’t be a troll if it’s speaking the truth” she replied to someone who accused her of trolling a dog’s Instagram page.
From there, people began piling on on both sides of the debate. Then, when Julia Reinstein, a reporter for BuzzFeed, mentioned the feud on her Twitter account, things really got out of control. The tweet, posted early on March 6, has already gathered over 37,000 retweets, and over 122,000 likes.
https://twitter.com/juliareinstein/status/971018474171650048
People on Twitter seemed mainly to be on Pax’s side, pointing out, among other things, that since he was being groomed, he might have just been a bit fluffier than usual.
I feel the same way when someone tries to fat shame my cat. They can go straight to hell.
— Julie Borowski (@JulieBorowski) March 6, 2018
I’m sorry but I have an adult male corgi who weighs 29 pounds and he’s much smaller than this dog.
— JK (@jasgasms) March 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/hpfan2342/status/971120287730360321
Of course, whether or not the dog is actually overweight might be beside the point. Should strangers even be pointing if someone’s dog is fat on social media? The answer, at least according to Twitter, seems to be a resounding “No.”
Peabody is shocked that someone would be so mean to a fellow Corgi. pic.twitter.com/OscEMRDPOQ
— Ashley Mason (@ashleymason527) March 7, 2018