Hong Kong alters the law, requiring owners to surrender pets suspected of carrying COVID-19.
A dog handler walks with dogs along a street in Hong Kong, March 18, 2022.
According to the city's top health official, authorities in Hong Kong have changed the law to require people to hand over pets and other animals suspected of being infected with COVID-19 for 'humane dispatch,' as police have been tasked with investigating activists who attempted to save hamsters from a cull in January.
In a written response to a legislator's question, the city's secretary for food and health Sophia Chan said, The government recently introduced amendments [including] clear provisions requiring the owner of an article (including an animal) to surrender the article upon a health officer's direction.
The new guidelines went into effect on March 31, 2022, and anyone who fails to comply with a request to surrender their dogs for "humane dispatch" might face a punishment of up to H.K.$10,000 and six months in prison, according to her.
The current quarantine law, according to Chan, "aims to control matters connected to quarantine and the prevention of illness among animals and birds, among other things, but it does not directly mention COVID-19.
After Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) "seriously recommended" members of the public to surrender imported hamsters purchased from local pet stores for humane dispatch, the rule was changed.
The advise was met with strong opposition, with many offering to take hamsters off people's hands and keep them safe from the police.
By the end of March, Chan claimed, the authorities had received a total of 145 hamsters.
She said that officials had been collecting animals from local pet shops for "humane dispatch" and had barred the commercial importation of any small mammals.
In response to certain people preventing others from submitting hamsters and taking over hamsters intended for surrender to the [authorities], the AFCD... referred the case[s] to the police for follow-up and handling," Chan added.
Obstructing, or assisting in the obstructing, of a health officer in the exercise of a power or performance of a function is a criminal crime, and offenders are subject to a fine of H.K.$5,000 and a two-month jail sentence upon conviction, she cautioned.
Exceeding one's bounds
Miss J, a pet owner who only wanted to be identified by her initials, claimed the requirements were excessive.
I think handing over our animals is going too far, she remarked. They had already dispatched all of those hamsters without hesitation. It's completely ridiculous.
They claim the articles will be burned, Miss J explained, which suggests they're treating creatures like inanimate objects.
Miss J, who has a Shiba Inu and a dachshund she considers "family," said she had been only walking her dogs outside once or twice a week to reduce the danger of contracting COVID-19, but she wasn't sure if it was still possible today.
We've done everything we can, she continued, and they've just backed us into a corner.
If her life depended on it, a pet owner who only went by the pseudonym A Ting swore she wouldn't give up her two rescued stray cats.
This is ridiculous... You wouldn't abandon your own children, would you? she stated People who have pets regard them as members of the family and will not abandon them simply because they are ill.
To be honest, the government has put in a lot of limitations to try to stop COVID-19 from spreading, but have they worked? Ting said something.
It'll be over my dead body if they come to my house for my two cats," she remarked.
In the meanwhile, owners of dogs, cats, and mink on Taiwan's democratic island have been advised to isolate their pets at home if they test positive for COVID-19.
Pets of COVID-19 patients should be cared for by friends or family or turned over to disease control authorities for boarding until the patient recovers.
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