[continued from previous message]

A regional director of the Philippines National Meat Inspection
Commission publicly stated several years ago that consumption of dog
meat is “dangerous,” as it is not inspected by the Commission.
Consuming dog meat thus puts individuals at considerable risk of
infection from harmful bacteria such as E. Coli 107 and Salmonella
(commonly found in contaminated meats), as well as at increased risk
of contracting potentially deadly diseases such as anthrax,
brucellosis, cholera, hepatitis, and leptospirosis.

Dog meat is further linked to the spread of rabies—a disease that
kills approximately 10,000 dogs and 300 people in the Philippines
annually. Evidence shows that the rabies virus can be present, and
therefore potentially transmitted to humans, throughout all stages of
the dog meat industry—sourcing, trading, slaughtering, butchering, and
meat preparation—impeding efforts toward eradicating rabies in the
region. The World Health Organization has noted that “controlling
trade in and [the] movement of dogs” along with the promotion of mass
dog vaccination campaigns is key to dog rabies control and the
disease's eventual elimination. In order to pursue this goal, the
Philippine government included a prohibition regarding the trade of
dog meat in the 2007 Rabies Act and stated a nationwide goal of
eradicating rabies by 2020—a target that cannot be achieved unless the
dog meat trade is shut down.

There are, however, developments that seem to indicate the beginning
of a positive change. The Wildlife Division of the NBI recently raided
nine restaurants. Additionally, Network for Animals took the lead on
conducting a slaughterhouse raid in the town of Malasiqui, about 50
miles south of Baguio, by providing resources such as surveillance and
funding for the management of the raid. On December 5, 2012, with the
cooperation of local authorities, seven dog meat traders were
arrested, 22 dogs were rescued, and 49 dog carcasses were confiscated.
(As of press time, a trial date for the arrested traders has not yet
been set.) While the local police were involved in the raid,
enforcement needs to be initiated by domestic law enforcement rather
than international nonprofit organizations in order for such successes
to continue on a regular, widespread basis.

The illegal dog meat industry in the Philippines causes harm in many
ways, from the extreme physical and mental suffering of hundreds of
thousands of dogs to the significant costs to human health. In order
to successfully eradicate the trade in dogs for human consumption,
mechanisms of enforcement need to be established at the provincial,
municipal, and village levels to ensure that such a cruel industry has
no ground on which to stand.

It is also crucial to work with local communities to raise awareness
of the risks that the dog meat industry poses to both human health and
animal welfare, and for local law enforcement officers to be
adequately equipped with the skills, knowledge and motivation to
enforce existing laws. The objective is to have the Philippine
Department of the Interior as well as local governments ensure that
the national ban is consistently and aggressively enforced in the dog
meat regions of the country in order to demonstrate a serious
commitment to ending this inhumane industry.

On To Thailand
After a week in the Philippines, I flew to Phuket, Thailand, to visit
Soi Dog Foundation (SDF) and meet its founder, John Dalley. The week
before I arrived, SDF conducted three raids and saved 520 dogs from
unimaginable suffering. Even though the dog meat trade is illegal in
Thailand, dogs are frequently rounded up off the streets—90 percent of
them estimated to be pets—and smuggled across the Mekong River into
Vietnam, where the dog meat trade is rampant due to a common belief
that it has warming properties that aid in maintaining health and
recovering from illness. The main consumers of the meat are wealthy
Vietnamese businessmen who can afford its high price.

The Thai Veterinary Medical Association estimated that in 2011 half a
million dogs were being smuggled into Vietnam annually to be
slaughtered. Following increasing pressure by SDF and others, the
number is currently far less than this, though many dogs are now being
slaughtered locally and the meat smuggled instead. Hence, despite the
national ban, the illegal trade in Thailand is worth approximately 1
billion Thai baht a year—over US$30 million. The Thai government does
not have the necessary funding to adequately protect its dog
population from the illegal meat trade. The Department of Livestock
Development is charged with sheltering and providing for the dogs
rescued from the trade, yet it currently has no budget for this (since
dogs are not considered livestock animals in Thailand).

In Thailand as in other places, the dog meat trade is conducted with
callous cruelty; dogs are packed for days in small cages, and many die
before they reach their final destination from heat exhaustion or
asphyxiation. In many places where dog meat is consumed, including
Thailand, there is a common belief that dog meat is more tender if it
is permeated by adrenaline just prior to slaughtering. As a result,
dogs are intentionally killed slowly so as to increase their intense
fear and stress. Dogs are boiled alive, beaten to death, hung, or
skinned alive for their meat.

Tragically, even dogs rescued from such a horrific end are not
guaranteed a life of recovery and health. Dogs in Thailand are not
routinely vaccinated. According to SDF, a full 70 percent of the
rescued dogs end up dying from disease, as well as injuries and
starvation.

In June, CNN.com prominently featured articles covering the dog meat
trade in Thailand and Vietnam. We are very glad to see this issue
finally gaining mainstream global attention. While it is important to
raise international awareness on the illegal dog meat trade in these
countries, we also want this to take root as a solid, locally-based
campaign. Citizens of these countries need to put political pressure
on their governments from within in order to ensure compliance with
their own national bans on the trade.


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Goodbye gooks!

--- SoupGate-DOS v1.05
 * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)