What Are Beijing's Policies for Pets When Their Owners Go Into Quarantine?

Covid's resurgence in the capital and other cities has led to a major concern among pet owners -- will my pet face any trouble if I'm quarantined or hospitalized?

Fueling the flames of fear have been some sickening reports of pets being culled by healthcare workers. One such report, which claimed pets of residents in a Haidian compound who had tested positive for Covid were being killed, has been laid to rest by the Haidian District government.

In a post on the district government's WeChat account, they refute the report of pets being killed and states that it was agreed that for households with pets one household member was allowed to stay behind to self-isolate under observation and look after their pets, while the other household members were taken to a centralized quarantine facility.  

Hopefully this should help ease the minds of Beijing pet owners, especially those in Haidian District. However, it doesn’t seem that there is a clear central policy for how to deal with pets if their owners are diagnosed with Covid. Instead it seems that each district and even subdistricts and compounds may have their own policy for dealing with this.

We’ve done some further research into what some of the different policies seem to be.

Daxing District

In a report issued by China.com, starting from Jan 25 2022 the policy for pet owners residing in Daxing District is that arrangements will be made for their pets to be brought to a special centralized quarantine location.

Changping District

In the same report by China.com it is cited that as of Oct 30 2021 pet owners residing in Changping District can give their permission for health workers to enter their home, collect and check their pets and then transfer them to a designated third party facility to look after them.  

Chaoyang District

Another policy some compounds have is for health workers, or 大白 dà bái as they’re colloquially known, to go to your home and look after your pets. This was the case when a resident of Fuwai West Community, in Chaoyang District, went into centralized isolation back in March. A video of the dabais looking after the residents two cats went viral, showing them stroking and feeding the cats while the resident was in isolation.

Shunyi District

One final policy we were able to uncover was that some compounds allow residents to take their pets with them to centralized isolation. One of our reporters called Dongyachuangzhan Community in Shunyi District which had residents go into centralized isolation in March and they told us that residents with pets were allowed to bring them with them.

Some local Beijing residents have even started putting some of their own measures in place. According to baiduer.com, one such person is Yi Na, who became head of a pet boarding house in Dongba, Beijing after having a personal experience of being worried about her own dog.

One of the biggest potential challenges pet owners going into centralized quarantine face is being able to take their pets to a boarding house, as most require pets to be taken there. However, to solve this problem Yi Na tries to provide a door-to-door pickup service so that the pets can be taken care of. Yi Na’s foster care service has already helped over 20 pets.

It is certainly a worrying time for Beijing’s many pet owners, but it does seem that there are practices being put in place to care for the pets of those faced with centralized quarantine and that the rumor of pets being culled in Haidian District were false.  

READ: Mild Covid Cases Will No Longer Be Hospitalized: National Health Commission

Images: Unsplash Tran Mau Tri Tam, @确认信号 Weibo, weibo.com