AdoptaGuanajuato, Amigos de los Animales, and other local animal-welfare groups will commemorate International Homeless Animals Day by co-sponsoring Animal Fest in Los Pastitos Park on Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. This will be Guanajuato’s 10th Animal Fest, a celebration of companion animals offering adoptable pets, talks about pets and their needs, educational games for children, demonstrations of pets’ talents, vegan food, the sale of pet-themed products, and the opportunity to connect with other people who love animals.
Organizations from across the state of Guanajuato have been invited to participate and to give awareness talks. There will be many family activities. For example, people will be invited to have photos taken of themselves with their adopted pets, and the photos will be displayed as a collage that will later be painted on a wall. A talent contest is planned, in which pets can show off their skills. A professional photographer will take photos of the dogs and cats at the event, and the best photos will be used in AdoptaGuanajuato’s wall 2024 calendar, which will be published in time for the Cervantino Festival.
As in the past, Amigos will present Super Mestizo, a parade of mixed-breed dogs. The event will take place at 1:00 p.m. Besides prizes for the first, second, and third place Super Mestizo winners, our judges will award certificates to all the contestants for excelling in one characteristic or another: performing the most tricks, having the shortest legs or longest ears, wearing the best costume, being the noisiest or the calmest, the most unusual looking, the funniest, the most huggable or adoptable. That’s what makes Super Mestizos so special: their individuality.
This annual event is the inspiration of Eduardo Rodríguez, Amigos’s former president, who has remained active in animal welfare work in Guanajuato even while his career has taken him away Mexico in recent years.