Cats have been in the news quite frequently here in the US, given the ugly attack on “childless cat ladies” from Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, and it feels even more timely with Thursday being International Cat Day. But in San Juan, Puerto Rico, cats are under attack in a battle that has been ongoing since the United States National Park Service announced plans for the removal of the cats in its Paseo del Morro historic site.
The cats of San Juan have been a tourist attraction for years, and many people in the community have cared for them and fed them. Some of the cats “are believed to be descendants of colonial-era cats, while others were brought to the capital by legendary San Juan Mayor Felisa Rincón de Gautier to kill rats in the mid-20th century.”
In many ways, the attacks on these cats reflect how many Puerto Ricans feel their existence is being threatened as they are being priced out. The cats have struck an emotional chord.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
This video produced by Alley Cat Allies, a nonprofit from Maryland, covers the history of the cats of San Juan and the organization’s efforts to stop the cats from being removed and euthanized, a plan announced by the NPS in late 2023. The NPS plan dismisses the longstanding Trap-Neuter-Return efforts that have been practiced by organizations like Save a Gato, a group has been doing such work for almost 20 years.
YouTube Video
Alley Cat Allies sued the NPS in March in federal court to try and stop the cat removal plan.
The issue with the San Juan cats is that it can make the area unsanitary, and getting rid of the cats can be an issue because some of them are difficult to catch and too feral to adopt. Additionally, it’s that more cats keep appearing.
The NY Times reported: “In Puerto Rico, there are so many abandoned animals,” Ms. [Irma] Podestá said. “It’s a never-ending story.” Podesta works with Save a Gato.
The NY Times also explained “The number of abandoned animals on the island surged after Hurricane Maria in 2017, when many Puerto Ricans lost their homes. Amid natural disasters and economic uncertainty, Puerto Rico’s population shrank by about 12 percent from 2010 to 2020; the island now has about 3.2 million people, many of whom have struggled to keep up the rising cost of housing in particular.”
And there is also the issue of how invasive the cats are, as reported in this Noema article:
Puerto Rican poet, author and academic David M. de León has written the epic poem “The Cats of Old San Juan” with the cats as a metaphor for the history of colonialism on the island, and the sterilization of the cats as a symbol of the sterilization of women in Puerto Rico. Here is just a little bit of it:
I hope you will read the whole poem.
Join me (a cat and dog lady) in the comments section below for more and ways to protect these cats, and for the weekly Caribbean news round up.
Campaign Action
The cats of San Juan have been a tourist attraction for years, and many people in the community have cared for them and fed them. Some of the cats “are believed to be descendants of colonial-era cats, while others were brought to the capital by legendary San Juan Mayor Felisa Rincón de Gautier to kill rats in the mid-20th century.”
In many ways, the attacks on these cats reflect how many Puerto Ricans feel their existence is being threatened as they are being priced out. The cats have struck an emotional chord.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
This video produced by Alley Cat Allies, a nonprofit from Maryland, covers the history of the cats of San Juan and the organization’s efforts to stop the cats from being removed and euthanized, a plan announced by the NPS in late 2023. The NPS plan dismisses the longstanding Trap-Neuter-Return efforts that have been practiced by organizations like Save a Gato, a group has been doing such work for almost 20 years.
YouTube Video
Alley Cat Allies sued the NPS in March in federal court to try and stop the cat removal plan.
The issue with the San Juan cats is that it can make the area unsanitary, and getting rid of the cats can be an issue because some of them are difficult to catch and too feral to adopt. Additionally, it’s that more cats keep appearing.
The NY Times reported: “In Puerto Rico, there are so many abandoned animals,” Ms. [Irma] Podestá said. “It’s a never-ending story.” Podesta works with Save a Gato.
The NY Times also explained “The number of abandoned animals on the island surged after Hurricane Maria in 2017, when many Puerto Ricans lost their homes. Amid natural disasters and economic uncertainty, Puerto Rico’s population shrank by about 12 percent from 2010 to 2020; the island now has about 3.2 million people, many of whom have struggled to keep up the rising cost of housing in particular.”
And there is also the issue of how invasive the cats are, as reported in this Noema article:
But the desire to keep the cats is about more than the feelings of cat lovers or the long historical tie the cats have to the area. It represents something bigger around history and displacement:
Puerto Rican poet, author and academic David M. de León has written the epic poem “The Cats of Old San Juan” with the cats as a metaphor for the history of colonialism on the island, and the sterilization of the cats as a symbol of the sterilization of women in Puerto Rico. Here is just a little bit of it:
I hope you will read the whole poem.
Join me (a cat and dog lady) in the comments section below for more and ways to protect these cats, and for the weekly Caribbean news round up.
Campaign Action