Pet care problems being resolved amid outbreak

Places to stay for pets belonging to people under central quarantine, one of the major concerns from Shanghai residents amid the current COVID-19 wave, have improved with the launch of pet care centers and more acceptance of the animals at hotels.

The city's first pet care center downtown, promoted by the Laoximen subdistrict in Huangpu district, opened on May 7. It accepts pets whose owners have COVID-19 or are close contacts who are unable to take care of their animals.

Located on Jiangyin Street, the center was co-launched by Laoximen subdistrict, the Shanghai Sansan Pet Caring Volunteer Association and a local pet hospital.

The center has two rooms that can house around 40 dogs and 10 cats in cages. According to the standards of the pet hospital, professional volunteers feed them twice a day and take the dogs for walks, and the pets are cleaned regularly.

"Earlier this month, an official contacted me and hoped that I could help take care of pets whose owners were under quarantine. As an animal lover, I am glad to hear that a community cares about residents' pets," said Zhai Jiang, head of the pet caring volunteer association and Babala Pet Hospital.

Zhai decided to provide free pet care services for quarantined residents after discussing the matter with his team. Officials helped them find a vacant house nearby.

The volunteer team spent two days cleaning the house and bringing in supplies such as cages, pet food and cat litter before the center welcomed its first guest on May 7, a 5-year-old Labrador.

"After the owner was transferred to a makeshift hospital, the Labrador was cared for by the neighborhood committee. They wanted professionals to take care of the pet, so we took over as soon as we could," Zhai said.

He said officials from Laoximen provided a lot of support, including arranging for mobile nucleic acid testing vehicles for the team every day and helping transfer pets to the center.

Currently, the animal care center only offers services to pet owners living in the Laoximen area.

As of May 14, it is caring for over 20 dogs and six cats. According to Zhai, two more rooms are being cleaned to receive another 20 pets.

After learning about the pet care center, Qiu Ying, a resident living in Huangpu district, said: "I think no matter what the condition is, at least this measure is very humanized. I hope that every neighborhood can provide such services to help bring relief to pet owners under quarantine."

According to Qiu, her cat was taken care of by neighbors when she was quarantined in a makeshift hospital from April 13 to 27.All the residents in her community help each other in difficult situations like this.

"I hope more neighborhoods can see what we are doing, and I am willing to guide them for free," Zhai said. "There are far more people willing to volunteer than I thought." He added that the current difficulty is that the size and number of cages are limited, and most cages need to be transferred from other cities.

In addition to setting up pet care centers, some quarantine hotels have also begun to accept owners with pets.

A Greentree Inn hotel branch, located on Fuxing Middle Road in Huangpu district, accepted a pet owner with eight cats to quarantine together.

Ng Fung Yi, who came to Shanghai in 2015 from Macao, was required to undergo centralized quarantine on May 6 as a close contact and moved into the hotel with her boyfriend and her cats the next day.

"I was very anxious at first, but after they allowed me to bring my pets, I felt relieved," she said, adding that another resident moved into the hotel the same day with two dogs. "Even though the room is less than 15 square meters, I'm very satisfied."