Who Let the Dogs Out?! 100 Huskies Escape in Chinese Mall, Mayhem Ensues

Who let the dogs out? In this case, it appears to have been a careless employee who left a gate open, unwittingly releasing 100 canines from the "Haha Husky Cute Pets" café, letting them have the run of the place. The furry phenoms had a festival of fun as they frolicked through the Shenzhen Guangdong, China, mall, darting this way and that and seemingly loving every minute of it.

This pack had some serious moves and jukes, as customers’ attempts to corral them were easily evaded. It was like a day in doggie heaven:

「ドッグカフェからハスキー約100頭が大脱走」
100 Huskies…https://t.co/a9ycREuSl8 https://t.co/QoZyD9Fp76
中国深センのショッピングモール内のドッグカフェ、閉め忘れたドアからハスキーが脱走。すぐに全員確保されて被害はなかったそう。ハスキーは人に会えて嬉しそうな様子だったとのこと。 pic.twitter.com/9WuCIowKVf
— ヤギの人🐐 (@yusai00) April 5, 2024

The Great Escape occurred in March:

Video of the March 12 incident shows the dogs escaping from the "Haha Husky Cute Pets" café and running in every direction throughout the mall after the owner visited the café. The dogs hadn’t seen her in a long time, and the staff suggested that her visit whipped the dogs up in excitement.

Note: Some accounts report that it was a customer, not an employee, who forgot to close the gate. Whichever one it was, I thank them; otherwise, we would not be watching this glorious video.

Staff pursued the dogs throughout the mall as they tried to round up the puppers, with one employee succeeding in herding some of the dogs back right away. In one video, a man in a white T-shirt was seen chasing after them as they frantically ran barking with excitement, causing the woman recording the clip to burst out laughing, ViralPress reported.

Two of the doggies even snatched food from surprised shoppers, according to NDTV. It took an hour for employees to round up most of them using chicken legs to lure them back. Some reports say that all paws were accounted for, but one outlet reports that two Huskies remain on the loose, however, and should be considered cute but probably not dangerous.

This post shows more of the canine chaos:

WATCH: Who let the dogs out? About 100 huskies escaped from a pet cafe in Guangdong, China last month after a customer accidentally left the door open. The furry animals were seen scampering around a shopping centre in videos that have gone viral online. pic.twitter.com/EtI3UaX7vS
— TODAY (@TODAYonline) April 2, 2024

Social media users in Mainland China were reportedly delighted as the videos went viral on the Chinese social media platform Weibo:

“Hahaha, it feels like the joy of pupils running out of a school,” one person said, while another wrote: “The great carnival of huskies.”
“Let’s enjoy the great escape, huskies,” said a third.
“It looks so much fun. How wonderful it would be if I met such a joyful escape,” another said.

Many on American social media weren’t so kind, warning about animal safety and China’s record on the subject. Those points are valid—my own darling-but-cynical wife brought up the dubious trustworthiness of the Chinese COVID street collapse videos—but for the moment, let's focus on the boundless joy we see in these critters as they scampered about. It reminds me of why so many of us love dogs, and personally, I think they should be allowed to take over the mall at least once a week.

Turns out, pet cafes are big business in China—the South China Morning Post reports that 3,638 new such venues opened in Shanghai in 2020, and the country’s pet industry made a profit of $68 billion (494 billion yuan) in 2022.

That's big money. But the question remains: who let the dogs out?!