BEIJING, (Reuters) – Three coronavirus-positive pet cats were killed in Harbin in northeast China. This was reported by state media. It triggered a backlash on social media about what many considered excessive in efforts to eradicate the virus.

Beijing News reports that the owner of the cat was given COVID-19 diagnosis on September 21. The local disease control agency then euthanized her cats. They also test positive for the virus later on, in spite of her protestations.

In an interview with Beijing News, a community worker stated that there is likely no medical care for pets infected by the novel coronavirus. This explained why the cats were taken to the vet.

A community worker stated that the cats would still have been leaving viral traces inside the room.

Rachael Tarlinton from Britain’s University of Nottingham said that it doesn’t make sense that cats could infect the room so severely that their owners would have to take COVID. She also stated that surfaces were not an important route of transmission.

Researchers have not yet found any evidence that pets could spread the virus to humans.

This approach is not what I support. It’s simplistic, lazy, and crude management. This is what one user wrote on Weibo (NASDAQ : ), China’s equivalent of Twitter (NYSE :).

This Wednesday’s Beijing News report was deleted by the outlet from all its social media channels. On Wednesday, the outlet published a Weibo commentary urging authorities to establish standards to handle infected animals.

China’s mass testing has helped to control most of the coronavirus-related outbreaks. It also enforces community lockdowns and locks downs, even if only a few cases have been reported.

Beijing News reported Tuesday that Feng Zijian (a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) said that pets should be shot if they continue to show positive results.

Vanessa Barrs from City University of Hong Kong, who is an expert in animal disease and health, stated that the chance of transmitting infected pet animals to humans is very low.

She stated that there has been no evidence of cat-to-human transmission in this pandemic. This is in contrast to the case with European farmed mink, which saw the spread from COVID-19 infected mice to humans.

There are other options for animal welfare, and the situation is different for pets dogs and cats.