Hong Kong authorities announced they would kill 2,000 small animals after several hamsters caught COVID-19 in a pet store.
An employee at the pet store tested positive for the Delta coronavirus variant on Monday in addition to several hamsters that were imported from the Netherlands. “We cannot exclude the possibility that the shopkeeper was in fact actually infected from the hamsters,” Edwin Tsui, a controller at the Centre for Health Protection, said.
“All pet owners should observe good personal hygiene, and after you have been in contact with animals and their food, you should wash your hands,” Leung Siu-fai, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, said during a news conference. “Do not kiss your pets,” he said.
Everyone who purchased a hamster at the store since Jan. 7 will be traced and subjected to a mandatory quarantine in addition to handing over their hamsters to be killed. Mandatory testing will be given to those who purchased hamsters after late December 2021, and they must quarantine if their pets test positive.
Hong Kong’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was “shocked and concerned” authorities had decided to slaughter the animals and urged the government not to take “any drastic action before reviewing its approach.”
While many scientists believe the virus started in animals, minks are the only animals thus far proven to have caught the virus from people and spread it back, according to Dr. Scott Weese at the Ontario Veterinary College.
Officials in Beijing called for an end to overseas deliveries after traces of COVID-19 were found in the package of an infected woman. Beijing’s Centre for Disease Control said it could not rule out the package infecting the woman, and it suggested that people open parcels outside while wearing gloves.
