China: Three pet cats killed after positive Covid test

Three pet cats were killed in a city in northern China after testing positive for COVID-19.

The owner of the cats tested positive for COVID-19 on 21 September in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin.

She went into isolation after leaving food and water for her cats. Her three cats were later also tested positive and were put down by the local disease control authority.

China has brought most regional coronavirus outbreaks under control within weeks by enforcing mass testing and community lockdowns, even when only a small number of cases were reported.

Authorities in Harbin, where 75 cases were recently discovered, stated that the measure was taken because there were no treatment options for animals with the disease and they would have posed a risk to their owner and other residents of the apartment complex where they lived.

The owner had pleaded with the authorities not to kill her cats, but they killed the animals regardless.

A community worker came by and subjected the cats to a coronavirus test, which came back positive twice. Despite an online appeal from the owner, identified only as Ms. Liu, the cats were put down.

«I absolutely do not agree with this approach! To put it plainly, it is a crude, simplistic and lazy form of management, simply to avoid taking responsibility«, wrote a social media user on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

According to a Dutch study, pets frequently contract the coronavirus from their owners. «About one in five pets contracts the disease COVID-19 from their infected owners», said Dr. Els Broens of Utrecht University in July. «Fortunately, the animals do not become very ill from it.»

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of animals transmitting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to humans is considered low, although it is known to be transmissible from humans to animals in some situations, particularly through close contact.