02/03/2023 4:49 pm (act. 02/03/2023 04:51 pm)
The British government was apparently considering killing domestic cats in the corona pandemic. © AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
At the start of the corona pandemic, the British government apparently considered killing all domestic cats, as former member of the Bethell government said in an interview.
“In fact, the idea came up for a moment 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?” Conservative politician James Bethell told Channel 4 News . At the time, it was not certain whether pets such as domestic cats could transmit Corona as well.
Alert for domestic cat owners after Corona case in July 2020
Some time ago there was some evidence that should have been investigated, said the then deputy health minister, according to the PA news agency. 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 known animal in the UK to be infected with 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.
House cat in UK government seat reacts on Twitter
In England, one domestic cat in particular enjoys cult status: Cat Larry has lived in Downing Street, the seat of government, for over a dozen years as “the UK’s greatest rat catcher”. On his satirical Twitter account, which mostly mockingly comments on political events on behalf of the cat, a backlash promptly followed on Wednesday night: “It’s hard not to take this personally,” he said there, having in view of Bethell’s statement that the killing of the cats had been considered.
Corona transmission from humans to domestic cats is much more common
In fact, according to a study published in June 2022, the coronavirus 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.