I was asked recently if I eat cats.

My answer: “No.”  My follow-up question: “Why would you think I did?”

As it turns out, my inquisitive friend had read on the BBC about a festival held in Peru during which participants partake of such delicacies as spicy cat stew and grilled cat with huacatay sauce.

I will admit that after six years of traveling to and living in Peru, I had never heard of such a thing.  But now much of the world does.

In addition to the BBC, other news outlets around the globe have picked up on the story, including the Huffington Post and MSN.

The Gastronomic Festival of the Cat takes place as part of a larger religious celebration of Santa Efigenia held every September in La Quebrada, a coastal town south of Lima with a large population of Afro-Peruvians. 

According to the BBC, the residents eat cat in honor of their early slave ancestors who, at times, survived only on the feline meat.

Cats are bread by the dozens especially for the event and served at food stands that pop up for the festival. It is said that the meat tastes like rabbit and works as an aphrodisiac.

Eating cat is not practiced regularly in Peru. The only other region thought to do so is Huari in Ancash, where cat is sometimes used as a replacement for cuy (guinea pig).

But in the rest of Peru, cats still mostly serve as the lazy house pets that we all know and love - or hate.

 

 

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COMMENTS:

Total coments: 18
Commented By: dabble
On: October 12, 2012

I am appalled! I remember before I moved to Peru 34 years ago I was warned that I needed to keep my two cats inside or they would be caught and eaten. I was never sure if it was true, but headed the warning. I believed that if it was true it was due to a lack of available food, not as a celebration!

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Commented By: Vlad McCoy
On: October 12, 2012

Why is eating a cat different from eating any other domesticated mammal? In Lima, the tradition is to use cow in lomo saltado, up north the tradition is to use goat for cabrito, and apparently in La Quebrada, the tradition is to eat cats. Who are we to judge?

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Commented By: don in tulsa
On: October 12, 2012

vlad, perhaps because cats are not normally bred for food as are cows and goats. to me your example doesn't hold up. there are countries that also eat dog but it isn't regular in the majority of the world. my wife told me several years ago that there was a town that ate cats and at a certain time of the year you needed to keep close watch on yours because they would come and take any that they found. now i know that the story is true. personally i would not partake because i am a cat person, i love them as pets. when you have a domesticated animal that is normally a pet, not food then perhaps in this case you can judge.

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Commented By: sjeanneau
On: October 12, 2012

Meow!

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Commented By: Sonia Boza
On: October 12, 2012

I'm Peruvian, 65yrs old and is the First time I hear something like THIS!!!!! We Peruvians joke about Chinese people using cats in their cuisine but without knowledge of the real true....so, I can't say this actually happens and you too guys, don't believe this insane information. Peruvians don't eat cats.

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Commented By: Peruvian_gringo
On: October 12, 2012

This is funny...eating a cat sounds disgusting, yet a delicacy and very popular to eat is a rodent. I love cuy sin cabeza con papas fritas...

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Commented By: Victor
On: October 12, 2012

I have a cat as a pet, and as happens in these cases one establishes a very close emotional relationship. I dislike to read this class of story, it sounds like a story of cannibals who eat your children. I think that you should not publish such news, because somehow insentiva the curiosity of some people to eat cat.

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Commented By: Elvis
On: October 12, 2012

Cuy is a staple in parts of Peru and Bolivia, would we ever think of eating a Guinea Pig...... Go to central Lima and see the big tanks of frogs, and the ladies running the blenders, GROSS to me, but the people line up for these "shakes". I have heard many a joke about sopa de gato around those little restaurants off of Parque Kennedy...

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Commented By: Peruvianmom
On: October 12, 2012

Disgusting!! How can they eat cats? So ignorant in their beliefs that it can be an aphrodisiac and as a religious sacrifice. So wrong. Hope they stop this ritual.

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Commented By: NYpoodle
On: October 13, 2012

Well Vlad, this is repulsive, and the city of Lima has tried and continues to try to ban this event. Technically it is illegal to eat Cat in Peru, but laws are rarely enforced, so this event takes place where they let the people of this region in La Quebrada eat cat for one day, due to their history. The majority of them are of Afro ancestry, because of slavery, slave masters did not offer them food, so they had to survive on what was around, since food was scarce. There is no Peruvian I know that eats cat, unless they're Chinese, but my father has told me about this Afro community that eats cat. As Peruvians, we can judge, because it is not a national thing or a cultural thing, it is more of a subculture that practices this homage to its ancestors

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Commented By: anabaird
On: October 13, 2012

I was born in the north of Peru and lived there for 25 years but never heard of such thing. I'm appalled. I love animals and particularly cats and dislike the idea of them being killed just for ritual or custom. I can undertand that maybe it was done in the past because there was nothing else to eat so it was a means of survival but now I'm sure there must be some other choice. Cats are such great pets the same as dogs and other animals.

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Commented By: MARTAPMONGE@YAHOO.COM
On: October 13, 2012

HI EVERYBODY, THA'S IS THE CRAZIEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD. I AM PERUVIAN AND NEVER EAT C A T!!!! BUT IN ANY CASE IF YOU EAT PORK OR COW OR MONKEYS...YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING, BUT THIS IS NOT THE CASE. THEY MUST BE JOKING! PERUVIAN FOOD IS ONE OF THE BEST IN THE WORLD! SOMEBODY IS AFTER THIS ARTICULE. DON'T BELIEVE IT!

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Commented By: alberto
On: October 13, 2012

Hola dabble, U r appalled? Why? Unless u r a vegetarian urself, u cannot pass a judgment like that about what other people eat. By the same way of thinking as urs, millions of people r appalled by the fact that u or anyone eat cows. So, who has the "right" judgment on the mammal-eating activity? It goes to show u how small-minded and obtuse ur reasoning is. One has the right to have an opinion and a choice, but one does not have the right to judge whether is good or appalling what other people eat. Why judge? That's all I'm saying. Live and let live. I personally would not eat cuy, cat, veal, foie gas, or dog, but I'd happily chop down a good piece of steak or a grilled chicken cutlet.

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Commented By: Mamamia
On: October 13, 2012

It probably tastes like chicken :)

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Commented By: astrid
On: October 18, 2012

As the author wrote: it's not regular to eat cats in Peru... and it's not. Dabble, i've had cats for years in peru who run freely through my neighborhood and they never got caught to be eaten!!! it's really rare and probably just in that small city, so don't judge al peruvians if you dont know the real situation.

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Commented By: Michi
On: October 17, 2012

I am Peruvian, I don't eat cat or cuy. In my long life I have never heard any family or friends have eaten cat. The best opinion here is Alberto's....live and let live. If you hear that people in the Peruvian jungle eat monkey...that's their prerrogative! People in Louisiana's cajun country eat alligator, turtle, etc. Some Australians eat kangaroo meat...that's their choice. So...subject closed. Let's move on. Let's just hope Alix Farr chooses a more interesting subject for an article next time.

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Commented By: NYpoodle
On: October 17, 2012

Cuy (rodent) is an indigenous meal, which traces way back to native tribes and empires. A cat, well, that is a whole different story, in Peru's case, it from an African Subculture, which consumed cats for survival. Yes, the idea of cats being eaten is appalling, but it is only within that particular community. And the Chinese and Koreans, and most asians eat cats, so I would not be surprised if asian community's in Peru ate cat. Although I am not crazy about the idea of someone eating kitties :(

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Commented By: pan00
On: October 25, 2012

I would like to believe this is a myth, but there are too many pictures on the internet showing it is not. Very distressing - if someone starving is one thing - people will eat people, but these people are not starving, and worse it appears as if the cats are not humanely killed.

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