Animal Kingdom Foundation takes bold steps to end dog meat trade in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — In a groundbreaking initiative to combat dog meat trading in the Philippines, Animal Kingdom Foundation (AKF) held a National Forum that brought together key stakeholders from various government agencies to tackle strategies to end the cruel trade.

The National Forum aims to review the existing National Plan of Action (NAPOA) to Eliminate the Trade of Dogs for Meat for Human Consumption issued by the Department of Agriculture under Administrative Circular (DA-AC) No. 1 Series of 2016.

The NAPOA is a collaborative and inter-agency framework where different agencies implement their respective roles toward the curbing of the cruel dog meat trade. From 2014 to 2015, different fora were initiated by AFK to discuss the ban on the dog meat trade.

Under DA AC No. 1, it hoped to eliminate the dog meat trade by 2020 through key strategies. However, varying factors led to this being put on the backburner including the declaration of the pandemic in 2020. 

The forum was attended by officials and experts from the Bureau of Animal Welfare (BAI), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), Philippine National Police (PNP), Committee on Animal Welfare (CAW), veterinarians from local government units as well as international organization, Soi Dog Foundation.

Awards were also given to recognize the active participation and role of the government stakeholders at the end of the dog meat trade campaign.

AKF pioneered the fight against the dog meat trade in the country nearly three decades ago with AKF founder Charles Whartenberg at the helm. The countless raids, rescues and rehabilitation in partnership with the law enforcers, proved lacking and AKF recognized that a collaborative effort is necessary to achieve a significant change.

Hence, the national plan of action was created that eventually set as an institutional inter-agency framework of collaboration aimed to enhance existing programs on dog meat trade elimination.

During the forum, important challenges and solutions were discussed concerning the implementation of the NPOA. As an output, a joint memorandum of agreement and the creation of a task force