Hong Kong will allow hamster pet stores to resume organization right after COVID cull

Officers in protective satisfies perform inside a closed pet shop in Mong Kok district following a hamster cull was requested to control the coronavirus illness (COVID-19) outbreak, in Hong Kong, China, January 19, 2022. REUTERS/Lam Yik

HONG KONG, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Dozens of pet shops that offered hamsters in Hong Kong could resume organization from Sunday, Hong Kong’s authorities mentioned, immediately after remaining shuttered final 7 days and thousands culled about coronavirus fears.

Authorities enraged pet lovers with an buy to cull a lot more than 2,200 hamsters immediately after tracing an outbreak to a worker in a shop where 11 hamsters examined constructive. Imported hamsters from Holland into the Chinese territory had been cited as the supply. All hamster imports keep on being banned.

The city’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Office explained in a assertion late on Saturday that it collected 1,134 samples from animals other than hamsters which includes rabbits and chinchillas, which were being all detrimental.

Five stores, which include the “Very little Boss” pet store, which started out the outbreak, remained shuttered as they had not nevertheless “passed the virus examination,” the govt claimed.

“All the other involved pet shops on the other hand have been carefully disinfected and cleaned and the environmental swabs collected from these shops have all handed the COVID-19 virus exam,” it mentioned.

The governing administration mentioned on Friday it would compensate pet stores investing in hamsters, giving a one particular-off payment of up to HK$30,000 (US$3,850).

People who had in new weeks bought hamsters – common apartment pets in the congested town – were being requested to surrender them for screening and what the governing administration described as “humane dispatch”.

Thousands of persons offered to adopt unwanted hamsters amid a general public outcry from the governing administration and its pandemic advisers, which authorities called irrational.
A research released in The Lancet health care journal, which has not however been peer reviewed, claimed Hong Kong researchers have discovered evidence that pet hamsters can unfold COVID-19 and connected the animals to human infections in the metropolis.

However, the financial and psychological tolls from Hong Kong’s hardline approach to curbing the virus are speedily soaring, inhabitants say, with measures turning into additional draconian than people initially enforced in 2020. study extra

Reporting by Farah Master editing by Grant McCool

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