Gorgocutie’s Explanation:
This is from Terrible Maps — a social media page dedicated to maps that are either wrong, pointless, or hilariously specific. This one is the latter.
The caption says “Countries that have legislated against werewolves.” The map highlights only Argentina. The implication? Argentina is apparently the one country on Earth that saw lycanthropy as enough of a threat to pass laws against it.
Is it true? Sort of. Argentina doesn’t have a specific “no werewolves” law on the books. But the joke stems from a real legal quirk: some Argentine municipalities have old colonial-era ordinances banning witchcraft, sorcery, and in a few cases, “shape-shifting individuals” — holdovers from Spanish Inquisition-era regulations that were never formally repealed. These weren’t really about werewolves specifically, but about the general category of “people who claim to turn into animals.” In the Spanish colonial world, the lobizón (a werewolf-like creature from Argentine and Uruguayan folklore) was a real concern in rural communities. A child born on a Friday with a certain astrological alignment was believed to be a lobizón, destined to transform into a dog-like beast on full moons.
So is Argentina the only country with werewolf laws? Probably not — but the map works because it’s absurd to picture a room of Argentine legislators earnestly debating the werewolf question. It’s the specificity that makes it funny.
Fun fact: The town of Villa de Leyva in Colombia actually did have a colonial-era law requiring people to register with authorities if they believed they could transform into an animal. So Colombia might deserve a spot on this map too — but then the joke wouldn’t be as clean.
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