Before email and modern transportations, carrier pigeons are used to deliver mail as well as horses, camels, dogs, and even reindeer in Alaska. However, did you know in Belgium, cats were used to deliver the news?
In 1876, members of the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat trained 37 domestic cats to deliver mail in the Liège. Waterproof bags with letters tied around the cats’ necks and they were driven out of the countryside. Once within five hours to destination, they make their way and found their way back in 24 hours.
This scheme however never got its full potential as it lacks inefficiency.
In 2007, Gretchen Lamont wrote The Mail-Carrier Cats of Liège a book about the whole affair. Because quite a few details about the origin are missing. Although, some say it is slightly fictional.
It is quite possible that the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat got its inspiration for the mail cats scheme from a practice called cat racing, which was supposedly popular in northern Europe around the 1860s.
In a book by Harrison Weir called Our Cats and All About Them, the first cat to make its way home won a prize hamper of ham, sausages, cigars, and other goodies.
It is still practiced until recently at the annual Curruñao festival in San Luis. However, in 2013 the festival was suspended for animal cruelty. Peruvian magistrate Maria Luyo was quoted as saying the event “caused grave social damage and damaged public health” in her ruling – good news for animal-lovers everywhere.
Source: The Culture Trip
