Hundreds of pets have died from neglect at the pet market while Bangladesh imposed a total lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
According to Dhaka Tribune and AFP news agency, at least 400 birds and dozens of dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs died from suffocation at 'Katabon Market', the largest pet market in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Merchants at Katavon Market, where 75 small shops are lined up, were unable to take care of the animals in the store after the government imposed a total curfew from the 1st of this month to prevent the corona virus.
The Bangladesh government has banned all citizens from going out except for essential business such as purchasing medicines and daily necessities, as the number of confirmed cases has risen sharply, closing all government and private offices, suspending public transportation.
Catabon Market's pets died one after another, waiting for the day they would be sold under conditions that were already poor, and when the shopkeepers lowered the shutters and locked the doors and did not look after them.
Owners have moved some animals to other locations, but have left most of them intact.
A spokesperson for the Catavon Market Association estimated that "at least 20% of the animals have died."
When the store owner and animal rights group raised the issue, the police said on the 14th that "the door is allowed to be open 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon every day."
A local animal protection group criticized, "A place like Katavon Market should not have existed in the first place." "The animals in the market are in extremely poor conditions, so this death is not surprising."
(Photo = Takatribune, Daily Star, Yonhap News)