Epidemic problems

When Peng first heard news of the novel coronavirus outbreak, she quickly felt a sense of deja vu.

"I lived through SARS, so this felt all too familiar," Peng said, adding that the pet abandonment problem during the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak was also seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May and June, Yixiu rescued about 30 cats of various breeds including 20 British and exotic short-hairs in Ningbo. "We constantly received calls for help for pedigree cats being abandoned on the streets. It's heartbreaking," Hsu said.

Many people in Ningbo left their pets alone at home for days on end during the pandemic, as they did not know how to cope with the situation.

"Leaving a pet at home alone for more than 24 hours is very dangerous, as many accidents can happen," Hsu said.

"During the quarantine period, we found many cats alone with no food and water. If the owner had had a cat sitter, we could have rescued the cat easily with the key."

Shelters and rescue networks also worked hard to rescue many animals abandoned on the streets.

Cukor, from Lost Puppies, said, "We did see during the coronavirus outbreak a very clear spike in abandonments, and we also found dogs abandoned on the streets."

She said her network of volunteers was very busy for about a month and a half, and they had about 40 dogs in their care at one point.

For Eleventh Hour Rescues, travel restrictions and flight cancellations delayed plans to re-home many of the dogs that were supposed to be adopted abroad.

"We are a foster-based rescue, we don't have a shelter and heavily rely on our network of fosterers," Nair said. "We ended up having to scrape every penny of our own personal funds to board them at the few available vets and dog hotels across the city."

Wang never thought that her shelter would rescue 127 dogs within a span of three months.

"There was a lack of accurate information being passed around about the virus, but there are currently no reports that cats and dogs transmit the virus," Wang said.

"Also, a lot of pet owners were unable to continue raising their pets or return to Beijing and this eventually led to their abandonment."