High cruelty

World Animal Day was marked last Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment. In these parts and elsewhere on the planet, people took their beloved pets for a special treat, or to chapels and churches to be blessed.

But earlier in the month, as though to herald the day reserved for creatures big and small, a La Union court sentenced a couple to double life terms and ordered them to pay more than P9 million in penalties for hiring minors to torture and kill small animals for fetish videos sold online. The couple, Dorma and Vicente Ridon, were arrested in Burgos town in 2011 and charged with violating the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Act (Republic Act No. 9147) and the Anti-Child Abuse Act (RA 7610), among others.

La Union Regional Trial Court Judge Alpino Florendo of Branch 30 found the Ridons guilty of hiring girls aged between 12 and 18, dressing them in provocative attire, and having them torture small animals to death. The acts that the girls were made to do, filmed on video, would make even the stone-cold blanch: skinning a dog alive, cutting off rabbits’ ears and torching the animals, crushing puppies with stiletto heels, etc. Snuff videos, in effect, for which the girls were paid anything from P100 to P1,000 each, and which were sold on the Internet to “sexual fetishists” in Australia, France, Korea, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) Asia-Pacific.

A concerned person had found the videos online and brought the matter to Peta, which then sought the arrest of the Ridon couple, Inquirer Northern Luzon reported. “Cases such as this one show why we must never be silent about cruelty to animals,” Peta said in a statement.

It’s particularly reprehensible when helpless creatures are violated, and the couple’s conviction is a high-water mark in child and animal protection. The violation has the added horror of having minors involved in acts of high cruelty in exchange for money. Unfortunately, this terrible case isn’t the first time that animals have been maltreated and abused in the Philippines for profit.

In 2011, authorities raided a dog-fighting club in Indang, Cavite. A scant four months later, over 300 malnourished and badly injured pit bulls were discovered in another dog-fighting operation in Laguna. It turned out that the two illegal operations were being run by the same people, a group of Koreans who were out on bail for the first raid. The dogs were made to fight in five-minute bouts broadcast live on the Internet using expensive equipment; the bets received ran up to P37,900.

There were at least two sad discoveries in this case. One was that among the dogs rescued in the raids, at least 70 were in such bad shape that they had to be put down. The other was that the arrested Koreans faced relatively minor penalties for their acts. The Animal Welfare Act (RA 8485) imposed on violators a piddling fee of P5,000 and a jail term of six months up to a maximum of two years. Back then, animal rights groups led by the Philippine Animal Welfare Society or PAWS led the call for a heightening of penalties for the abuse and maltreatment of animals. In 2012, PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera testified before lawmakers that in that year alone, her group had recorded more than 100 cases of animal abuse. “Society’s treatment of animals is inseparable from its treatment of human beings,” she said.

In 2013, PAWS and animal-welfare advocates got what they had worked for. Congress passed RA 10631, an amendment of the 15-year-old Animal Welfare Act. Now, violators face a fine of up to P250,000 and a three-year prison term. The amendment singled out those who would be liable for the maximum penalties: “1) a syndicate; 2) an offender who makes business out of cruelty to an animal; 3) a public officer or employee; or 4) where at least three animals are involved.”

This development is significant in this country where too many horrendous acts against animals are carried out for profit and perverse enjoyment. Similarly, the conviction of the Ridon couple in La Union stands as a clear example that animal welfare laws can be enforced with a persevering citizenry and enlightened courts. We hope for more encouraging news by the time the next World Animal Day comes around.