In Belgium, Cats Used to Delivery Your Mail

We are all used to seeing the postman every couple of days with our deliveries. We say our hello's; our dogs hate them, and they do their job. It seems like that has been the case forever, but what if I told you that you could have had your mail delivered by cats in a town in Belgium? If you're an avid cat lover, this post is for you.

The Society

Throughout history, carrier pigeons, as well as horses, camels, dogs, and even reindeer, have been employed to deliver our mail. 'Why not cats?' thought members of the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat in 1876. This is the storey of how cats in a Belgian city began to bring the news. In the Belgian city of Liège, the group taught 37 household cats to deliver mail. The felines were wrapped around their necks with waterproof bags containing letters and driven out into the countryside, far away from their homes. According to a report in the New York Times from March 1876, one of the cats returned home within five hours, and the rest all returned within 24 hours.

The group was ecstatic with the outcome and offered that they use their feline buddies to establish a system of frequent connections with neighbouring villages. It's unclear why this plan never materialised. Still, it could have something to do with being more economical to drive about delivering letters oneself rather than hanging them to a cat's neck, abandoning it in a field, and hoping it would find its way back home.

History, Inspiration, and Cat Racing

The society's grandiose aim wasn't entirely futile. It prompted an American woman to write a book on the incident in 2007. Gretchen Lamont's The Mail-Carrier Cats of Liège is partly fictional because much information regarding this historical occurrence is missing. The Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat was probably inspired to create the mail cats system by a practice known as cat racing, purportedly prevalent in northern Europe in the 1860s.

Our Cats and All About Them was published in 1889 by English natural history illustrator Harrison Weir, and it described and illustrated the pedigree variety of cats at the time. Weir recalls an item from the Pictorial Times about 'cat racing,' in which cats are driven out into the countryside and unleashed at midnight. The first cat to arrive at its destination was awarded a reward basket containing ham, sausages, cigars, and other treats. A silver spoon was awarded in some years. During the carnival season, cat racing was a popular hobby in the Liège suburbs.

Up until recently, cat racing was still a thing. Cat racing was one of the primary attractions during the annual Curruao festival in San Luis, Peru, and unlucky cats who placed last in the race ended up stewed. Animal mistreatment led to the festival's suspension in 2013. In her verdict, Peruvian magistrate Maria Luyo said the incident "created considerable social damage and damaged public health," which is great news for animal lovers everywhere.

I don't know about you, but I would much prefer to have my mail delivered by a cat. Imagine you're having a bad day, and everything seems to be going against you. Then, a sudden 'Pat Pat' on the door alerts you; it's mail time! You get your mail from your local mail-feline, give it a quick pat, and off it goes doing its job. The cuteness is too much. Of course, I understand the efficiency problems with the scheme, but sometimes sacrifices must be made. Who knows, maybe we could choose what our Mail delivery system looks like when it becomes robotic. If we do, I want mine to be a cat.

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