Chinese city kills three cats after they test positive for coronavirus

29 September 2021, 11:04

Security guards in China (File/Ng Han Guan/AP)
China Developer’s Debt Struggle. Picture: PA

A community worker tested the cats after the owner tested positive and went into isolation.

A city in northern China has killed three house cats after they tested positive for Covid-19, according to a local media report.

The authorities in Harbin said the action was taken because there was no available treatment for animals with the disease and they would have endangered their owner and other residents of the apartment complex in which they lived, Beijing News online said.

The owner tested positive for the virus on September 21 and went into isolation after leaving food and water out for the three cats.

A community worker dropped in and gave the cats coronavirus tests, which twice came back positive.

Despite an online appeal by the owner, identified only as Miss Liu, the cats were put to sleep on Tuesday evening.

HEALTH Coronavirus
(PA Graphics)

Pet ownership is increasingly popular in China, and the newspaper’s report on the case drew more than 52,000 comments.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of animals spreading Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, to people is “considered to be low”, although it is known to be transmissible from people to animals in some situations, especially when there is close contact.

Covid-19 has been reported on mink farms in several countries, including cases in which it was suggested humans might have been infected by the animals, prompting mass culls of the animals.

“People with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 should avoid contact with animals, including pets, livestock, and wildlife,” CDC said on its website.

“At this time, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role” in spreading the virus to people, it said.

“Some coronaviruses that infect animals can be spread to people and then spread between people, but this is rare.

“This is what happened with Sars-CoV-2, which likely originated in bats,” the CDC said.

Chinese security guards (Ng Han Guan/AP)
Chinese security guards in a city (Ng Han Guan/AP)

The theory that the virus was passed from bats to humans, possibly through an intermediary species such as a pangolin or bamboo rat, has been strongly favoured by scientists studying the origins of Covid-19, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The killing of the cats is an example of the sometimes extreme measures China has taken to control the virus, even when infection rates remain far below those in other countries.

Lockdowns, mask wearing, mass testing and high vaccination rates have been credited for suppressing new infections.

On Wednesday, mainland China reported just 11 new locally transmitted cases, eight of them in Harbin and three in the eastern city of Xiamen, both of which have had recent outbreaks.

China currently has 949 patients being treated for Covid-19.

It has reported 4,636 deaths from the illness among a total of 96,106 reported cases.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’