Hong Kong’s government yesterday faced outrage over its decision to cull hundreds of small animals after hamsters in a store tested positive for COVID-19.
Like China, Hong Kong maintains a staunch “zero COVID” policy, stamping out the merest trace of the virus with contact tracing, mass testing, strict quarantines and prolonged social distancing rules.
Its latest measures target hamsters and other small mammals — including chinchillas, rabbits and guinea pigs, which authorities on Tuesday said would be culled as a “precautionary measure.”
Photo: Reuters
The drastic move came after hamsters sold at the Little Boss pet shop tested positive for the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 — now rare in Hong Kong.
Officials in personal protective gear carried red garbage bags marked with biohazard warnings out of the shop on Tuesday night.
Authorities “strongly encouraged” anyone who bought a hamster after Dec. 22 last year to give up their pet for culling.
Photo: AFP
Animal lovers across Hong Kong reacted with alarm: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) denounced the decision and a Change.org petition garnered more than 23,000 signatures in less than a day.
“The SPCA is shocked and concerned over the recent announcement about the handling of over 2,000 animals,” it said in a statement yesterday. “We urge pet owners not to panic or abandon their pets.”
One hamster lovers’ group said it received more than 20 inquiries about whether owners had to give up their furry friends.
Authorities on Tuesday said that the COVID-19-positive creatures were believed to be imported from the Netherlands.
“Internationally, there is no evidence yet to show pets can transmit the coronavirus to humans, but ... we will take precautionary measures against any vector of transmission,” Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan (陳肇始) told a news conference.
About 1,000 animals sold at Little Boss and another 1,000 hamsters in dozens of pet shops across Hong Kong would be culled, authorities said.
The import of small mammals has also been banned.
One owner — who bought her pet on Jan. 1 — reacted in defiance.
“No one can take my hamster away unless they kill me,” she told the Standard newspaper yesterday.
She pushed back on the government’s mass cull, recalling a recent birthday party attended by officials that resulted in multiple COVID-19 infections and left Hong Kong’s leadership red-faced.
“Will they also kill all infected COVID-19 patients and their close contacts?” she said. “If all people who attended the birthday party are culled then I will hand my hamster to the government.”
A grim humor settled on Hong Kong-centric social media accounts, with people publishing illustrations of hamsters wearing surgical masks or facing off against the Grim Reaper.
However, the government’s decision has some supporters.
Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung (袁國勇), who is also a government adviser, praised the measure as “decisive” and “prudent.”
Some heeded the call to give up their rodents yesterday, with one man saying he agreed with the authorities’ rationale of limiting the spread of the virus, local broadcaster RTHK reported.
Asked about Hong Kong’s hamster cull, the WHO said some animal species can be infected with COVID-19, and animals can reinfect humans.
“That risk remains low, but it is something that we are constantly looking at,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of COVID-19 response at the WHO.
‘EATING UP SPRING’: Temperatures are 10oC to 15oC above the seasonal average and a city northwest of Madrid experienced its first ‘tropical’ May night on Friday Parts of Spain are experiencing their hottest May since records began, as a mass of hot, dry air blows in from Africa, bringing with it dusty skies and temperatures of more than 40°C. Spain’s state meteorological agency, Aemet, has warned of a weekend heat wave of an “extraordinary intensity,” with temperatures between 10°C and 15°C above the seasonal average and more akin to high summer than mid-May. “The early hours of 21 May have been extraordinarily hot for the time of year across a good part of the center and south of the peninsula,” Aemet said on Saturday. “In many places the
BUSINESS AS USUAL: Thousands of people were forcibly removed from their homes in the dead of night and all mentions of the incident were scrubbed from the Internet Thousands of COVID-19-negative Beijing residents were forcibly relocated to quarantine hotels overnight due to a handful of infections, as the Chinese capital begins to take more extreme control measures resembling virus-hit Shanghai. Beijing has been battling its worst outbreak since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 1,300 since late last month, leading city restaurants, schools and tourist attractions to be closed indefinitely. China’s strategy to achieve zero COVID-19 cases includes strict border closures, lengthy quarantines, mass testing and rapid, targeted lockdowns. More than 13,000 residents of the locked-down Nanxinyuan residential compound in southeast Beijing were
INTERVENTION: A source said that a border patrol agent had rushed into the school without waiting for backup and killed the teen gunman, who was behind a barricade An 18-year-old man on Tuesday opened fire at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said. The attacker was killed by law enforcement. The death toll also included two adults, authorities said. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that one of the two was a teacher. The assault at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a US school since a man killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Outside the town civic center, where families were told to await news
‘I’M STUNNED’: The disease is not known to be sexually transmitted, but a large outbreak might reveal previously unknown transmission routes, a virologist said Scientists who have monitored numerous outbreaks of monkeypox in Africa say they are baffled by the disease’s recent spread in Europe and North America. Cases of the smallpox-related disease have previously been seen only among people with links to central and West Africa. However, in the past week, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the US, Sweden, Canada all reported infections, mostly in young men who had not previously traveled to Africa. There are about 80 confirmed cases worldwide and 50 more suspected ones, the WHO said. France, Germany, Belgium and Australia reported their first cases on Friday. “I’m stunned by this. Every day I
RSS