Inside the city where people are choosing pampered pets over children
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 Buenos Aires 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’s 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 notorious for its economic instability, dogs have become the go-to companion.
Buenos Aires is now home to over 493,600 dogs — compared to 460,600 children under the age of 14 — government statistics show.
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.
“Venus is like my daughter,” gushes Victoria Font, founder of Barto Cafe, a bakery making cakes for canines just south of Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires.
Those interviewed referred to themselves not as “owners” but as “parents.”
“Sandro is my savior, he’s my joy,” Magalí Maisonnave, a 34-year-old stylist, said of her dachshund.
In the soccer-crazed country, Maisonnave often dresses Sandro up in the jersey of her favorite team, River Plate, and takes him to local games.
“I’m his mama,” she said.
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 succession of economic crises, Argentina’s middle and upper classes are splurging on their pets. With unemployment rising, public sector wages falling and the economy just emerging from a recession under Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei, pups have become precious relatives.
“It’s harder to access loans or own a home; there’s no longer a set way to form a family,” said Dr. Marcos Díaz Videla, a psychologist specialized in human-canine relationships. “Animals are becoming part of the family. With humans, they’re shaping the dynamics, rituals and routines inside the home.”
