Pet owners in Wuhan have rushed to compete in a high-end dog show with their well-groomed kennels, a sign of life returning to normal in the former coronavirus epicentre despite the pandemic.
The Chinese National General Kennel Club, which hosts the most and largest dog grooming shows in the country, held a finalist competition celebrating ‘the post-coronavirus Wuhan’ in the central Chinese city over the weekend.
Pictures show the dogs posing and trotting in front of the judges while mask-donning owners are seen carefully trimming their pets’ hair, preparing them for the big moment under the limelight.
China has appeared to have largely contained the coronavirus outbreak while reporting mostly imported cases in recent weeks.
Wuhan, the city where the contagion was first found, seems to be recovering from the draconian month-long coronavirus lockdown as residents were spotted last month flouting social distancing rules and cramming into a local waterpark.
Pet owners in the city were also eager to show off their beloved dogs following the virus outbreak as they were seen joining a high-end kennel grooming competition over the weekend.
People wearing face masks are pictured trimming and brushing their pets’ hair, making the last-minute preparations for animal contestants before they hopped onto the stage.
The well-groomed dogs were seen standing next to their equally well-dressed owners while being examined by the judges based on the animal’s appearance.
Since established in 2005, the Chinese National General Kennel Club (NGKC) has been hosting such beauty contests for dogs in cities across the country, including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Suzhou.
The organisation, affiliated with the largest kennel club in the world, the American Kennel Club, has received growing interest and had about 3500 members by 2015, mostly commercial breeders, according to reports.
The event comes as thousands of Chinese partygoers have packed out a water park in the city of Wuhan as the former coronavirus ground zero edges back to normal life.
Pictures in August show the popular Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park being jam-packed by mask-free revellers as they stood shoulder to shoulder in water over the weekend despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The outdoor amusement park reopened in June after Wuhan gradually lifted a 76-day lockdown and strict restrictions to try and control the spread of the virus.
The first known cases of COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan late last year, a city of 11 million people, before the virus spread across the world, killing hundreds of thousands and crippling economies.
The lockdown was lifted in April, and there have been no new domestically transmitted cases officially reported in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital, since mid-May.
To try and boost the local economy, the Hubei government has been offering free entry to 400 tourist sites across the province.
China has largely brought its domestic epidemic under control, but sporadic outbreaks and a summer of severe flooding have exacerbated the economic fallout.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
