PETA Statement: Coronavirus and Companion Animals

For Immediate Release:
March 12, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Supervising Veterinarian Heather Rally in response to a public health professor’s hypothesis that companion animals can act as “intermediaries” for the coronavirus:

If an infected person pets a dog and leaves the coronavirus in the animal’s fur, that’s no different than if it’s left on a doorknob, a handrail, another human hand, or any other surface that an infected person has touched. PETA urges guardians to protect themselves and their animal companions by taking basic precautions: If you aren’t shaking someone’s hand, that person shouldn’t be petting your dog or cat, either.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. More information is available here, and I’d be happy to answer any questions that you might have.