They found thousands of people in Hong Kong, operating with names like Life on Palm, and Cute Hamster Group, defying government edicts to take in hamsters that might otherwise be euthanized, that people were too scared to keep. Some hamster owners have logged into a messaging platform used during mass anti-government protests before the pandemic began. 'Same goes for my hamster it is my family.' 'I won't throw you out if anything happens to you, as you are my family,' she told her mother. Washington Post reporters quoted a woman who asked not to be named, who said her mother, who was worried by government commands, told her to get rid of her hamster. Out of 113 hamsters surrendered to Hong Kong's authorities so far, just one has tested positive. And the infection rates have stayed low.īut the City University of Hong Kong's Center for Animal Health and Welfare calls the risk of contracting coronavirus from pets 'negligible.' Scientists and world health officials agree. Schools have been closed, and playgrounds shut, restaurants closed by 6 p.m. Hong Kong's 'zero-COVID strategy' has meant stringent lockdowns during the pandemic. 'But we have to protect public health and animal health. 'We don't want to cull all the animals,' Thomas Sit, assistant director of Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation department, told the New York Times. Hong Kong's agriculture department reports some guinea pigs, rabbits and chinchillas have been exterminated, too. More than 2200 hamsters from dozens of pet shops have been euthanized so far. Fearing that pets would fuel a larger outbreak, Hong Kong authorities told citizens to surrender all hamsters that were purchased after December 22nd, for what they called 'humane dispatch.'

The small, twitchy-nosed fuzzballs fit well as pets in a bustling city of apartment dwellers.īut: someone who works at a pet shop there, one customer, and 11 hamsters tested positive for COVID. A fluffy new symbol of dissidence has surfaced in Hong Kong: the hamster.

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