Pets exposed to people or other animals who have COVID can secure free testing for the virus from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
“If the veterinary public health folks at the county of LA think it's a good idea, barring it being invasive and painful, I have no problem with it,” said pet attorney Bruce Wagman.
The initiative was promoted on Twitter last week after the Veterinary Public Health agency received funding from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to swab their noses in the same way humans are tested, according to media reports.
As of Aug. 29, 6 cats and 10 dogs have been tested with just one dog testing positive. Testing, however, is not limited to just dogs and cats.
“Our goal is to test many different species of animals including wildlife (deer, bats, raccoons), pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, pocket pets), marine mammals (seals), and more,” the health department stated on its website.
Although some pets are asymptomatic, others experience fever, coughing, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, lethargy, loss of appetite, runny nose, eye discharge, vomiting, and diarrhea when they are infected with the coronavirus.
“We actually had all of the chimpanzees at my chimp sanctuary vaccinated, but they are of course a much closer species,” Wagman told the Southern California Record.
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, Wagman represents the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in a lawsuit against Jessica Sieferman in her official capacity as executive officer of the California Veterinary Medical Board, alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution.
The case is pending with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
"The state filed a motion to dismiss," Wagman added. "It's been fully briefed, believe it or not, since August 14th of last year and Judge Troy Nunley has not ruled on it yet."
During the pandemic, the California Code Regulation 16.2030 2.1 allowed remote visits for pets with pre-existing medical conditions that had previously been treated in the veterinarian’s office with a 60-day waiver issued by the California Veterinary Medical Board through the Department of Consumer Affairs. Plaintiffs want remote visits to be permitted permanently even for new pet patients, and who may have developed medical conditions that were previously non-existent.