6 October 2012 Last updated at 23:27
GMT
By Mattia Cabitza
BBC, Lima
The Gastronomic Festival of the Cat happens every
September in La Quebrada, Peru, but this year it comes as animal
rights activists step up their efforts to change attitudes.
"God created cats!" read one placard. "Murderers!" shouted a
chorus of animal-rights activists.
Even a stray yellow dog seemed to be barking in support of cats.
He was wagging his tail with great excitement.
It was a Sunday evening in Miraflores, the suburb of Lima where
I live. A large group of mostly young protesters were yelling
animal-rights slogans at pious residents who were tiptoeing quietly
into church to attend mass.
The demonstrators held up portraits of Saint Francis of Assisi,
the patron saint of animals. In front of them, a cordon of riot
police stood guard and, behind, churchgoers formed a line - as if
to protect their place of worship from the abuse.
The protesters had spotted a stray cat on the roof of the church
days earlier and claimed that the priest had denied them access to
rescue the animal.
What is more, they alleged that the man of God not only hated
cats, but that he had been poisoning them because they sneaked into
his church - something that he categorically denied.
This demonstration summed up, for me, Peru's rather confused
attitude to its feline population.
For years, the central park in Miraflores has been home to
dozens and dozens of stray cats.
A few were first introduced in the 1990s to control a rat
infestation but they soon multiplied, after people began to abandon
their own unwanted pets there.
Today, the cats stretch out on the green grass and flower beds,
sleepily posing for tourists taking pictures. They are fed and
protected by caring volunteers. But they are not loved by
everyone.
Some residents think they spread diseases and on warm days the
smell of urine can be overwhelming.
For the local priest, they are more of a nuisance than a local
tourist attraction.
The Sunday demonstration was finally broken up by the police
after some mild scuffles and, days later, the trapped cat was
eventually rescued and given a proper home. But not all felines are
so lucky.
Every September, a statue of Santa Efigenia is paraded to lively
music and dancing on the streets of La Quebrada, a farming
community south of Lima.
As part of the celebrations, residents set up food stalls and
tables for the Gastronomic Festival of the Cat. It is a cat-eating
feast that commemorates the time when the early slave settlers
survived only - supposedly - by eating cat meat.
Dozens of the creatures are bred especially for the occasion,
and then cooked in an array of Peruvian recipes.
There's spicy cat stew, or grilled cat with native huacatay
herbs. Crowds of curious festival-goers get a kick out of eating a
meat that is said to taste very much like rabbit.
And forget about oysters and rhino horn. In Peru, it is
cat meat that is believed to
be an aphrodisiac!
Most Peruvians, however, see cats only as pets and believe that
cows, chickens and pigs are what should be served for dinner.
So if a furry house-guest is what you are after, then head for
Jiron Ayacucho in central Lima.
Pet shops on this street not only sell cats but also exotic
birds, monkeys and reptiles of dubious origin.
They all breathe through small holes in cardboard boxes or are
crammed inside tiny rusty cages.
Animal rights activists condemn the conditions in which these
animals are kept. They also wear fake horns and hold theatrical
protests outside bull-fighting rings.
With so many pressing issues in Peru - such as poverty,
inequality, crime and corruption - improving the rights of animals
is not a priority for government officials.
But animal rights activists point out that Peru's social
problems should not blind people to the need to protect animals as
other countries do.
Here too, they fight against animal maltreatment, neglect, abuse
and cruelty - even if it means standing up against much-revered
institutions like the Catholic Church, or attempting to turn
millions of meat-loving Peruvians into vegetarians!
And until that happens, I will be expecting further protests
outside my local church.
