Animal-lovers break into homes to feed abandoned pets in Wuhan… as one quarantined man says his cat was BURIED ALIVE when his home was disinfected
- As many as 50,000 pets are stranded with owners unable to return to Wuhan
- Some owners have enlisted volunteers to break into homes and feed their pets
- One volunteer said his ‘phone never stops ringing’ as he tries to help the animals
Chinese animal lovers have broken into homes to feed abandoned pets who were left stranded by the coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan.
As many as 50,000 pets have been left on their own after their owners left Wuhan over Lunar New Year and were unable to return because of the quarantine, it is feared.
Some of the owners have enlisted volunteers to break into their homes and rescue the starving animals while the lockdown continues.
One of the freelance housebreakers, 43-year-old Lao Mao, said his ‘phone never stops ringing’ as families plead with him to feed their pets.
But one man who had to leave his home because of the quarantine returned to find that his cat had been buried alive while the house was disinfected, he said.
One man claimed that his pet cat (pictured) was buried alive when his house was disinfected while he was being quarantined in hospital because of the coronavirus outbreak
The man claimed that his housing management company had stuffed the cat into a plastic bag (pictured) before burying it alive in an area of wasteland
Lao Mao, the volunteer, said he climbed up rusty pipes to the third-floor balcony of one apartment to gain entry into the home of a middle-aged couple.
He found their two cats trapped under a sofa, starving but still alive, and called their owners who broke down and cried on a video call at the sight of their pets.
The owners had gone on a three-day trip to the north but been unable to return after Beijing imposed drastic travel restrictions.
They learned of Lao Mao, or ‘Old Cat’ as his friends call him, from social media and messaged him pleading for help.
‘My conservative estimate is that around 5,000 are still trapped, and they may die of starvation in the coming days,’ Lao Mao said.
‘The volunteers on our team, me included, have saved more than 1,000 pets since January 25. My phone never stops ringing these days. I barely sleep.’
Wuhan’s mayor told a recent news conference that five million people had left the city ahead of the Lunar New Year festive season.
One less fortunate cat owner from the city of Wuxi was quarantined in hospital – despite not being infected with the virus – and returned home to find that his pet had died.
According to local media, the man arranged with the housing management company to leave the cat on his balcony for a friend to come and pick it up.
However, he claims that the management company entered his apartment and stuffed the cat into a plastic bag before burying it alive in an area of wasteland, according to reports.
Two people wearing face masks walk down a deserted street in Wuhan, where millions of people had left their homes to travel during the Lunar New Year festive season
When he confronted the company he was reportedly told that they went there to disinfect the home during a ‘public health emergency response’.
The company said they were following the country’s Infectious Disease Control Act to ‘control or kill infected wild animals, livestock and poultry’ during an outbreak, according to local media.
The drastic travel restrictions have been imposed in an effort to slow the spread of the virus which has so far killed more than 360 people.
Animals in some parts of China were also caught up in spurious rumours that pets were exacerbating the virus’s spread.
The number of abandoned pets rose in the past week, according to several animal rights groups, while isolated reports of pets being killed circulated on the internet.
Suichang, a small county in Zhejiang, the province second to Hubei with the most infections, on Friday ordered residents to keep their dogs at home. Dogs caught in public will be exterminated, county authorities said.
Many in Beijing and Shanghai also rushed to buy face masks for their dogs in their mistaken belief that pets could catch the virus.
‘I’m worried about my dog being hated by the neighborhood,’ said Beijinger Wang Fengyun, who has a poodle.
‘I haven’t found any pet masks, so I’ve made one myself with a paper cup.’
PETA Asia’s media officer Keith Guo said: ‘The World Health Organization has issued a statement that there is no evidence that dogs and cats will be infected with the new coronavirus.
‘Our enemies live in dirty industrial farms, slaughterhouses, and meat markets.
‘If we can eat a vegan diet, we can avoid similar disasters that threaten the life and health of the public again in the future.’
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