CALGARY -- Owners looking for a place to walk their dog indoors were ecstatic to learn that a mall in south Calgary welcomed pets but within hours of the pro-pooch social media post, mall officials muzzled their hopes.
On Sunday morning, the Southcentre Mall Twitter account confirmed dogs were permitted at the shopping centre but owners were asked to keep their dogs outside the food court, to clean any messes their dog made and to respect the pet policies of individual retail stores.
One day after the social media post, the shopping centre issued the following statement revising its stance after being inundated by dogs and owners.
We have been positively overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response that we have recently received from Calgarians with regards to the pet-friendliness of Southcentre Mall. At this time, we would like to offer clarification on our official pet-related policies to ensure all of our guests can best enjoy the public spaces available at the mall.
Recently, we overstated our ability to welcome pets and are not able to meet the resulting demand of our city’s amazing pet-loving community at this time.
We are proud to welcome all service animals and we love hosting a number of engaging animal-friendly events throughout the year, including photo sessions and exterior activities. We remain committed to finding fun and fetching ways to engage with our city’s amazing pet-loving community.
Southcentre Mall would like to affirm that we love pets and pet-owners, and we look forward to continuing to host pets onsite during animal-designated events in the near future.
Southcentre Mall officials have not provided an estimate of how many dogs visited the mall on Sunday and Monday.
