While we entirely agree that the park is not a place for a cat to spend its life, we are facing another issue: overpopulation and abandonment. Pet spaying and neutering policies are very rare in Lima, which leads to people finding themselves with offspring they cannot take care of. There are no public animal shelters, which is why the animals are often left to their luck.

There is a growing tendency in Lima to abandon unwanted pets in parks in the hope that others will take care of them. Kennedy Park is one of them and is unfortunately often thought of as a “cat dump”. Cats and kittens are left EVERYDAY in the park, often in a dreadful state, due to the belief they will be well taken for. Up to 40 kittens can be abandoned in the park in a week; while an average of only 4-5 cats are adopted per week, making the situation unsustainable. Although there is a fine for people who abandon cats, it has never been applied even when offenders were caught in the act.

In fact, contrary to what many people believe, cats face a wide range of threats in the park, including cat-eaters, veterinary students looking for animals to practice on, traffic around, stray dogs, individuals taking advantage of friendly cats to hurt them (like burning or cutting their whiskers), children scaring them away, massive disappearance for unknown reasons and poisoning. While our volunteers usually check the park after it closes at night, it is very easy to get into and there are too few volunteers to be everywhere at the same time.