In China, caring animal lovers are looking out for the pets left behind due to the growing coronavirus.
Wuhan, China is the city where over 11 million people reside. And, it is also considered to be the epicenter of this new coronavirus outbreak, under lockdown. Many pet owners have been stopped from returning home after traveling out of town.
Due to this many animals are living in Wuhan without their owners. Luckily, volunteers from the Wuhan Pet Life Online community and other local rescue groups have come ahead to save the dogs and cats. The animals who are abandoned by their owners unintentionally getting cared for by these pet lovers.
One veterinarian asked to anonymous, told the South China Morning Post that Wuhan Pet Life Online has rescued 2,000 pets since Wuhan was put on lockdown on Jan. 23.
“The pets were found in homes with no food and water. Their owners left their houses last month not expecting that they would not be able to return home,” the volunteer said. “Pets are beginning to starve to death or die from thirst.”
One 43-year-old Wuhan citizen put his life in danger to help rescue the animals trapped in homes across the city. He told to Reuters that the demand for help is nearly impossible.
“The volunteers on our team, I included, have saved more than 1,000 pets since Jan. 25,” the man said, estimating that 5,000 animals are still trapped and in need. “My phone never stops ringing these days. I barely sleep.”
“I haven’t found any pet masks, so I’ve made one myself with a paper cup,” one poodle-owner in Beijing told Reuters.
Anne Kimmerlein, DVM, MPVM, DACVPM — a veterinary epidemiologist for VCA Animal Hospitals — told PEOPLE in January that she would not recommend face masks for dogs or other pets.
“While pictures of Chinese dogs wearing face masks are showing up online, there’s no scientific evidence that these masks protect dogs from either infectious diseases or air pollutants,” Kimmerlein told PEOPLE.point 292 |
“Dogs’ faces have a lot more variation than human faces do, meaning that a face mask designed to fit one type or breed of dog is unlikely to fit most others.point 131 | Additionally, we cannot explain to a dog why we are putting something potentially scary or uncomfortable on their face.point 232 |
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Using masks fight against coronavirus isn’t recommend for humans either.
“Wearing a mask when you’re not sick has not been proven to help protect you with this kind of illness. It’s not something that I would do at this point unless you’re in an unusual situation where you’re around someone that you know is sick, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” Dr. Angela Hewlett, the medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, told PEOPLE about why masks aren’t recommended for healthy individuals.
A volunteer from another animal rescue organization told the SCMP that they have hundreds of homes still to check on.
“There are still 700 more households’ requests to handle,” said the volunteer. “According to the degree of urgency, we do triage, handling the urgent cases first.”
They added: “There have been several tragedies in which pets had already died before we got into the house.”
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