Rescuing Family Members From Involuntary Euthanasia

"There's a huge demand. People want to get their pets back [to their  home countries], their cats and their dogs and their rabbits, and they just can't get them back via commercial routes."

"There is this new sort of wave of jet pooling where people come together and try to find a date and say 'right, we're going to go on this day'."

Chris Phillips, pet and medical charter manager, Air Charter Service

 

"We can't predict how the future's going to be ... every week we get another airport that's dropping the routes."

"Quite a few people [were looking at the option of hiring private jets]."

"The heartbreaking thing is ... [for] a lot of people, their dog is a member of their family, they're drawing the short straw by paying these extremely high rates."

Steve Pheby, senior consultant, Ferndale Kennels and Cattery

 

"Flights are frequently cancelled [at] short notice, which makes it really hard as the pets have to have their paperwork and vet checks done within a certain time frame relative to the flight."

Annett Schirmer, Hong Kong-based academic

Caviar flew from Hong Kong to the UK on a Dog Express jet in December and the pet travel company has three private jet flights scheduled in the coming months. Credit: Dog Express PST

"We were waiting for the pet cargo ticket for so long. Even if it's too expensive for us, it was a special experience." Expensive yes, but somehow people like Bianca Ho who saved 5-year-old Caviar by flying out with him on a private charter to the U.K. found it worth every penny. Flight on a commercial airliner just wasn't working for them, she had already waited for over six months. Her dilemma is one shared by many animal lovers suddenly finding themselves in an untenable position.

 

One faced by Hong Kongers finding the only way they could rescue their animals from the draconian position taken by health authorities to 'eliminate' potential danger from animals passing on the coronavirus to humans in Hong Kong living with beloved family pets to avoid having their pets gathered up by Hong Kong authorities and euthanized was to literally spirit them away, fly them out of the no-longer semi-autonomous area to remove them from the danger posed by new anti-COVID regulations.

 

A handful of hamsters were found to be COVID-positive, leading to a directive that all pet shops on the island close, and a thousand hamsters destroyed. Knowing their pets were next on the agenda, Hong Kongers have responded to the new pandemic restrictions that squeeze freight space on commercial flights, by chartering private jets. Zero COVID regulations have led to soaring cargo rates and flight cancellations.

 

 

The response was people grouping themselves for the purpose of leasing private jets with the fairly steep passage of roughly $31,250 for every owner with a pet. Passenger flights were banned by Hong Kong authorities from eight countries, representing a portion of the city's tough elimination policies for the coronavirus threat. Airline companies in attempting to keep pace with changing regulations have been cancelling flights.

 

Expatriates are now abandoning the city just as increasing numbers of locals join immigration schemes the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada have arranged following the political destabilization of 2019 in the Chinese territory. China's zero-tolerance for any potential vectors of the virus from any source has seen authorities taking to culling suspected animal species to avoid human contact and feared subsequent infections.

 

Even people found to have visited the now-shuttered 150 pet stores have been quarantined for fear of animal-to-human transmission. In the first half of 2021 Hong Kong's population was diminished by 1.2 percent. Now people who can afford the stiff freight are taking their pets with them, despite struggling with insufficient numbers of flights, which has led inevitably to a growing demand for private jets.  

Before the pandemic, explained Steve Pheby of Ferndale Kennels and Cattery, his business was generally balanced evenly between importing and exporting pets. In this new, evolving situation the situation is now 90-95 percent export-based. Hong-Kong based Pet Holidays arranged 18 private jets for pet relocation in 2021 for flights to the U.K. and to Canada, Taiwan and Singapore, whereas in 2020 there were none.

 

 

Another 20 private jets chartered for pets' escape representing roughly a third of clients moving from commercial flights to chartered services are anticipated for 2022. Dozens of flights were arranged last year by Top Stars Air, a business aviation sales company. Currently, the company receives about 20 requests daily. Its next flight, a jet to fly in from Dubai minus the crew disembarking in recognition of Hong Kong's strict quarantine requirements. 

An academic based in Hong Kong, Annett Schirmer planned to relocate to Europe in May and was focused on arranging a flight for her three dogs and cat, through social media. U.K. pet travel operator PBS International Freight working with private jet companies has seen "a large increase" in demand from Hong Kongers. 

The Life-Saving Exploits of Old Cat

"In the past few days my line was always busy. Each day I received hundreds of requests and had to visit 20 to 30 households."
"They [the household pets] were all very scared and stressed. Some cats were extremely short of food and water."
"Of course I'm scared [of contracting the coronavirus], but just by thinking that the cats would starve to death if we didn't go, I can't just leave them there."
"The volunteers on our team, me included, have saved more than 1,000 pets since Jan. 25."
"My conservative estimate is that around 5,000 are still trapped, and they may die of starvation in the coming days."
Lao Mao, veterinarian, on-line pet community Wuhan Pet Life

"I never met their owners in person or had any deeper interactions. They trusted me and gave their keys to me, and I need to be responsible and repay their trust."
"Honestly, it is tiring. Of course I'm afraid. But if I dare to leave my house for work, I can leave my house for this as well."
"I see them as my own kittens, and treat this as a serious task."
Yang Ying, 50, Wuhan Pet Life management team

"In Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Hebei, Wuhan, Shanxi, Shanghai there are reports of local government orders for street dog culling out of fear that the animals might transmit the coronavirus."
"According to the World Health Organization, there is no evidence that pet dogs or cats can be infected with the virus, and medical experts in China have spoken out against blaming dogs and cats for spreading the illness. Humane Society International urges pet owners around the world not to abandon their pets as a response to this outbreak."
"In the meantime, animal advocates in China are rescuing abandoned pets and informing the public that dogs and cats do not pose a risk. Humane Society International has been supporting Chinese groups in coordinating public education efforts since the Wuhan coronavirus broke out."Humane Society International (HSI)

One man claimed that his pet cat (pictured) was buried alive when his house was disinfected while he was being quarantined in hospital because of the coronavirus outbreak

Wuhan Pet Life is operated as an online resource for pet owners by 43-year-old veterinarian Shuai Lihua who has earned the fond nickname 'Old Cat' (Lao Mao) from his many admirers. Working with him are six volunteers. And he and his volunteers have responded to a desperate situation that has developed for household pets left alone during the coronairus quarantine that has locked down Wuhan, the capital city of 11-million inhabitants in Hubei province, the epicentre of China's COVID-19 epidemic.

He and his rescue squad have managed to save several thousand pets from starvation when their owners, under quarantine have been unable to return to look after their pets' welfare. According to Lao Mao, about 20,000 animals have been left at home alone with no one to care for them, once the quarantine was tightened on the city on January 23 -- at a time when many of its residents had left to visit with family during Chinese Lunar New Year, an annual custom in China.

Travel curbs left people unable to return to their city of Wuhan, leaving their pets stranded. Owner of a pet hospital, Lao Mao is familiar with animal rescue, he has been doing just that for the past 13 years. So he decided he would do what he could to help in the situation, once he began receiving calls from frantic animal owners stranded and unable to return home. Lao Mao and his rescue team have saved thousands of pets so far, 99 percent of which were cats, 0.5 percent dogs, the remainder rabbits and hamsters.

There were too many cats to be accommodated, once  his home became crowded with the rescues, leaving the veterinarian with little choice but to leave sufficient food and water for each of the cats in their homes for a calculated month. In most instances the rescues were successful, but there were cases when the team discovered they were too late on arrival. Kittens had starved to death, or cats had perished following a difficult labour.

There were many times when Lao Mao, not possessing a key to gain entrance to a home, had to fend for himself to gain often awkward, difficult, and no doubt illegal, access. For the most part, however, pet owners were able to get their keys delivered to him, or they sent their password to him for their homes' locks. It is the high volume of rescues that places him at risk, however, of the coronavirus that has killed over a thousand people nationwide thus far and infected 80,000.

The feeding and care of these  temporarily adopted cats is complicated in a city where private vehicles remain banned as a critical measure of the quarantine. The owner of a cat who eventually contacted Lao Mao for help on February 3 had planned his return home for January 27. According to his calculations, he would be safe leaving food until the day of return. "When I went there to fill food and water for the cat, it stuck very close to me. It drank water for more than 10 seconds when usually cats just drink for two to three seconds", explained Old Cat.

A woman carrying a dog in the Chinese city of Wuhan on January 22.

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