At the start of the CoV pandemic, the British government apparently considered killing all domestic cats. Conservative politician James Bethell told Channel 4 News: “In fact, for a moment there was the idea that we needed to ask the public to eradicate all cats in Britain. Can you imagine what would have happened if we had done that?”
When the pandemic broke out in 2020, very little was known about the disease. “There was a time when we didn’t know if pets could transmit the disease.”
Animals should no longer be kissed
Bethell, a member of the House of Lords, served as deputy to then Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the Department of Health in 2020 and 2021. According to British news agency PA, he said that for some time there has been some evidence that should have been investigated. According to the Guardian, cat owners were warned in July 2020 not to kiss their pets.
It was already known that a Siamese cat was the first animal in the UK to have contracted the disease. Margaret Hosie, professor of comparative virology at the University of Glasgow, advised cat owners at the time “to pay close attention to hygiene”, the Guardian reported.
Cat Larry takes it with humor
In England, one cat in particular enjoys cult status: Larry the cat has resided in Downing Street, the seat of government, for over a dozen years as the “leading rat catcher in the UK”. On his satirical Twitter account, which mostly mockingly comments on political events on behalf of the cat, a backlash ensued last night: “It’s hard not to take it personally,” he said there, in view of the statement by Bethell that killing the cats was being considered had been.
Study points to possibility of transmission
In fact, according to a study published in June 2022, CoV can likely be transmitted from cats to humans. Scientists have described a case in Thailand where a veterinarian was infected with the virus in August 2021. She treated and sneezed on a cat that tested positive in the city of Songkhla in southern Thailand.
However, scientists emphasize that the virus is transmitted much more often from humans to cats than in the opposite direction. In Denmark, millions of mink were killed during the pandemic due to concerns about disease transmission.