Hong Kong to resume hamster imports

• Officials in the Chinese territory were held responsible for delta type virus.
• Last January, the Hong Kong authorities ordered the culling.
• Hamster stores were temporarily closed, and an import restriction was imposed.

Officials in the Chinese territory were chastised for their response to an outbreak of the delta type linked to a pet shop.

Hong Kong has lifted a restriction on the importation of hamsters for sale, a year after it ordered the culling of over 2,000 hamsters and other small rodents in a move to prevent pets from spreading Covid-19 to humans.

“Based on the most recent risk assessment and present scenario, this department feels that the hamster import prohibition could be relaxed,” the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

Last January, the Hong Kong authorities ordered the culling after a small virus epidemic was linked to a pet shop named Little Boss, which had imported hamsters from the Netherlands. Eleven hamsters from the shop tested positive for the delta strain, which has not been seen in the city in months.

Residents of Hong Kong who had recently purchased hamsters were encouraged to relinquish their pets, hamster stores were temporarily closed, and an import restriction was imposed. Pet owners and animal welfare organisations slammed the government’s decision as unfair and inhumane at the time, and tens of thousands of individuals signed an online petition opposing it.

While there is “no question” that hamsters communicated the virus to a worker in the pet shop, in hindsight the culling of hamsters outside the affected cargo was “unnecessary,” Vanessa Barrs, a professor of veterinary medicine at City University of Hong Kong, told News. She stated that it is doubtful that hamsters in people’s homes carried Covid, and that the culling caused stress for pet owners and tension in the neighbourhood.

However, the Chinese territory was implementing a rigorous “zero-Covid” stance in accordance with mainland China at the time of the Hong Kong government’s decision last year, prompting officials to act aggressively. Both Hong Kong and mainland China have softened anti-Covid measures in recent weeks, which has reduced instances and deaths but also prompted significant public frustration.

According to the Hong Kong Animal Law and Protection Organization, the hamster import prohibition was “one of the most illogical actions the Hong Kong government made in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.”

The real harm caused by the pet shop event was “the fear-mongering induced in pet owners and the consequent bad care of animals as a result of this dread.”

On Friday, calls to the Little Boss pet shop’s office were unanswered.

Although he received compensation from the government, Louis Yeung, the owner of Chinchilla & Pets Shop in Hong Kong, stated that the import ban had negatively impacted his business and that he favoured abolishing it.

“The world is removing Covid constraints on humans. “Why should we continue to impose absurd limitations on small animals?” he said.

Covid-19 transmission from animal to person is uncommon and mainly occurs when animals are kept in large numbers, such as in warehouses or on farms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pet hamsters in Hong Kong are one of the few recorded cases globally of infected animals transferring the virus to humans.

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