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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/10/2012 : 23:10:00 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by ThorGoLucky
Sad. |
Thank you. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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phil_expat
New Member
Philippines
10 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2012 : 12:55:20 [Permalink]
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From ABS-CBN news, dogs in Baguio City:
MANILA, Philippines - Authorities arrested brothers Rolando and Roger Maravilla in Mabalacat, Pampanga for transporting 56 dogs to Baguio City where dog meat is sold in restaurants that offer comfort food—asocena—a delicacy whose ingredients are man’s best friend, cruelty and apathy.
Killing dogs for their meat is a barking violation of the Animal Welfare Act which is continuously defied by offenders due to impunity. No one has ever been punished (severely) for cruelty to animals.
This is probably why the Maravillas continue to do what they do despite being collared twice for the same offense last year.
Big business
An informant, “Rolf” of Pangasinan, shared that dog meat traders that frequent his town boast of getting their contraband to Baguio by dangling P15,000 as grease money to highway authorities, in exchange for slippery passage—a small investment as the Philippines’ dog meat industry rakes in P174 million annually, according to the nongovernment organization Linis Gobyerno.
Despite flying under the radar, the dog meat industry prospers, as long as the buying continues. Dog traders scour nearby cities for people willing to kick out their azkals for a quick buck.
“Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Iloilo and Negros are the suppliers of dogs for Baguio City," said Luis Buenaflor, Director for Operations and External Affairs of the Animal Kingdom Foundation, an affiliate of the International Wildlife Coalition Trust based in the United Kingdom.
Buenaflor has worked with local authorities in a continuing crackdown on some of Luzon’s most brazen dog traders.
Dog meat trade
Dogs are purchased for about P150 to P200 at source and could fetch from P2,500 to P3,000 when sold in markets in northern Luzon, an exponential mark-up that the enterprising finds hard to pass up.
Animal welfare group Network for Animals estimated that over half a million dogs are slaughtered in the Philippines every year, even if the trade has already been outlawed in the country since 1998.
Dog slaughter not only violates the Animal Welfare Act. The move to prohibit the slaughtering of dogs for meat is also bolstered by the Rabies Act of the Philippines, which indicates that eating the meat of a rabid dog is a serious health concern.
Last year health officials in Iloilo administered prophylaxis on several people who ate a rabid dog which bit and killed a man from Maasin town. Yet even with its serious health threats, the killing and eating persist.
A push for animal rights
Animal welfare groups are taking the campaign beyond traditional grounds. Animal abuse made cyber buzz recently with a case of a college student who killed a cat and boasted about it on his blog. Another college kid laundered a puppy in a washing machine and pinned the helpless pooch to the clothesline to dry. More disturbing is the recently exposed “crush” website where animals are tortured and killed on cyber cam to the delight of paying, online perverts.
For animal abuse a multimedia information drive is key. For the dog meat trade, operations and raids must be relentless.
“I can definitely say because of the campaign we have been doing, dog meat is no longer sold in the public market of Baguio,” said Buenaflor. “Almost all the illegal slaughterhouses have closed, and compared to, say 10 years ago, animal welfare awareness is now in the consciousness of the citizenry,” he added.
Culture of cruelty
Dog eating is not uniquely Filipino although westerners bad-pressed our country as dog-eating, as we are blood jelly- and duck embryo-devouring. Dog eating is prominent in Korea and in China, whose recent Dog Meat Festival is earning worldwide flak. Dog eating is clandestine in Canada, Switzerland and many other non-Jewish and non-Muslim countries.
Where eating dog meat is practiced, the excuse has always been “culture”. In northern Philippines dog eating is associated with traditional tribal feasts and burial rituals.
But what alarmed animal rights groups in the last 25 years is the increasing slaughter of dogs for commercial consumption. The biggest market for dog meat is still Mountain Province—its frigid climate justifying heaping servings of asocena—in between gulps of gin or beer to keep warm.
According to Buenaflor, ignorance is the biggest obstacle in fighting the dog meat industry, followed by the cruelty of those that kill and eat dogs, and the apathy of those that don’t, but are not doing anything about it.
“Then you have the mistaken notion that dog eating is part of the culture which of course is not. Culture is not an excuse for cruelty," explained Buenaflor.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/25/2012 : 09:41:37 [Permalink]
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There must still be a lot of asocena restaurants still operating here, as the theft of dogs for meat is still rampant. Only when those restos are shuttered and their owners jailed or heavily fined will the massive cruelty cease. The restaurants are the key to shutting down the trade.
I don't think people should eat dogs. But the consumption itself is not what makes me angriest. What does is the treatment of the stolen or captured dogs. A length of bailing wire or cordage is tightly twisted about the dog's muzzle. Alternatively, a tin can of placed over the snout and tied or wired in place. The dog's forelegs are pulled back to the center of it's back, disjointing its shoulder joints, and bound together there. Then the dogs are stacked like cord wood for shipment or storage. The pain must be unimaginable.
A meat dog.
That treatment is what makes me almost (?) insane with rage, especially after losing two of my canine buddies to this criminal trade. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 06/25/2012 10:09:16 |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2012 : 20:13:04 [Permalink]
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| So Mooner you mentioned once you were helping the clam there growing some food. I found that intriguing as I have the same interests, growing food. What's up with that? |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2012 : 01:36:41 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
So Mooner you mentioned once you were helping the clam there growing some food. I found that intriguing as I have the same interests, growing food. What's up with that?
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Well, my mate has been the one who has traveled (12 hours by bus, one way) to Apayao province to do the farming. My money for seed, hiring a tractor, and hiring temporary hands, etc. has been my sole contribution. I don't know much about farming. Rose has completed very good rice harvest and now has maize growing.
The capital investment for the maize planting came from the rice harvest profits. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/04/2012 04:57:39 |
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Down 1 Chihuahua, Up 2 Askals
