A part of the budget will be allocated to feeding and caring for the rest of the days of all the cats that live within the National Palace.
Mexico’s colonial-era National Palace is home to a large number of feral cats and an official declaration now provides for their feeding and care. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assigned them the status of state assets, the first animals to receive a designation hitherto applied to buildings and furniture.
López Obrador’s government has obligated the country’s Treasury to give them food and care for them for the rest of their lives, even after the leader leaves office in October. … “They have access to every part of the palace, so they walk in on meetings, interviews and wander onto camera,” said Jesús Arias, the palace veterinarian, as a handful of feline friends brush against his ankles.
Feral cats have been a feature of the National Palace for decades, and “it’s unclear when they first appeared or how they even got into the building.” 19 are said to live in the palace itself full-time, but many more come and go “under a small crack in the palace gate by night.”
The news that the 19 famous cats that live inside the National Palace in Mexico City will be considered “fixed living assets” of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), and will receive part of the national budget to ensure their food and care for life, went viral in national media on April 3 of this year.
San Miguel Times
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