BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) 鈥 Venus gazes in bewilderment at the candles flickering on her mini birthday cake. The partygoers crowd around her in expectant silence, but she doesn’t blow them out.
Dogs can’t blow candles, after all. So Venus’ owner intervened, drawing a breath and extinguishing the flames to a round of applause before serving her black mixed-breed a bite of meat-flavored birthday cake.
鈥淰enus is like my daughter,鈥 gushes Victoria Font, founder of Barto Cafe, a bakery making cakes for canines just south of Argentina鈥檚 capital of Buenos Aires.
About two decades ago, a birthday party for pampered pets featuring a custom cake for dogs may have struck Argentines as bizarre.
But these days makes headlines for having among the most pet owners per capita in the world. Public opinion surveys report pets in almost 80% of the city’s homes. That鈥檚 about 20% more than the average city in the United States, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, and leaps and bounds ahead of other countries in the region.
As a growing number of Argentines opt to be childless in a country , dogs have become the go-to companion.
Buenos Aires is now home to over 493,600 dogs 鈥 compared to 460,600 children under the age of 14 鈥 government statistics show.
Those interviewed referred to themselves not as 鈥渙wners鈥 but as 鈥減arents.鈥
鈥淪andro is my savior, he鈥檚 my joy,鈥 Magal铆 Maisonnave, a 34-year-old stylist, said of her dachshund.
In the soccer-crazed country, Maisonnave often , River Plate, and takes him to local games.
鈥淚鈥檓 his mama,” she said.
鈥榊ou have to give them the best鈥
Argentina’s rising passion for dogs has coincided with falling human fertility. In 2023, Argentina’s birth rate was 6.5% lower than the previous year and 41% lower than it was a decade ago. Kindergartens report struggling to fill classrooms.
No longer able to afford bigger purchases amid a , Argentina鈥檚 middle and upper classes are splurging on their pets. With , public sector and the economy just emerging from a recession under Argentina鈥檚 libertarian , pups have become precious relatives.
鈥淚t鈥檚 harder to access loans or own a home; there鈥檚 no longer a set way to form a family,鈥 said Dr. Marcos D铆az Videla, a psychologist specialized in human-canine relationships. 鈥淎nimals are becoming part of the family. With humans, they鈥檙e shaping the dynamics, rituals and routines inside the home.鈥
The tendency for pet owners to treat their dogs like kids is changing the cityscape as pet hotels, boutiques, cafes and even cemeteries spring up in Buenos Aires to cash in on the craze.
Pet beauty salons now pull out all the stops, providing not only baths and trims but pedicures and poolside spas. The Guau Experience parlor, for instance, charges up to $120 鈥 roughly a quarter of the average Argentine monthly salary 鈥 for washing, cleaning, shining, conditioning, trimming and perfuming.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e living beings who don鈥檛 stay around long. During that time, you have to give them the best,鈥 said Nicole Verdier, owner of Argentina鈥檚 first-ever dog bakery, Chumbis, which makes cookies, cakes, croissants, burgers and canap茅s from gourmet meat, chicken and pork.
This humanizing of dogs has even inspired a new noun 鈥 “perrhijo” 鈥 a fusion of the Spanish word for 鈥渄og鈥 and 鈥渃hild.鈥
Dog mania takes Buenos Aires
In Buenos Aires, where leash-pullers outnumber stroller-pushers in many neighborhoods, lawmakers have proposed a range of pet-friendly , including bills to ease access for pets to public transport.
鈥淭he city has come a long way, but I believe it now has the obligation to take a bigger leap,鈥 said local lawmaker Emmanuel Ferrario. His centrist 鈥淰amos por m谩s鈥 (Let鈥檚 go for more) party has presented five such bills now being debated in . One seeks to create a registry of dog walkers who must pass an exam every two years and undergo CPR and animal behavior training.
鈥淚 see an opportunity for it to become the most pet-friendly city in the region,鈥 Ferrario said.
Other politicians fret about the proliferation of pet-keeping as a symptom of a bigger crisis. They ask why young people in Argentina choose raising pets over raising children as the country ages rapidly.
鈥淭he rankings (of pet ownership) are unsettling. ... Buenos Aires has so many dogs and so few children,鈥 said Clara Muzzio, the city鈥檚 conservative deputy mayor. 鈥淎 world with fewer children is a worse world.鈥
A presidential pet lover
Perhaps Argentina鈥檚 most prominent dog fanatic is its right-wing , who moved into the government house in December 2023 with four English mastiffs that he calls his 鈥渇our-legged children.鈥
elected to , Milei named Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas after the he most admires 鈥 Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas. The dogs are of Milei鈥檚 former dog, Conan, who died in 2017.
Milei still refers to Conan in the present tense, leading to intense speculation about the number of dogs he owns. Since assuming office, his dogs have remained out of sight. A government resolution prohibiting officials from disclosing information to the public about Milei’s mastiffs has done little to tamp down on the controversy.
Pet cemeteries
For heartbroken owners without the financial means to , Argentine morticians prepare burials and cremations.
Demand has surged at Gardens of the Soul, a pet cemetery inside an animal shelter near Buenos Aires, where owners hold emotional rituals to bid their companions farewell and regularly visit their graves.
There are some 300 tombstones painted with classic Argentine canine names, like Negro and Coco, and strewn with photographs, handwritten notes and flowers.
鈥淏efore, two months could go by without anyone being buried. Now, it鈥檚 at least once or twice a week,鈥 said shelter manager Alicia Barreto, who still mourns her first rescue, a pup she found alive in a bag of dog carcasses thrown on the roadside in 2000.
That grisly image haunts her, she said. But she takes comfort in knowing that, when the time came 10 years later, she gave her 鈥減errhijo,鈥 Mariano, a dignified burial.
鈥淚 told myself I would find him again,鈥 she said at his marble tombstone. 鈥淎t the moment of my death, or afterward, I鈥檒l be reunited with him.鈥
