(PI) Horror Of Illegal Dog Trade

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http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12139585,00.html

 

Animal welfare campaigners have accused the Philippines government of

not doing enough to end the suffering of dogs bred for the dinner table.

 

The animals face horrendous conditions and are killed brutally before their

meat is served up as a " delicacy " . Sky's Martin Brunt has been to Manila to

investigate. He filed this special report to Sky News Online:

 

The black, unmarked police car had shadowed the small truck for 20 miles as

it weaved its way through heavy traffic along the highway towards Manila.

 

Just beyond the toll booth at the city limit the cops swung in front of

their target and forced it to stop.

 

As we approached we could smell the dogs and hear their whimpering.

 

Airless

 

They were crammed into metal cages which the illegal meat traders had barely

bothered to hide beneath cloths and empty oil cans.

 

It was 9pm on a humid, airless night. The temperature was nudging 28

degrees. A cursory glance into the back of the truck gave a clear hint of

the wretched animals' plight.

 

The full horror was revealed only when an officer had forced open the metal

rear door.

 

Suffering

 

There was such a jumble of heads, tails and legs it was impossible to

tell which limbs belonged to which dog.

 

 

According to animal rights campaigners, each night truck-loads of dogs

like these are driven in appalling conditions from the southern suburbs of

the capital north to the mountainous region of Baguio, where they are

butchered, sold and eaten as a delicacy.

 

Corruption

 

For two years the London-based campaign group Political Animal Lobby

has been battling to stop the trade.

 

It is outlawed by the Philippines authorities, but an apparent lack of

will, police corruption and inadequate penalties mean it continues much as

before.

 

Pal's David Barritt splashed water through the mesh of the cages as he

struggled to untie the wire fastenings that held them shut. " Just look at

their suffering, " he said. " They are hot and desperate for air and water.

It's difficult to imagine what they have been through.

 

Pal members who later accompanied the 75 dogs to the local pound said

that 30 of them were dead on arrival.

 

Fines

 

The truck driver and his mate, two dishevelled Filippinos in grubby

T-shirts and shorts, were led off to the police station. They were released

after questioning.

 

Although the offence can carry a jail sentence and/or a maximum fine

of 5,000 pesos (£61) offenders are seldom ordered to pay more than 1,000

pesos (£12).

 

" We are pressing the government to give much bigger fines and start

seizing vehicles, " said Barritt.

 

" That's the only way these people will understand what they are doing

is wrong. There just isn't the deterrent for them to stop. "

 

We flew 167 miles north into the mountains to see what happened to the

dogs that weren't intercepted by police.

 

Slaughter

 

The area around Baguio City is the dog-eating centre of the

Philippines where for centuries people have killed and eaten the animals

with impunity.

 

Illegal trade

 

Today, little is being done to enforce the new laws.

 

An early-morning raid on an illegal slaughterhouse took us into a

scene from hell. It was no more than a grubby backyard with bamboo shelters,

its cracked concrete floor splattered with fresh blood.

 

On a table in the middle was a pile of dead dogs, their throats

slashed and their jaws still tightly bound with plastic ties. One of the

animals began to twitch. Blood dripped from its mouth.

 

Blow torch

 

Around them were the tools of the butcher's trade - a blood-stained

wooden club used to beat the dogs, knives and choppers to finish them off

and a gas-fired blow torch for burning away their fur.

 

And in cages nearby were the dogs which would have been next for the

chopping block. They stared meekly at us, subdued, weak from heat exhaustion

and unable to make any noise.

 

With no food or water, they had watched their fellow animals being

slaughtered and must have assumed that we had come to do the same to them.

 

Some of them were lucky and would survive, but many were expected to

be put down humanely, too weak to recover from their ordeal.