Officials say the move was prompted by COVID-19 concerns
Originally published on Global Voices
“Add oil Hongkongers, Save Hamsters” A online poster from Save Hamsters Concern Group.
Hong Kong authorities announced some 2,000 hamsters and small animals would be killed, after a 23-year-old employee of a pet shop in Causeway Bay tested positive for the COVID-19 Delta variant, raising concerns that the animals be vehicles for COVID mutations. The decision has stirred public outrage and some citizens have begun organizing hamster rescue campaigns.
The pet shop employee tested positive on January 16 and a 67-year-old woman who visited the pet shop briefly on January 8 tested positive the following day. The patron's husband also had a preliminary positive result. The woman’s family bought a hamster from the shop on January 4.
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) told the press on January 18, that they could not rule out the possibility of animal to human transmission as, among the 125 samples collected from 78 animals, 11 hamsters tested positive for COVID-19. However, the health authorities also admitted that the virus could have spread from the pet shop employee to the customer as human contact is the most common mean of transmission.
Authorities were further worried because they could not identify how the pet-shop employee became sick.
Officials then conducted an investigation in a storehouse where the pet shop chain stored their animals. They found some environmental samples that contained traces of COVID-19.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said some 1,000 small animals including hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits collected from the storehouse would be euthanized upon COVID-19 testing, even if the results were negative to reduce risk.
On January 19, AFCD further identified two shipments of hamsters from the Netherlands that might be potential carriers of the coronavirus, prompting them to test and cull some 1,000 hamsters currently for sale in pet shops around the city. They also urged pet owners who had purchased their hamsters on or after December 22 to hand over their hamsters for euthanasia.
AFCD also suspended the import of all small mammals, including hamsters, and ordered all pet shops which had sold hamsters to suspend their business until all other mammals stored in their shops meet the COVID-19 test requirements.
The decision to euthanize the creatures was made out of “public health concerns with caution,” according to Thomas Sit, the AFCD’s assistant director.
The World Health Organization, however, reaffirmed that while some animal species could be infected with coronavirus, the chances for them to reinfect humans remains low.
Citizen reactions
Netizens in Hong Kong are furious about the decision and some have organized to save the rodents. Within one day, more than 11,000 people signed a petition demanding the authorities to drop the killing order.
On social media, many expressed the frustrations that mistakes made by humans had to be paid for with animals’ lives. Twitter user @winktaev said:
哈 2000多隻倉鼠
2000多條生命就這樣沒了
當生存的權利都不在自己身上
繁殖生來就是為了滿足人類的佔物慾
現在人道毀滅牠們 卻是因為人類自身的問題
得生由人 遭死因人
難道生命的價值就如此廉價嗎？ pic.twitter.com/Yb8XQiq3uA— 菁 (@winktaev) January 18, 2022
More than 2,000 lives would be gone like this. They could not choose to live. They were bred to meet human beings’ possessive desires and were culled for man-made problems. Their lives and their deaths were controlled by humans, who treat their lives so cheaply like this.
Another Twitter user @hkguy1988 expressed a similar idea with a cartoon in which a hamster rejects the escape help offer proposed by a mouse as it has trust in its owner:
倉鼠做錯了什麼？
硬要說的話就是將命運交由人類主宰這一點吧…#倉鼠 pic.twitter.com/2w52kf7U9K— 一個人 (@hkguy1988) January 19, 2022
What wrongs did the hamsters do? Humans have control of everything.
As some hamsters owners decide to abandon their pets after reading the news, some netizens decide to organize rescue teams to save the abandoned rodents. They shared some rescue guidelines on social media. @liu20306 is among one who shared the information:
【倉鼠救援指南】
香港人請分享
香港政府下滅鼠令，預計有2000隻倉鼠及小型動物受影響，極有可能出現棄鼠潮，請有能力人士盡可能幫助遇見的被遺棄動物！ pic.twitter.com/vwIjO0mIaA
— 左眼的悲傷
(@liu20306) January 18, 2022
[Guidelines to saving hamsters]
Hongkongers please share
Non-Hongkongers please share if you have friends in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong government has ordered the killing of hamsters, which involves 2,000 hamsters and small animals. This may trigger a wave of hamsters abandonment. People who have capabilities, please help the abandoned animals you encounter!
A Facebook group named “Save Hamsters Concerned Group” was created on the same day as the news on culling broke has recruited more than 5,000 members in less than one day. Members of the group share rescue tips and match the abandoned rodents with new owners.
Other Facebook groups like “Hamster Blog HK” and “The Cute Hamster” have also received thousands of new member requests.
A Taiwan-based Twitter user @taiwanlorraine praised Hong Kong civic groups for their animal rescue efforts:
雖然港府很沒有人道，但救野豬、救倉鼠，各種NGO呼應，還是讓人覺得香港是很有溫情的地方。
— Lorraine嶼妍 (@taiwanlorraine) January 19, 2022
Although the Hong Kong government is inhumane, saving boars, saving hamsters, all these NGOs’ callings make me feel that Hong Kong is a place full of compassion.
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