A PIZZA Hut restaurant has shocked customers by offering a free animal from a local pet shop as part of an eyebrow-raising meal deal.

The store in Mount Waverley, in Melbourne’s southeast, put up a sign with a photo of a hamster and the words: “Buy any 10 large pizzas and get one free small animal from Pets Story.”

Goth burgers launched at Burger King Japan

The offer prompted outrage on social media, with Twitter users calling it “awful” and entreating @PizzaHutAus not to “give away animals like toys”.

Others flooded Pizza Hut’s Facebook page with comments including, “That has to be the most irresponsible promotion ever. Shame on all involved.”

It wasn’t long before animal rights organisation Oscar’s Law were alerted to the promotion and approached the pet shop about it.

The store conceded that the deal was “bad idea” and the Pizza Hut franchise covered the sign with white paper, Oscar’s Law revealed on its Facebook page.

Not convinced that this was enough, animal lovers demanded that the sign be removed completely.

@PizzaHutAus please cease this awful promotion at Mt Waverley store. Animals r not a gift with purchase @AnimalsAus pic.twitter.com/NEvqI3O20j — Louisa Kirby (@cisforcarter) September 14, 2014

The fast food chain has now released a statement saying that the “thoughtless” and “inappropriate” promotion was not condoned by Pizza Hut Australia.

It also noted that no animals were given away by the restaurant, although “we know this doesn’t fix anything”.

The statement read: “It has come to our attention that one of our stores have recently been running a promotion which was not approved by Pizza Hut Australia, nor was condoned in any circumstances.

“We would like to sincerely apologise to anyone who was offended by this.

Hey @PizzaHutAus not acceptable, I've been to stupid petshop, deal is off, remove signs from yr Mt Waverley store now pic.twitter.com/x2y23F9wDQ — Debra (@DebraTranter) September 14, 2014

Can't believe @PizzaHutAus at Mt Waverley had a promotion where u get a free animal from a pet store. Well done @OscarsLaw for intervening. — MelB (@MKB27) September 14, 2014

“The poster has since been taken down and all those involved have been made aware of the severity and inappropriateness of the promotion. We would like to thank Oscar’s Law and all those who have brought this to our attention this evening.

“On behalf of Pizza Hut Australia we once again apologise for this thoughtless promotion ever occurring and would like to reassure you all that this matter is being seriously dealt with.”

But the apology has not appeased every customer, with many commenting that they would never buy a pizza from Pizza Hut again. Others demanded action against the franchise owner, calling the promotion “disgusting” and “horrendous”.

Pizza Hut was accused of removing angry posts from its Facebook page, but responded with: “Unfortunately as this was a very serious and delicate matter, we needed to make ourselves aware of all the facts before taking action. This included replying to all your concerns or allowing the allegations to remain visible on the page.

“As we are now fully aware of the facts we will now take the time to reply to any questions or queries you may have to the best of our ability.”

@BarkingMadGC @OscarsLaw @StaffyRescue @PizzaHutAus Maybe a donation to a local animal rescue for every 10 pizzas bought might be better.. — Staffordshire Rescue (@saveastaffie) September 14, 2014