{"id":343537,"date":"2021-09-23T23:49:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T20:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/some-argentines-turn-to-unusual-pandemic-pets-for-comfort\/"},"modified":"2021-09-23T23:49:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T20:49:07","slug":"some-argentines-turn-to-unusual-pandemic-pets-for-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/some-argentines-turn-to-unusual-pandemic-pets-for-comfort\/","title":{"rendered":"#Some Argentines turn to unusual pandemic pets for comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Some Argentines turn to unusual pandemic pets for comfort<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>Millions of people have found solace during the pandemic in cuddling a dog or cat. For a few, comfort comes in other forms \u2014 those of a horse or a pig, perhaps a possum-like sugar glider or even a tarantula.<\/p>\n<p>As the new coronavirus began to circulate last year, Luciana Benetti found her plans for a big traditional 15th birthday party scr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed.<\/p>\n<p>In its place, her parents gave her a pig.<\/p>\n<p>Chanchi turned out to be a loyal and loving companion \u2014 racing to her side when she fainted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne day my legs gave way and he came running. He grabbed my hair and raised my head,\u201d she said. She had been taking online classes at home, unable to see friends or schoolmates. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel well. I was dizzy because I couldn\u2019t leave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without Chanchi, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be me,\u201d said Benetti, who often sleeps alongside the 20-kilo (45-pound) Juliana pig that greets her with a squeal of delight when she arrives at her house.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-0.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Chanchi was a present for Benetti's 15th birthday.\" class=\"wp-image-19559612\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-0.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-0.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-0.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Chanchi was a present for Benetti\u2019s 15th birthday.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even less common is the case of Lorena \u00c1lvarez, whose Buenos Aires apartment is also home to 28 pocket-sized marsupials commonly known as sugar gliders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey create pure love for me,\u201d she said. \u201cDo you know what it is to lay down \u2026 and they smother you with kisses?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00c1lvarez, who teaches statistics at a university \u2014 online these days \u2014 lives otherwise alone, but said the pets have helped her feel like she has company \u2014 sometimes popping up atop her head during Zoom calls.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Lorena Alvarez with some of her 28 pet sugar gliders.\" class=\"wp-image-19559616\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Lorena Alvarez with some of her 28 pet sugar gliders.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI get up and I live for them. They are my engine of struggle and of life,\u201d she said of the animals that scamper over her looking to be petted, or leap and glide down to the floor.<\/p>\n<p>The 28 are the result of two she adopted several years ago after getting a permit for the exotic animals.<\/p>\n<p>That sort of multiplication is one of several reasons that\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rspca.org.uk\/-\/2018_08_03_frightened_sugar_gliders_found_dumped_in_london\">many animal rights groups oppose<\/a>\u00a0keeping gliders as pets, and why some dealers sell only neutered males.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-2.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Alvarez received a permit to own the exotic pets a year ago and started with just two.\" class=\"wp-image-19559629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-2.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-2.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-2.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Alvarez received a permit to own exotic pets a year ago and started with just two.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Skeptics say the animals are often abandoned by overwhelmed owners less dedicated than \u00c1lvarez \u2014 who herself offers advice to would-be owners \u2014 or suffer in the hands of people unprepared for the behaviors, special diets and needs of a tree-dwelling night creature that can glide for 50 yards (meters) when free. Some places, including California and New York City, ban them as pets.<\/p>\n<p>Argentine veterinarian Adrian Petta, who specializes in unconventional pets, said he\u2019s seen hundreds of animals over the past 18 months of the pandemic \u2014 pigs, rabbits, birds, rodents, geckos and the like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people have felt alone and have sought pets, or they are tired of the television and computers and need more affective relationships,\u201d he said. Even with those that show no affection, \u201cpeople can feed them and feel that someone or something needs them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the case for Osvaldo Negri, a 50-year-old nurse.<\/p>\n<p>Negri said he began raising spiders to overcome arachnophobia, and now has 60. He said that caring for then has helped him cope with working at the hospital in the midst of COVID-19, \u201cunplugging\u201d as he watches and sometimes touches the spiders, feeding them cockroaches.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Nurse Osvaldo Negri with one of his 60 pet spiders.\" class=\"wp-image-19559640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-3.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Nurse Osvaldo Negri with one of his 60 pet spiders.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI concentrate on having to move slowly because if they frighten, they could fall\u201d and could die, he said, showing off a colorful and somewhat venomous Mexican tarantula in the palm of his hand.<\/p>\n<p>As with gliders, the choice of pet can be controversial. The red-kneed Brachypelma smithi tarantula he displayed is listed as a \u201cnear-threatened\u201d species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but the trade in similar arachnoids has helped push 21 other varieties onto\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cec.org\/cites\/wp-content\/themes\/foodwaste-theme\/documents\/tarantulas-iucn-red-list-assessment-en.pdf\">its official list of threatened and endangered species<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For Solana Pesca, companionship comes with the bright-eyed rats Regue and Brama, who scratch at their cage when they see her enter the door of her small apartment in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-4.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Solana Pesca holding one of her two pet rats.\" class=\"wp-image-19559645\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-4.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-4.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-4.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Solana Pesca holding one of her two pet rats.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThey understand what you feel, they seek you out,\u201d said Solis, who works at an animal laboratory.<\/p>\n<p>South of Buenos Aires, in the town of Tandil, 77-year-old Alberto Castro had spent much of his time at the Hogar San Jose, a home for the elderly, sitting in a chair.<\/p>\n<p>That changed in March last year, just as the pandemic was starting to appear, when the home\u2019s operator, Alejandro Moreno Hueyo, brought in a horse named Coco.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Alberto Ramon Castro petting Coco the horse at the home for elderly people he lives at.\" class=\"wp-image-19559647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets-5.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Alberto Ramon Castro petting Coco the horse at the home for elderly people he lives at.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Castro took to caring for the horse, which arrived in bad shape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt changed my life. I care for it, it seeks me out and when I approach, it neighs. As long as I am there, nothing is going to happen to it,\u201d he said.\n                        <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/23\/some-argentines-turn-to-unusual-pandemic-pets-for-comfort\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Some Argentines turn to unusual pandemic pets for comfort&#8221; Millions of people have found solace during the pandemic in cuddling a dog or cat. For a few, comfort comes in other forms \u2014 those of a horse or a pig, perhaps a possum-like sugar glider or even a tarantula. As the new coronavirus began to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/covid-pets.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[116408,71595,22845,1545,72684,70709],"class_list":["post-343537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-9-23-21","tag-animals","tag-argentina","tag-coronavirus","tag-cute-animals","tag-pets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}