Dog and Cat Meat and Fur Trades Philippines

The dog and cat meat trade in the PHILIPPINES (Asia):

About one percent of people in the Philippines eat dog meat, amounting to approximately 1 million people.  (Animal Kingdom Foundation, 2015, End the Dog Meat Trade)  Hundreds of thousands of dogs are slaughtered for their meat each year in the Philippines.  (Animal Welfare Institute, 2019, The Dog Meat Trade)

The killing and selling of dogs for consumption was banned in the Philippines in 1998 under the national Animal Welfare Act, as well as under the Anti-rabies Act of 2007, making the trade illegal.  Law enforcement officials in the Philippines do little to enforce these laws.  (Animal Welfare Institute, 2019, The Dog Meat Trade)  Dogs are not included on the list of food animals in the Meat Inspection Code in the Philippines.  (Endrina, 2016, DA Approves New Circular to Stop the Trade of Dog Meat in the Philippines)  The transportation of dog meat for trade is in violation of the Meat Inspection Code of the Philippines.  (Riguer, 2018, NMIS, AKF Seize 700kg of Dog Meat)  Under an exemption to the Philippine Animal Welfare Act of 1998, dogs can be slaughtered as part of religious rituals of established religions or sects, and as part of tribal rituals or ethnic customs in indigenous communities.  Some families in the Philippines believe they will be protected from bad luck if they slaughter and eat the family dog.  (Animal Kingdom Foundation, 2015, End the Dog Meat Trade)

The commercialization of dog meat mainly centers in the lowlands of the mountainous region of the Cordilleras in Benguet Province, north of Luzon, Philippines.  Baguio City, which is the capital city of Benguet Province, and its neighboring city of La Trinidad, sell dog meat in restaurants.  The live dogs slaughtered for their meat in the Cordilleras mainly come from livestock traders in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, south of Luzon.  Eating dog meat is more prevalent in northern Philippines than it is in southern Philippines.  (Animal Kingdom Foundation, 2015, End the Dog Meat Trade)

Pet dogs, still wearing collars, and stray dogs are taken and shipped to Benguet province to be slaughtered for the meat trade in the Philippines.  The dog’s noses are put into steel cans and their legs are tied behind their backs.  They are shipped without food and water.  Usually half the dogs, and

sometimes up to 90% of the dogs die on the trucks before they reach meat traders.  The dead dogs are still processed for their meat.  The live dogs are clubbed, their throats are slit, they are blow-torched to remove their fur, and their bodies are dismembered.  (Animal Welfare Institute, 2019, The Dog Meat Trade)

Investigators from the Animal Kingdom Foundation, based in the Philippines, gather evidence against dog meat traders, present the evidence to the Philippine National Police, and participate in raids against dog meat traders to rescue the dogs.  Investigators have seen dogs with grossly-swollen tongues because the dogs bite their tongues when dog meat dealers bind their noses with string.  Investigators have also seen multitudes of live and dead dogs piled on top of each other.  Half of the dogs are dead.  The stench at the dog meat facilities is overwhelming.  (Animal Kingdom Foundation, 2015, End the Dog Meat Trade)

Dog meat consumption puts humans at risk for infection from E. Coli 107 and salmonella, as well as for contracting anthrax, brucellosis, hepatitis, leptospirosis, and rabies.  The Philippines has a plan to eliminate rabies by 2020, but rabies kills around 350 people each year in the Philippines due to dog meat consumption.  Around 10,000 dogs die of rabies each year in the Philippines, and rabies is present in all stages of the dog meat industry.  The eradication of rabies will not be possible if the dog meat industry is allowed to continue.  (Animal Welfare Institute, 2019, The Dog Meat Trade)

The Philippines is considered a high-risk area for rabies from dogs.  (CDC, 2021, High-Risk Countries for Dog Rabies)  In 2015, the Secretary for the Department of Agriculture in the Philippines signed an Administrative Circular (No. 1 s of 2016) that outlines a plan of action to eliminate the dog meat trade and eradicate rabies in the Philippines by the year 2020.  The Government claims, that with the implementation of the plan, it will address the viewpoint that it hasn’t acted to stop the dog meat trade, and has let atrocities committed against dogs go unpunished.  (Endrina, 2016, DA Approves New Circular to Stop the Trade of Dog Meat in the Philippines)