The order includes pets that were bought days before Christmas be handed over, with a warning not to “kiss or abandon them on the street” as Hong Kong and mainland China attempt to sustain a zero Covid strategy, attempting to suppress all outbreaks internally while maintaining tight border controls with the outside world.

A woman whose dogs were stolen has tracked one of them down almost 200 miles away after scouring the internet .Jane Jenkins, a licensed breeder from Swansea in Wales, had her labrador , Arthur, and cocker spaniel, Bandit, stolen from her home at the beginning of this year.

“It helps animals, but it brings people up too,” said Rick Haaland, who has been leading the efforts among his fellow Ojibwe as community outreach manager with the Leech Lake tribal police.

Vets are warning of a possible link between a new variant of coronavirus and heart problems in cats and dogs after a increase in pets presenting with myocarditis at a specialist veterinary hospital in Buckinghamshire during the pandemic’s second wave.