Most of them share the same destiny. Abandoned by their former loved ones, left to the cruel world out there. Living on the streets of Buenos Aires can be dangerous but during the 111-year long existence of the city’s botanical garden, an independent homeless community has formed. Many people have tried to remove them from their new abode. They failed. Nowadays they are an accepted part of the park. Furthermore, they characterise it. I am talking about cats.
Buenos Aires’ Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays, one of the world’s most famous botanical gardens, is today known for the tame quadrupeds that occupy it. This group of residents is incredibly big and due to the fact that over half of it is not castrated, the population is growing beyond its first generation and the number of the animals is rising unchecked. A census of the population is still in the offing and it is unknown how many there now are.
Their presence dwarfs all other highlights of this famous place, and they attract the interest of visitors to Buenos Aires. Whereas the park is divided into six different sectors, each covering the flora of one contintinent, the cats rule the whole little world. It is only the five winter-houses, the botanical museum, the library and the gardening school – linked to the Agronomy Faculty of Buenos Aires University – which are still under human control.
The city’s officials seem ashamed by their defeat to this inferior race, despite the appreciation they receive perhaps for warding off other plagues. On the garden’s homepage a veil of silence is drawn over the cats’ existence. The local recreation areas’ photographic representation is devoid of any evidence of their presence and at all the spots which are normally overcrowded by our hairy friends, there are instead mere pedigreed humans and flowers from all over the globe.
Then there are the renegades of ‘Gatos del Botanico Protección Animal’. This guerrilla group was founded to raise the cats’ rights and make them more accepted. With the help of “the power of love”, they advertise their fight against anti-cat injustice on the internet. Sweet-tempered elderly women like those of the foundation are also the main feeders of the wild animals. Without their generosity, life would be harder for all the kitty cats, though the conviction of these women is so strong that such a worry seems unnecessary. Additionally, the Instituto de Zoonosis Luis Pasteur, an organisation belonging to the city’s public health department, is carrying out veterinary services for the felines.
It was a long and hard struggle for the cats to change their reputation, but nowadays they are no longer unwelcome guests of the garden, but its figurehead. Now it’s up to us just to accept their existence, or, in the words of the animal rights group: “We all suffered, we’re all looking to be understood, we all want to be loved. We have to have pity.”
The botanical garden is located in Palermo next to Plaza Italia and was declared a national monument in 1996. It has a total area of almost 70,000 m² and was designed by the French-born Argentine architect and landscape designer Carlos Thays. Its inauguration was on 7th September, 1898. The city offers a bunch of activities in the park, from open air concerts to multilingual guided tours. All the events in the recreation area are free and can be checked on www.buenosaires.gov.ar. The park is opened every day from 8am to 6pm in winter and to 7pm in summer.
To get more information about Gatos del Botanico Protección Animal, go to www.gatosdelbotanico.com.ar. You can adopt your very own cat on their homepage!
STAN!!!! I am amazed you made it out of the house to write this article? Are you no longer the schizoid, nervous, freak with a passion for peeing where you should not that I reluctantly came to love while we were cohabitants? Regardless. Brilliant reporting. You make your brethren proud. You are an exemplary feline.