The UK government thought of exterminating all domestic cats at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, former deputy Health Minster James Bethell revealed.
“There was a moment we were very unclear about whether domestic pets could transmit the disease. In fact, there was an idea at one moment that we might have to ask the public to exterminate all the cats in Britain,” he said.
Eventually, after the first infected animal was discovered in 2020, the British government limited itself to recommending that cats from infected houses be kept indoors and asked residents not to kiss their pets.
Lord Bethell was Matt Hancock’s deputy in the Department of Health and Social from 2020 to 2021.
In 2020, Denmark announced it would cull all the minks in the country — up to 17 million — because a COVID-19 strain was detected in some species. Later, the Danish parliament agreed to pay mink breeders, affected by the destruction of their livestock because of the risk of COVID-19, compensation totaling DKK 18.8Bln ($2.7Bln).