Communities around China have ordered their residents to stop keeping pets or risk getting them culled amid fears that animals could also catch the new Coronavirus that has killed 213 in less than three weeks, MailOnlinehas revealed.
Residential committees, village officials and companies from various provinces and municipalities issued the strict order to locals after receiving instructions from superiors to tackle the epidemic, it has emerged.
One village in Hebei urged all households to ‘deal with’ their pets within five days, otherwise officials would ‘handle’ them altogether; while another residential committee in Shaanxi instructed people to ‘consider the overall situation’ and dispose of their cats and dogs immediately, according to notices supplied to MailOnline.
The news came as China’s top expert for infectious diseases warned that pets would also need to be quarantined should they be exposed to Coronavirus patients, causing fears that animals could also catch the disease.
The World Health Organisation however, claims that it has not seen any evidence of the virus being passed onto cats or dogs.
In Wuhan, the ground zero of the Coronavirus outbreak, one neighbourhood banned its residents from letting their cats, dogs and livestock leave their homes.
In a flyer posted in the community, local officials threatened to catch, kill and bury the animals on the spot if they see any.
