At least eight cities in Honduras and Guatemala have announced over the past week that they are banning gatherings of so called “therians,” a social media driven phenomenon they say disrupts public order. The trend, popularized on TikTok and other platforms, involves people, mainly teenagers, who say they identify with an animal, especially dogs, foxes, and cats, and sometimes behave like them.
Municipal governments reacted after meetups were promoted online calling for masked or costumed participants to gather in public parks wearing animal outfits. “It is strictly prohibited” to use public spaces for meetings that “disrupt public order, morality, and good customs,” wrote Eber Aplicano, the mayor of the Honduran city of Choluteca
In a similar message, José López, a justice of the peace in Olanchito in central Honduras, said “emphatically” that public spaces are meant to promote “family, religious, cultural, social, and civic activities.” Other Honduran municipalities that have banned these meetups include the colonial tourist city of Comayagua, as well as La Ceiba and Tocoa.
In Guatemala, the bans cover the municipalities of San José Pinula and Amatitlán on the outskirts of the capital, and the city of Huehuetenango, the provincial capital of the department with the same name. Officials in Amatitlán said their commitment is to ensure “respect for our values and traditions,” and they reaffirmed that their duty is to “protect spaces that belong to everyone.”
“The municipality of Pinula informs the public that groups identified as therians will not be allowed to use public spaces,” the local government said in a statement, adding that its mission is to safeguard “order and healthy coexistence.”
