Sun.Star: 6 Baguio retailers charged for selling dog meat

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines - The government charged six market retailers earlier arrested in a raid at the Baguio City Public Market for selling slaughtered dogs for violating the Anti-Rabies Law. Charged were Pio Montano, Nelson Patacsil, Bryan Angala, Jovelita Corpus, Rosalie Selga and Daniel Flores. The suspect could be imprisoned to a maximum of four years in jail and a penalty of P5,000. Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS)-Cordillera and the London-based Animal Kingdom Foundation (AKF) raided the public market on Sunday. Police seized a total of 258 kilos of butchered dogs, which were brought to the NMIS regional office for government-approved disposal. RP's Test Case "It is the first time in the country we are implementing the Philippine Anti-Rabies Law (Republic Act 9482) which has stiffer penalties," said AKF-Luzon senior investigative researcher Brando Gegway. "Compared to the Animal Welfare law or RA 8485, this new law imposes stiffer penalties under Section 11 which states all person found guilty of trading dog meat will be fined P5,000 per dog and imprisoned for one to four years," he said. The new law's implementing rules and regulations (IRR) was published July 15 and ended July 26. Sunday's operation, Gegway explained, meant to test the new law's "sharpened teeth", taunting the Animal Welfare Act (RA 8485) "kid gloves" treatment on apprehensions. Under the old law, a violator only pays P1,000 and no more than P6,000 per offense and not per dog seized, lamented Gegway. "Hopefully this (new law with stiffer penalties) will end the practice in the Cordillera," the AKF representative claimed. The NMIS insists dogs are not categorized as food animals, thus the trade is outlawed in the country. The AKF, one of the sponsors of the law, "planned to stage the test case in Baguio to challenge the political will of Baguio City officials because until now, the dog meat trade is still very rampant inside the Baguio public market." This is hopefully a wake-up call for local authorities to put an end to the sale of dog meat, he added. Multimillion-peso trade AKF pegs the illegal dog trade business in Baguio and Benguet Province to reach millions of pesos. Gegway said traders at a minimum transport dogs four times a week to Baguio City and Benguet. A load of the contraband is estimated to cost P30,000. Thus, traders from the lowlands cart away P480,000 a month. The AKF also bared there are at least a dozen restaurants in Baguio and Benguet serving dog meat as a dish. Gegway, a pure-bred Cordilleran by origin from Besao, Mountain Province, explained that "it is not to taunt Cordillera culture where most people insist eating dog meat is a tradition. It's all about protecting the people's health due to the high risk of rabies which can be taken from eating infected dog meat." The old law (RA 8485) was enacted 1998 to protect animals from maltreatment, cruelty and abuses. One of the then immediate concerns of this law was to stop the massive dog trade. However, Gegway further lamented Philippine authorities seemed to neglect the implementation the law. "Some meat stalls are even situated in front of police stations but the authorities ignore their presence. Most government officials are costumers of these dog meat establishments," he said. He claimed numerous restaurants and bars, which serve dog meat, are increasing in Baguio, Benguet, Mountain Province, Abra and Kalinga "to attract customers, restaurant owners label cooked dog meat as 'pulutan' (finger food)." Accordingly, authorities who attempted to clamp down on the illegal dog trade in the past were dampened by the old law's almost "toothless" penalties. But with sharper teeth, Gegway said, "we can hope in the near future, the illegal trade will stop." This week, AKF will be coordinating with law enforcement agencies in other regions in Luzon for similar raids and confiscations to finally nail down the trade, Gegway said. - Sun.Star Baguio