LA TRINIDAD -- Police and animal rights activists said Tuesday
they had rescued dozens of stray dogs from an illegal
slaughterhouse operated by a popular, exotic meat restaurant in
the Northern Luzon.
Police and volunteers from the six-year-old, London-based
Political Animal Lobby (PAL), accompanied by reporters, raided the
Comiles Restaurant here on Saturday and saved some 52 dogs from
being butchered and served to patrons, animal rights activist
David Barrett said.
Barrett said that when he entered the restaurant three men were
about to kill a muzzled dog with a piece of wood. Fourteen dogs
had already been slaughtered when the raiding team arrived.
A 1999 law on animal welfare outlawed cruelty to animals,
including the eating of dog meat, a popular delicacy in many
northern Philippine provinces.
The raid was the first against establishments that serve dog meat
for human consumption since the animal welfare law was passed,
although it was unclear whether the restaurant, which has been
operating for 50 years, was ordered shut.
"We don't say that people should not eat dogs if they want to
eat dogs. That's an individual choice, but we say that the animal
should be humanely treated," Barrett said.
He said the animals bound for the slaughterhouse were often
hogtied and packed in steel cages, where many die even before
reaching a restaurant.
"And also the people that eat dogs should know that many of
the animals that they are eating are sick." (AFP) |