LGUs should subsidize animal welfare groups

On Nov. 1, instead of going to a cemetery, my daughter and nieces took me to see the Memorial Wall of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) at the border of Quezon City and Marikina. There are actually two long walls lined by tiles like gravestones. Printed on the tiles are photographs and names of beloved departed pets and messages from their grieving and loving humans. Most of the pets were dogs and cats. We had several pet dogs and cats there. Below each row of tiles are narrow ledges where lighted candles and flowers can be left.

When we arrived, Anna Cabrera, the hardworking communications director of PAWS, was putting orchids and candles on these ledges. More visitors came later to visit the markers of their loved ones. They, too, brought flowers, candles and sometimes their pets’ favorite toys or food.

The remains of their pets are not actually there. Some are buried in a pet cemetery at the back of the compound. The cemetery is carpeted with grass like a lawn except for candles burning here and there to mark the graves of beloved pets.

How does one get to have a marker for his/her departed pet placed there? Just go to the PAWS office with a photograph of your pet and whatever message you want to impart, and the staff will do the rest. The fee is only P2,500.

PAWS rescues abandoned, abused and sick animals and nurses them back to health. They are put up for adoption after they are given antirabies shots and other vaccinations and rehabilitated to be loving household pets, which can take some time.

Not just anybody can adopt them either. The applicant—as well as the animal—must meet a number of qualifications before the adoption process can be completed. The idea is to make sure that human and pet will fit together and live harmoniously.

It is also to make sure that the human will take care of the animal well and not neglect or abuse it. Some humans will adopt pets and then, after some time, become bored with them, neglect them, and maltreat or even abandon them.

Adopted pets give the same love and devotion that their humans give them. (We have several of them.) If I’m not mistaken, Kabang, the heroine dog who saved two little girls from a speeding tricycle and lost her snout in the process, is an adopted dog. So is the actor-dog named Bwakaw who starred with Eddie Garcia in a prize-winning movie.

There are also what are called “doctor-dogs” that are used to help heal sick people, especially children and the elderly. The dogs are taken to hospitals where the sick are allowed to interact with them. Doctors say these interludes help the sick heal faster.

Some of these doctor-dogs are not the expensive purebred dogs but “aspins” (for “asong Pinoy,” the Philippine native dog). Dogs that sniff drugs or bombs that we see at airports and hotel entrances are not always Labrador retrievers or German shepherds. Some of them are adopted aspins. Unlike the purebreds, aspins are more resistant to disease.

Besides rescuing animals, PAWS also provides veterinary, spaying and neutering services at minimal cost, as well as free advice to pet owners. PAWS, by the way, survives entirely from donations. Like other animal welfare groups, it is not provided assistance—financial or otherwise—by the government although they are doing the work that the government should be doing.

Local government units should be ashamed of themselves. Private animal welfare groups like PAWS are doing what the LGUs should be doing. The animal welfare groups depend entirely on donations from animal lovers although the LGUs have the money. Quezon City and Makati are the wealthiest cities in the Philippines, but they do not even have animal rescue centers. The Marikina city government, on the other hand, is seizing dogs from poor owners in resettlement areas, as though only the rich have the right to own dogs. (What do they do with the confiscated dogs, cook them into “asocena”?)

The poor love their pets as much as, or more than, the rich do. Many of the rich acquire purebred dogs and cats mainly for show. They leave the caring for the animals to their house help. The poor take care of their pets themselves, so there is more affection and companionship among them.

The Marikina government’s goal is to stop the spread of rabies, which is commendable. Rabies is usually spread by stray dogs that have been abandoned or neglected by their owners. The dog and cat population increases because of these strays. The population explosion can be prevented by spaying and neutering the dogs and cats. So the LGUs should provide free spaying and neutering services. It is cheaper that way.

It is shocking that supposedly educated families tell their house help to abandon unwanted puppies and kittens on the sidewalks or vacant lots. In the United States, people who abandon puppies, kittens, or adult pets are arrested and penalized.

If there are animal shelters, humans can take their unwanted pets there and the LGUs can put them up for adoption. They should also provide free or inexpensive veterinary services to prevent the spread of disease. Ask PAWS or any other animal welfare group for advice. Or the LGUs can subsidize these groups to do their work for them.