Upset at culling plans, thousands of Hong Kongers volunteer to adopt the pets
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
After hamsters in a pet store tested positive for COVID-19, Hong Kong's authorities were forced to slaughter thousands of small animals, sparking an uproar.Thousands of people volunteered in Hong Kong on Wednesday to adopt unwanted hamsters after the government issued a mass cull order due to COVID-19 worries, raising fears that panicked owners might abandon their pets. Animal rights activists in Hong Kong were outraged, with a Change.org petition garnering over 23,000 signatures in less than a day and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) condemning the decision. After connecting a coronavirus outbreak to a worker at the Little Boss petshop, where 11 hamsters tested positive for COVID-19, authorities ordered the culling of 2,000 hamsters from dozens of pet stores and storage facilities on Tuesday. Soon after, health workers in hazmat suits were seen walking out of pet shops around the city carrying red plastic bags into their vans. Some 150 of the petshop`s customers were sent into quarantine. Ocean, 29, a hamster owner and the administrator of "Hong Kong the Cute Hamster Group" on the Telegram social media app, said the group was contacted by almost 3,000 people willing to take care of unwanted animals temporarily.