Stop torturing animals in Philippines

[Guest guest]

Honorable Officials of Republic of the Philippines:

 

I commend Congress and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for enacting the

Anti-Rabies Act of 2007, with language to ban commerce in dog meat and

prevent rabies through required dog vaccination.

 

The new law surpasses Republic Act 8845 of 1998, with steeper fines and a

one to four year jail sentence for each dog slaughtered or sold for

meat. It

also increases fines for caretakers who neglect to inoculate dogs against

rabies or let animals roam unsupervised.

 

Please strengthen funding for police training, provisional shelters, and

public humane education. As you know, the Anti-Rabies Law of 2007 is a

" paper law " only -- without proper financing and enforcement.

 

I am worried about illicit dog meat markets in northern regions in and near

Baguio City, where residents eat some 200 dogs daily. According to Humane

Society International, 500,000 dogs are annually butchered for food in the

Philippines, despite the 1998 ban in RA 8845. While the new law inflates

fines and jail terms, these advances are irrelevant without police officers

trained to investigate and arrest offenders. The law cannot be fulfilled

without firm prosecution and punishment of violators.

 

Most Filipinos shun dog consumption, but profiteers of this gruesome trade

can always find a market for dog meat. Publicized videos have revealed dogs

squashed inside wire cages in the suffocating heat. To supply dog meat

eateries around Baguio City and the Cordilleras region, strays and former

pets are captured or stolen and trucked from as far away as the southern

Tagalog provinces, Visayas, and Mindanao. Roughly half the dogs perish from

starvation and dehydration during the journey.

 

Survivors wind up in illegitimate slaughterhouses where workers wrench them

from cages with looped poles and smash their skulls. The dogs' mouths are

bound with plastic cord as butchers slice their throats at the jugular

vein.

Expelled blood is bottled and sold. The dogs are then tossed over fires to

strip away fur. Some regain consciousness. Finally, their bodies are

dismembered for distribution to restaurants and public wet markets.

 

I respectfully ask officials to work within their area of command to uphold

the new law and permanently end the slaughter and sale of dogs for

consumption. I object to all egregious cruelty to animals killed for human

ingestion, including the merciless treatment of pigs, cows, chickens,

turkeys, sheep and other farmed animals around the world.

 

All sentient creatures feel pain, misery and fear -- regardless of their

intelligence. The Philippines can ease a piece of animal suffering with the

termination of its dog meat trade.

 

Thank you,

Maria and Katerina Nika,

Animal advocates from Greece