Field Report
Malasiqui, Pangasinan Province, Philippines
5 Dec 2012
Today marks the beginning of our annual push to increase surveillance and enforcement targeting dog meat traders ramping up their brutal activities to meet increased demand for dog meat at christmas in the Philippines.
Our first operation of the holiday season took place in Malisiqui, a town a couple of hours drive north of Manila where we have recently identified a few slaughterhouses. Initial surveillance revealed the exact location of one of the slaughterhouses and that it was active, so we requested police back up and raided it at 2am.
All seven knife wielding slaughterhouse workers immediately attempted to attack us but a shot fired overhead persuaded them to back down and they were arrested. We then turned our attention to the poor dogs yet to be slaughtered. They were housed in a wire cage overlooking a scene that could only be described as hell on earth. Dog carcasses in various stages of butchering were scattered all over the compound. The table and ground surrounding it where the dogs had their throats cut was awash in blood, indicating that the live dogs were likely minutes away from being slaughtered. Bloodied knives and clubs lay where they had been dropped by the workers. We immediately set about untying the nylon twine around the dog's snouts causing them to howl in pain as circulation was restored. We then gave them water and loaded them into the truck to take them to a shelter in Manila.
Evidence gathering revealed a total of 49 carcasses and 22 live dogs, three of which appear to be suitable for re homing. All seven workers will be prosecuted under the Rabies Act and potentially face a year in jail as well as hefty fines.
Hopefully this will be the first of many more raids over the next 3 weeks as we attempt to cripple the dog meat industry during their busiest time of year.
