Toronto grocery store doesn't want you to shop with your emotional support animal

A no "emotional support animals" sign was spotted at a Whole Foods in Toronto recently.

The Leaside grocery store has been getting a lot of customers that bring in their pets, in spite of most of them not being service animals, says the store's staff.

"We have a lot of customers complaining and obviously we are a food industry," say staff. "A lot of people are bringing in anything, even cats inside," they say.

As a result staff had to confirm with Whole Foods' head office that only service animals are allowed. Now staff has to ensure that every customer who brings in a pet has a service animal ID available to show.

A sign posted in the elevator leading to Whole Foods in Leaside.

However, even with the sign put up, customers are still coming in with emotional support animals. Staff say this is very common during winter.

"They just bring whatever they want," staff told blogTO.

Customers bringing in emotional support animals have been a common occurrence at Whole Foods across the city, including Yorkville and North York.

However, according to North York staff, there hasn't necessarily been an influx of customers coming in with emotional support animals. They say that only allowing service animals and not other animals has always been the policy.

"It's the same sign. We've always had this, it's just more visible," they say.