--- title: Barcelona Attack: Why People Are Posting Cat Photos description: A police request after the Thursday terror attack in Barcelona has prompted Twitter users to post photos of cats with the Barcelona hashtag. canonical: https://time.com/4905356/barcelona-terror-attack-cat-posts/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-17T20:02:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:03:04.958Z article:section: World og:title: Here’s Why People Are Posting Cats for the Barcelona Attack og:description: A request from the police prompted a wave of cat photo tweets og:url: https://time.com/4905356/barcelona-terror-attack-cat-posts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf973032ea47fab94/6988da2d8fd2ee5e5935878f/barcelona-attack-cat-photos-post-police.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: barcelona attack cat photos post police og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s Why People Are Posting Cats for the Barcelona Attack twitter:description: A request from the police prompted a wave of cat photo tweets twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf973032ea47fab94/6988da2d8fd2ee5e5935878f/barcelona-attack-cat-photos-post-police.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s Why People Are Posting Cats in Response to the Barcelona Attack  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Aug 17, 2017 8:02 PM CUT  A general view of the scene of a terrorist attack in the Las Ramblas area on August 17, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain. A general view of the scene of a terrorist attack in the Las Ramblas area on August 17, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain.David Ramos—Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Aug 17, 2017 8:02 PM CUT A police request to not share photos of the chaos following [Thursday’s deadly terror attack in Barcelona](http://time.com/4904862/barcelona-van-plows-into-crowd/? "undefined") has prompted Twitter users to post photos of cats with the Barcelona hashtag. In the immediate aftermath of the attacker driving a van into a crowd in Las Ramblas, the National Police asked people not to share images of the attack showing victims on social media. The attack left at least 12 dead and 80 others injured, officials said. > [](https://twitter.com/policia/status/898209070993338368) In response to the request, people began posting photos of cats to drown out any graphic images on the #Barcelona, which is trending on Twitter. > [](https://twitter.com/sairydust/status/898238436389212160) > [](https://twitter.com/MarDeOjoPaTih/status/898263035541934084) The cat campaign has its roots in a response to the November 2015 attack in Brussels, in which people posted cat pictures on social media to [keep from divulging information](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34897645 "undefined") about investigations into the terrorists immediately afterward. > [](https://twitter.com/MarlousSmits/status/898238900887597057) > [](https://twitter.com/poppyfresh%5F/status/898232699936268289) > [](https://twitter.com/alvaromartinez/status/898229279447801857) Not all who wanted to support the effort were cat fans, so some posts feature other animals: > [](https://twitter.com/Greendryad/status/898256911820181504) > [](https://twitter.com/Pat%5FHetic%5F/status/898230764046823424) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4905356/barcelona-terror-attack-cat-posts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4905356/barcelona-terror-attack-cat-posts/"},"headline":"Here’s Why People Are Posting Cats in Response to the Barcelona Attack","datePublished":"2017-08-17T20:02:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:03:04.958Z","description":"A request from the police prompted a wave of cat photo tweets","url":"https://time.com/4905356/barcelona-terror-attack-cat-posts/","keywords":["Spain","animals","Internet","photography","Terror Attack","Barcelona","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf973032ea47fab94/6988da2d8fd2ee5e5935878f/barcelona-attack-cat-photos-post-police.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf973032ea47fab94/6988da2d8fd2ee5e5935878f/barcelona-attack-cat-photos-post-police.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"barcelona attack cat photos post police","caption":"barcelona attack cat photos post police","creditText":"David Ramos—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/spain/","name":"Spain"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4905356/barcelona-terror-attack-cat-posts/","name":"Here’s Why People Are Posting Cats in Response to the Barcelona Attack"}}]}] ```