Putting a face covering on a domestic cat in order to protect that cat from coronavirus is a mistake. The cat on the left actually is a flat-faced Exotic Shorthair with breathing problems anyway so wearing a mask (if it covered the nose) would cause distress and potentially may prove fatal under certain extreme circumstances. A craze has been started on Instagram putting marks on cats and dogs because it looks interesting. Veterinarians say that this is not a good idea. The animals will be distressed at the least. Also, it does not protect the animal. Facemasks protect others. In addition, symptoms in cats and dogs if they do acquire the disease are very mild and therefore they do not cough and distribute droplets all over the place which makes the masks rather pointless anyway. People shouldn’t do this in the interests of the animal’s safety.
