On September 28, Ms. Liu, a confirmed case in Nangang District, Harbin, Heilongjiang, announced for the first time that she had been quarantined in the hospital for many days and was cooperating with treatment. On September 27, community staff informed her that the three cats she had left at home had tested positive for two nucleic acid tests. Her cats were to be euthanized and she was asked to write a consent form. According to the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases", when an infectious disease breaks out, infected animals may be controlled or culled if necessary. At around 6:30 pm on the 28th, a reporter from the Beijing News learned that three of Ms. Liu’s cats had been euthanized.
Later, Ms. Liu posted a video asking for help on Douyin, hoping that everyone could help her give the cats a chance to be treated and give them a chance to live. He also claimed that the community staff did not know which department issued the order, and the district disease control did not know the situation of euthanasia of cats or how to treat pets infected with the new coronavirus. Subsequently, community staff responded that the cat had tested positive twice and could not be treated. There was no professional treatment for the animals, and there was no place to treat the cats. If the cats were not treated, Ms. Liu and even the entire unit building and community would not be able to return home. The epidemic would never end.
This incident has caused "fighting" among netizens. Some netizens believe that life is equal, pets are relatives and friends, and cats also have the right to live; others believe that there is no need for a group of people to take risks for the sake of pets. When there is a conflict between animal rights and human rights, we have different positions and different views. We cannot use our sympathy to kidnap front-line anti-epidemic staff and volunteers, nor can we blindly blame Ms. Liu for her ignorance. It should be analyzed more rationally. During the current epidemic, the country is spending a lot of supplies to save people. It is meaningless to attack and accuse each other.
Last year, Denmark ordered the culling of 17 million minks, of which 4 million were buried. This year, these minks were dug out and burned again; clusters of COVID-19 infections occurred in American zoos, and a large number of animals were diagnosed. Can humans and animals cross-infect each other? Do animals allow viruses to mutate? In the face of human life, there is really no need to debate whether culling is right or wrong. We sympathize with the cats and understand Ms. Liu's feelings. However, when human lives are still difficult to guarantee, it is really powerless to waste materials to rescue animals. This is not a lack of empathy or a lack of reverence for life, but simply the helplessness of reason over emotions.
For the safety of people's lives and property, the state has borne the treatment costs ranging from tens of thousands of yuan for mild patients to millions of yuan for severe patients, which has consumed a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. In the face of public interests, the "Mother's Heart" and "Bodhisattva's Heart" should be used in front of great love, instead of hiding behind the screen and typing on the keyboard with righteous indignation to condemn others. Everyone has the obligation to cooperate with epidemic prevention, and we are also allowed to vent our emotional grief. When we lose a pet that has been with us for five or six years, we have the right to express our sadness and pain. Empathy is precious, but culling confirmed animals is the safest choice for human life. We need to consider the overall situation and treat it rationally.