China takes cat lives more seriously than some Western countries treat COVID patients
US national flags symbolizing the 200,000 life lost to COVID-19 in the United States are positioned on the Nationwide Mall in Washington, DC, the US, on Sep 22, 2020. .Picture: Xinhua
The final decision of neighborhood authorities in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, to euthanize 3 pet cats that examined favourable for COVID-19 has aroused controversy. Unsurprisingly, some US media retailers and Western customers on social media platforms like Twitter have taken the likelihood to attack China. They blasted the final decision as an act of cruelty versus daily life and a end result of China’s “fear-mongering about COVID-19.”
China is currently being criticized for cruel treatment on existence mainly because of putting down 3 virus-contaminated cats – are they critical? The US’ COVID-19 dying toll now has neared 700,000, surpassing the figure of the devastating 1918 flu pandemic. Specified these a botched anti-pandemic circumstance, these Westerners are in no posture to preach China about how to handle everyday living.
In China, animal legal rights activists have also criticized the selection. They called for wellness authorities to give a extra moral and standardized way to treat virus-contaminated animals. But the majority of the Chinese people today believe euthanizing the cats is a necessary choice in line with the law for the sake of epidemic prevention and management. The epidemic prevention and management staff members users are thought to have absolutely assessed the pitfalls of virus transmission and adopted the most necessary method.
The conclude-of-lifetime final decision is backed up by Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Avoidance and Remedy of Infectious Conditions, which stipulates that when an infectious illness breaks out, infected wild animals and domestic animals can be controlled or killed if vital.
Feng Zijian, deputy director general of the Chinese Heart for Illness Management and Prevention, mentioned in an interview with The Beijing Information on Tuesday that there was minimal working experience in dealing with contaminated animals and that if a cat continually carries a virus, the dangers of transmission exist and great caution is needed to offer with it. He pressured that should a cat frequently test beneficial for COVID-19, it has to be set down. Also, it is really also recognizable that as the pandemic rages on all over the world, cases that contaminated animals these kinds of as tigers, cats and puppies are euthanized in other international locations have been not unusual.
“From the viewpoint of general public well being disaster management and command, euthanizing the three cats is a decisive evaluate to lower negative results and steer clear of worst benefits,” Shen Yi, a professor at Shanghai-based Fudan College, advised the World wide Instances. “If cat-to-human transmission truly takes place and a distribute inside the community breaks out, will those critics bear the duty at that time? And how can they find the money for that?” Shen questioned.
With the approaching of the week-extensive Countrywide Working day holiday seasons, the large flow of folks for the duration of the period of time is bringing wonderful problems to the epidemic avoidance and regulate. Cities like Harbin the place area new instances are still documented are dealing with an arduous process in correctly managing and minimizing the chance of the virus distribute. The choice of the epidemic avoidance and management employees to place down the cats has demonstrated their responsible perspective towards the protection of people’s lives.
The operator of the cats, a COVID-19 individual, is acquiring treatment in medical center. Her sadness is easy to understand. From her posts on Weibo, we can master that the three cats ended up perfectly taken care of by group employees ahead of they had been found to be virus carriers. The operator also claimed she understood that the place and people’s security should be prioritized.
It need to be pointed out that China is certainly the most humanitarian state in the struggle towards the pandemic. Considering that the starting of the epidemic, China has insisted on putting everyday living initially. It has upheld “folks first, lifetime very first” and shielded people’s everyday living, health and fitness and security at all prices. This is in sharp distinction with the US and some other Western countries, which disregard people’s life but prioritize political and celebration passions. It is no exaggeration to say cat life matter much more in China than COVID-19 affected individual life make any difference in those people Western international locations.
“The subtext that these Western critics failed to converse out is that it does not make a difference how numerous men and women will be infected or killed by the virus as very long as the 3 cats are not euthanized,” Shen mentioned. Nonetheless, what they treatment about are not the cats at all, but are obtaining another justification to assault China’s anti-epidemic endeavours, which only displays their ethical powerlessness, Shen noted.
