A record not seen since the beginning of the covid-19 crisis. Many owners are abandoning their pets in the belief that their hairballs represent a potential risk of transmission of covid-19.
What about transmission?
Well, there’s no possible transmission.
When traces of the virus were detected in the nasal cavities of a dog in Hong Kong, whose owner was infected with the coronavirus, the question of transmission from human to animal arose. For the experts of the health agency Anses, this case is not proof of infection of the animal, evoking the possibility of “passive contamination” (survival of the virus on a mucous membrane without it replicating there).
“The virus as such is not transmissible to the animal. Each species has its own antigens and bacteria and the current virus cannot be transmitted to its animal” reassures a veterinarian at a clinic in Caen (Calvados), who says he receives many calls from people worried about transmitting COVID-19 to their animals.
Why so many abandonments?
Fake news circulating on the Internet worries owners and makes them believe that their pet can transmit the virus.
This makes the work of shelters such as the SPA much more difficult in this moment of general containment. People are not yet aware that in the field it takes a team of people to take care of the animals, feed them, take them out and clean the cages.
Support from the campaigns
Thanks to Compagnon Animal For Life, an association on a European scale, we plan to offer pet food products for 1 month. This project aims to fight against the abandonment of dogs and cats, comfort euthanasia, and for responsible adoption. “Through these combined actions, we aim to reduce the number of abandoned pets, as well as the number of stray animals.”
This project was designed by the international agency TWICE DIGITAL, which uses the Dialogfeed solution to report all information concerning all abandoned animals from all Facebook and Instagram accounts of the various SPA associations around the world.
(Source: companion animal for life.org)
