Last week, Hong Kong authorities ordered the culling of some 2,200 hamsters and other rodents after pet store staff members were infected with the virus. Hamsters imported from the Netherlands were provisionally tested positive for covid. It is not clear whether the animals really have corona and how the hamsters became infected.
But the Hong Kong authorities intervened hard, partly because the vaccination rate in Hong Kong is low. About thirty percent of the population is not vaccinated, even half of the elderly. Hong Kong is struggling with outbreaks of the delta and omikron variants. On Monday, 109 new cases were registered.
Last drop
It has been more difficult to leave Hong Kong with pets since last year, killing the hamsters was the last straw for many animal lovers. Due to strict quarantine rules and entry bans, there are fewer international flights to Hong Kong. Last week, authorities banned flights from eight countries.
Now that there are fewer options for allowing pets to travel in the hold with their owner, the scarcely available places are extra expensive. In addition, the demand for tickets is already increasing due to an exodus from Hong Kong that has been going on for some time: the population declined by a record 1.2 percent in the first half of 2021. The wave of emigration is further driving demand for international pet moving services, say the companies, which arranged dozens of private flights for pet owners last year.
Precious paperwork
Some owners wait six months for a place for themselves and their pet on a normal flight. If such a scheduled flight is cancelled, the costly and time-consuming paperwork of importing a pet into another country has to be redone. Under these circumstances, a package deal with a private plane for around 22 thousand euros is becoming increasingly attractive. Especially because since the hamster cull, animal lovers are afraid that their dogs or cats may not be safe in future corona outbreaks.
In mainland China, domestic cats have been euthanized without their owners’ consent when their owners were quarantined or hospitalized with a corona infection. In Hong Kong, culling is a tried and true method: 1.5 million chickens were killed during the bird flu in 1997. Six thousand pigs were killed preventively in an outbreak of African swine fever in 2019.