• Dog-eating in the Philippines - June 2003
• Dog Butcher Jailed - October 2003
• Dog-eating and My Culture - November 2003

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DOG-EATING IN THE PHILIPPINES
By Freddie Farres
Linis Gobyerno
Baguio City , Philippines

Thank you very much for you May 2003 review of Please Help Stop the Illegal Dog Meat Trade in the Philippines .

To clarify a few points, Linis Gobyerno organized and is incorporated primarily as an anti-graft and corruption organization, hence the name Linis Gobyerno, which means “clean government.” However, last year The International Wildlife Coalition asked us to research the illegal dog meat trade. Our eyes were then opened to the extent of the problem. Since many of us in the group love dogs, we decided to pursue putting a stop to the illegal dog trade as a special project.

You mentioned cat eating in the Philippines . We have come across occasional information on cat eating. However we have not done any research and/or verification on the subject yet, hence cannot comment on it.

You also mentioned that dog eating can be ended except among the Igorot. I hope we can qualify this, as it may appear to be a bit sweeping. As you wrote, dog eating is not just among the Igorot, who are mostly from the highland region. Also part of the market are migrants like the Ilokanos, Pampanguenos, Pangasinenses, etc., who have come from the lowlands but now live in Baguio City and other parts of the Benguet Province.

Not all Igorots eat dogs. Many of our companions in Linis Gobyerno are Igorots, also known as Cordillerans (from the Cordillera Region, where Baguio City and Benguet Province are located). Most of them do not eat dog meat and even condemn and frown on dog meat consumption.

As we explained in our book, there is an Igorot rite, rarely practiced, that calls for butchering a dog that must be the pet of a family member, during times of tragedy and misfortune. This ancient practice persists only among some Igorot elders. It has nothing to do with the dog meat trade, as buying a dog for this purpose is not allowed according to the rules of the ritual.

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DOG BUTCHER JAILED
October 2003

Baguio City , the Philippines - Municipal trial court Judge Tomas Tolete on October 6, 2003 sentenced convicted dog butcher Enrique Palaque, 51, of San Pedro, to serve six months in prison.

Reported Agence France-Press, “Palaque was arrested while en route to another court hearing, where he is a defendant in a similar case. A lower court in Manila earlier fined Palaque 54 dollars for a similar offense,” according to regional police superintendent Marvin Bolabola.

The Philippines banned dog slaughter in 1998, but the law was rarely enforced before late 2002, after the Baguio City journalist Freddie Farres and the anti-corruption group Linis Gobyerno made the non-enforcement a public issue.

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DOG EATING AND MY CULTURE
By Bing A. Dawang
November 2003

Just before World Animal Day, which coincides with the feast of St. Francis d'Assisi, the patron saint of animals, a local newspaper defended the dog meat trade in the Philippines , in particular in Baguio City and the Cordilleras , by claiming that dog eating is a part of the Igorot indigenous culture

As a full blooded Igorot, I take offense.

The newspaper quoted Isikias Isican, said to be curator of the St. Louis University museum, as saying that there is a clear cultural basis for butchering dogs because they were “butchered by Igorot tribes before going to war or to cure certain afflictions”.

Isican generalized that dog-eating is a part of the Igorot tradition by recalling that in 1904, a few Igorot men and women were displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition (world's fair) in St. Louis Missouri . Described as heathen pagans, they butchered a dog as part of the show.

In the same article Hanzen Binay, formerly defense counsel for several dog meat traders and now a Benguet prosecutor questioned the wisdom of the Animal Welfare. Objecting that the law was supported by British animal advocates, Binay asked rhetorically why Britain does not respect the Igorot culture.

As an Igorot, I vehemently do not accept dog eating as my culture. I was not raised to eat dogs. Dog meat is not a part of my diet, nor has it ever been. I find it insulting that Igorots are branded as dog-eaters, not only in the Philippines but abroad. It is a shame, and because Igorots are Filipinos, dog eating is a national shame.

It is true that in ancient times some Igorot tribes butchered their dogs before going to war. It was the belief of the then pagan Igorot that the spirits of the sacrificed dogs would guard them in battle.

At times of tragedy, the family dog might also have been sacrificed to appease the spirits, and to assign the soul of the dog to guard the spirits of the living family members.

Dog sacrifice always connoted bad luck, tragedy, or death. When a family butchered, who had to be the family dog, not just any dog bought from nowhere, the family was not feasting but either mourning, in extreme pain, or involved in some other activity connected with death.

Dogs were not butchered as drinkers' fare, nor as a daily or regular part of the Igorot diet. Igorot families much preferred to avoid the circumstances which might lead them to sacrifice their dog.

Dogs sacrifice for religious purposes is allowed under the Animal Welfare Act. But the act also requires that dog sacrifices must be recorded and reported. Five years after the law was passed, the Bureau of Animal Industy (BAI) has yet to receive any such reports from the Igorot elders.

Igorot culture has greatly changed since 1904. Headhunting, for example, was also part of the Igorot culture and way of life a hundred years ago. We now recognize and reject that practice as murder.

This is adaptation. This is cultural evolution. We discard bad customs and traditions, and adopt good ones for other cultures— and as an Igorot, a Filipino, a law-abiding citizen, and a lover of dogs, if I see anyone butchering and selling dogs for meat, I will not hesitate to file criminal charges.

Incidentally, anyone who believes that the Philippine Animal Welfare Act was passed chiefly through the lobbying of British citizens, or Americans, or members of any nationality other than Filipino is misinformed.

Foreigners helped, but most of the work was done by Filipinos, represented by Philippine groups including the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, reorganized in 1986 by Nita Hontiveros-Lichauco, and the Philippine SPCA formed on December 13, 1904 (the year of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition), now headed by Edgardo Aldaba.

We have in common, beside our cause, one hero: the dog Dagul, an askal , whose kind are commonly captured and butchered. Dagul however, was adapted by Wilmar Castillo and family. Dagul rewarded their compassion in May 2003 when he alerted Wilmar Castillo to an avalanche of mud just in time to save the young man's life.

Honored with the Lewyt Award for Compassionate and Heroic Animals, as described in the September 2003 edition of Animal People, Dagul and Wilmar Castillo demonstrated the relationship that we believe should exist among humans and dogs. Kindness toward dogs and other creatures is fundamental to my culture.

(Bing A. Dawang is editor of The Junction Regional Newspaper and is a founding officer of Linis Gobyerno, Inc.)

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