The Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc., a London-based animal rights group, raised the fight against animal abuse to the next level with simultaneous raids on dog traders in Baguio City yesterday, the day the anti-rabies law took effect.
At 7:30 a.m., the group, accompanied by members of the National Meat Inspection Service led by OIC director Dr. Florentino Pintor, the Criminal Investigation Detection Group led by SPO4 Risal Malicsi, and the AKF led by Brando D. Gegway, AKF senior investigative researcher, raided the Baguio Public Market and arrested several dog meat vendors and one dog trader.
George Quimpo, officer in charge of the Philippine Chapter of the AKF said the suspects are now at the custody of the Baguio City Police. He said the traders will be charged with violation of R.A. 9482 or the Philippine Anti-Rabies Law, specifically Section 7 which prohibits trading of dog meats. The suspects were identified as Pio Montano, 38 and Nelson Patacsil, 27, who yielded seven butchered dogs; Brayn Angala, 19, with four butchered dogs and Jovito Corpus, 42, with three dead dogs.
“We hope to show to dog traders that we are serious in our campaign against dog meat trade,” Quimpo said.
He said the new law “has more teeth than the previous one.”
“Compared to the Animal Welfare law or R.A. 8485 this law requires stiffer penalty where in under section eleven it states that all person found quilty of trading meats will be fined P5,000.00 per dog and subjected to imprisonment of one to four years,” Gegway said.
The latest AKFI operation, he said, “is a test case of the law which took effect today. The implementing rules and guidelines or IRR was published July 15 and ended on July 26, meaning after two weeks of publication, the law was ready for implementation, he said.
“The Animal Kingdom Foundation one of the sponsors of the law planned to stage the test case in Baguio to challenge the political will of Baguio’s concerned officials since until now a lot of dog meats are still very rampant inside the baguio public market. Hopefully this will awake this conerned authorities and put an end on the sale of dog meats at the Baguio market,” Quimpo said.
“This is not anoverpower the Cordillera culture where most people insist that eating dog meats is a tradition in the reagion. It’s all about protecting the people’s health due to the high risk of rabies that can be taken from eating dog meats,” he said.
The 258 kilos of butchered dogs were brought to the NMIS compound for disposal.
AKFI, a registered animal-welfare group in the country, has been at the forefront of a campaign against dog cruelty, saving dogs for nearly six years now. Armed with the Animal Welfare Act of 1998 (RA 8485), it spearheaded rescue operations in the country. Its two-hectare rescue center in Capas, Tarlac presently houses 300 rescued native dogs.
