The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) has condemned the incident involving the death of two pets inside an animal training facility in Marikina City, according to Katrina Son’s report in “State of the Nation” on Wednesday.
Two dog owners are seeking justice following the death of their pets while under the care of a training facility.
Fur parents “Karla” and “Sandy” voiced out their plight on social media.
“Karla” said she enrolled her dogs in the dog tranining facility last February, while “Sandy” enrolled her two standard poodles in March.
“Pina-train namin yung aso para sana matuto ng potty train at matuto ng mga kaunting tricks,” said “Karla.”
(We let our dogs be trained so they can be potty trained and learn a few tricks.)
During the two-month training, dogs are left at the facility and their owners could only visit them once a week.
“Karla” and “Sandy” said the facility owner was giving them updates at first. But later on, they were already having a hard time getting information on the situation of their pets.
“Nalaman na lang po namin, naka-two weeks na po siguro. Doon po naman nalaman na nilipat yung mga aso namin sa Los Baños nang hindi po sa amin sinasabi,” said “Sandy.”
(We just found out after two weeks that our dogs were brought to Los Baños without informing us.)
The dogs of Karla were supposed to finish the training by April 20. Meanwhile, the pets of “Sandy” were supposed to be out by May 6.
However, the facility owner kept on asking the pet owners to extend the stay of their dogs.
The facility owner personally went to “Sandy” to inform her of the demise of one of her dogs.
“Tinanong po namin siya na bakit ngayon mo lang sinabi, ilang days na pala patay,” said “Sandy.”
(We asked him why we were not informed earlier, that my dog has been dead for a few days.)
“Karla” was also personally visited by the facility owner to tell her about the death of her dog.
“Pumunta siya sa bahay at sinabi niya ‘yun nung May 17 na po. Sinasabi niya na May 12 namatay yung aso,” she said.
(The facility owner went to my house last May 17. The owner said my dog died last May 12.)
The facility owner said their dogs died of heatstroke, but the two fur parents are not convinced.
“Hindi po mukhang heat stroke kasi madugo po yung ulo, wala na siyang snout, hindi mo na makita yung ulo ng aso,” said “Karla.”
It doesn’t look like heat stroke because the head has blood, he does not have a snout anymore and you cannot see the head anymore.)
Registration of training facility
PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera said, “Itong mga actual acts of torture or cruelty they are already additional violations and we are in touch with the owner of the dog. We are trying to convince her to submit the affidavit as soon as possible so that we can file the charges.”
On the other hand, the Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc. warned that trainings that require pets to be left at a facility is considered a red flag.
The Foundation noted that pets must be accompanied by their owners so they could also learn how to execute the commands.
Further, PAWS found out that the said training facility is not registered with the Bureau of Animal Industry, which they said is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.
The animal rights group also asked the Marikina City government to shut down the pet training facility.
“In view of all these, and to safeguard the lives of other dogs which may still be in the facility, we are requesting the immediate closure of the said facility…” the PAWS said in its letter.
Karla and Sandy are planning to file a complaint.
GMA Integrated News tried to get a statement from the training facility but this was closed and no one was answering phone calls. — Vince Angelo Ferreras/BAP, GMA Integrated News
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