Hongkong residents throwing out pet hamsters over COVID transmission fears

• Pet owners leave their hamsters out in the streets following the government’s call to cull small animals.
• Several Hong Kong residents take stand against culling, calling it “unjust and brutal”.
  
• Government appeals to public not to abandon hamsters on streets.

HONG KONG: Some pet owners have abandoned their hamsters following the government’s call on Tuesday to cull 2,000 small pet animals over fears of animal-to-human COVID-19 transmission, Vice reported.

Hong Kong authorities said multiple hamsters in a pet shop and two people, a shopkeeper and a customer, contracted the Delta variant of COVID-19.

The animals recently arrived from the Netherlands to Hong Kong, which has maintained a strict zero-COVID policy. Officials ordered sales and imports of the rodents suspended and asked pet owners to surrender any hamsters they bought since December 22.

Several residents of the city have taken a stand against the culling order, calling it “unjust and brutal. Animal rights groups have also begun efforts to rescue abandoned animals.

The government has appealed the public not to abandon hamsters on the street, but to surrender the pets to an animal management centre for “humane dispatch” if they were purchased after December 22.