Bambi Eloriaga-Amago
Here are steps that an average, concerned citizen can take if he witnesses cases of animal cruelty.
Rosa Fontelera-Yong, a volunteer for PAWS, urges people to “Gather evidence, for one. Visuals are always great like the photos that were taken. Get names. Get all their data facts straight.”
Unfortunately, not all people are willing to go through the trouble of sitting through the legal process. Instead, they find a more convenient outlet to voice their concern: Facebook.
“What people tend to do is to make things go viral,” explains Fontelera-Yong. “All it does is create more armchair activists. React, react, react, but no one ACTS. They expect the welfare organizations to do it and frankly, they can’t. They’re not the witnesses. They will always need the witnesses.”
However, Fontelera-Yong laments, “from experience, most people are either unwilling to do so… Or, lalo (more so) if the person involved is a neighbor or someone closer, scared to act.”
Worse, faced with the prospect of standing witness in court or the possibility of filing pages of affidavits, some people become lazy and change their mind about pursuing a case. PAWS, though, has made it easy and has provided an affidavit template for filing reports, a person only needs to fill it in. Should you need more information on how to report animal cruelty, follow this link to the PAWS website.
UPDATE: As of the morning of September 16, the injured dog has been handed over to Pasay Animal Care, an animal welfare group headed by actress Heart Evangelista. The 500-peso adoption fee was also waived, after Ms. Evangelista contacted Mayor Herbert Bautista and brought the dog’s condition to his attention. Further, the QC LGU also treated the adoption fee waiver as a courtesy, seeing as this was the group’s first time to rescue an animal from the Payatas pound.
Dr. Emil Encarnado, Payatas City Pound Chief, would like to clarify that the dog’s eyes were not gouged out. In fact, the dog can still see. The injury to the dog’s face was most likely a result of getting hit with a hard object. The dog had also sustained injuries on the neck area.
Dr. Encarnado further stressed that rumors that a barangay captain or the Quezon City dog catchers were the ones who maltreated the animal are false. Those who caught the dog attest that it was already in that condition when they picked the dog up at Batasan. That the dog was quickly taken to Payatas is also mere hearsay, Dr. Encaranado emphasizes, the animal had spent three days at the Batasan pound before it was brought to the city pound.
Upon seeing the dog, Dr. Encarnado and his staff quickly cleaned the dog’s wounds, as he noticed that it was getting infected. “Maaawain naman kami dito, (We are quick to take pity here,”) Dr. Encarnado states.
