As terrible as the COVID-19 pandemic is, there is no evidence at this time suggesting any domestic animal can carry or transmit the COVID-19 virus.
As Dr. Stanley Coren writes in his interesting and informative article (see link below), “The global pandemic of COVID-19 has infected hundreds of thousands of people around the world and has caused thousands of deaths. However, it is not just humans who are impacted by the spread of the virus, but also pet dogs. It is not because the dogs are susceptible to the virus, or that there is any evidence that they can transmit it, but simply because people are afraid and they are acting irrationally out of panicked concerns for their health. There are reports from a number of animal rescue societies around the world that there has been an uptick in the number of pet dogs that are being surrendered to shelters, or simply abandoned, because people are fearful that their dog may carry, or pass on, the virus.”
The pandemic has caused financial impacts on a great number of Canadians due to job loss. The Hospital is seeing increased requests to assist with critical veterinary medical care from pet guardians facing serious financial difficulties and we expect this will increase over the coming weeks or months. Your donation to the Trust will help assist those in need.
The attached links provide more information on pets and COVID-19. Your veterinarian is also a source of accurate and up to date information.
B.C. Centre for Disease Control – Pets
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/about-covid-19/pets
Read Dr. Stanley Coren’s article in Psychology Today from March 20, 2020
BCSPCA
https://spca.bc.ca/covid19-faq/?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=promo&utm_campaign=covid19
Government of Canada