Around 400 birds and dozens of dogs, cats, rabbits, rats and guinea pigs died because shopkeepers were forced to keep their doors closed, said Rahman Shikder, spokesman for the Katabon Market Shopkeepers Association. “At least 20 percent of our animals have died.”
“We have to keep the doors open so that the animals don’t suffocate”
The 75 small shops on Dhaka’s largest pet market had to close in early July due to a corona lockdown imposed by the government. “We have to keep the doors open so that the animals do not suffocate,” said the shopkeeper Mohammad Polash of the AFP news agency.
After the death of pets hit the headlines across the country, the government decided on Wednesday that stores would be allowed to open their doors for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.
From the point of view of animal rights activists, the animals on the market are kept under catastrophic conditions even in normal times. “Places like Katabon should not even exist,” said the head of the animal rights organization Obhoyaronno, Rubaiya Ahmad, the AFP news agency.
Government has eased restrictions on religious festivals
According to official information, more than 17,000 people have already died in Bangladesh during the corona pandemic. Experts assume a high number of unreported cases. Despite the spread of the virus, the government has eased some restrictions on Eid al-Adha, one of the country’s most important religious festivals.