“Get that dog out of here!!!”
I looked up from my place in the line in my neighborhood vegetable shop to see who was shouting at whom. The local supermarket had previously had a fresh vegetable section but with the advent of the coronavirus they’d shut it down and now there was only one fresh vegetable shop in the neighborhood. I was the only foreigner in the store I’d been waiting in the check-out queue for about fifteen minutes. From the rate of progression and with at least twenty people ahead of me, I’d be waiting at least another thirty minutes before I got to the cashier. Everyone in the line was wearing a face mask and we were all maintaining as much distance as possible from each other as we could and still be considered to be in a line. The rain outside made this shopping trip even more dreary.
The object of the shout from another customer in the line was a Chinese middle-aged man, wearing what looked to me like nice designer type clothes, obviously well-to-do. He was holding a leash, at the end of which was a black and white border collie.
“I don’t have anyone at home to watch it,” the man pleaded, “and it’s raining outside.”
He’d probably stayed alone in Shanghai to watch the dog while the rest of his family went back to their hometown, I thought.
“We don’t care,” someone in the line said, followed by someone else chiming in with “you should have left it at home.”
The man backed away from the hostile line to the entrance of the shop. He came back in a few moments later, visibly upset at having to leave his dog outside in the rain. Social media had been circulating stories recently of how the coronavirus could spread from domestic animals like cats and dogs. It was utter nonsense. Nobody really knew what animal, if any, the coronavirus had come from. Bats and snakes were the current suspects from experts but they were a far cry from domestic pets who had never been to Wuhan. A lot of people didn’t seem to be making the distinction. There had also been some disturbing videos circulating on Wechat of cats and dogs being buried alive by their owners.
“There’s another one,” came the cry.
This time it was an older lady, in her fifties or sixties, carrying a small dog with curly fur. I didn’t recognize the breed but it was obviously a house dog that had never been to Wuhan.
“Get that dog out of here,” someone shouted angrily, “this is a food store.”
The old lady backed out of the store and left, choosing to not buy vegetables over leaving her dog out in the rain. I’m not a health expert so I don’t know if having a dog in a fresh vegetable store is dangerous in general, but the hostility from the other customers wasn’t about random diseases from dogs but about catching the coronavirus from them, which was ludicrous.
Half an hour later, I paid for my vegetables and headed home. Outside the store, I passed the black and white border collie, waiting patiently for its owner who was still stuck in the check-out queue. Fortunately, it had a slight overhang to protect it from the rain, but I was pretty sure that a lot of dogs in China would not have as caring an owner. I could only hope that all dog owners would remember why they had bought their four legged companions in the first place.