Recently, two Philippine animal welfare groups, Island Rescue Organizations (IRO) and CARA Welfare Philippines (Compassion And Responsibility for Animals), were able to rescue around 222 dogs from a Korean dog-fighting syndicate in San Pablo, Laguna. Dog-fighting, by itself, is already an inhumane treatment for these animals we call our best friends. But it’s made worse by the awful conditions they were in.

With the help of individual animal welfare advocates and University of the Philippines Los Baños veterinarians, IRO and CARA are slowly rehabilitating these dogs in the hopes that they will some day experience the love and care of a forever home. If a lot of people help, this seemingly impossible task can be accomplished.

They are currently in urgent need of the following: dog food, heavy duty leashes, tarps, large cages and stainless steel bowls. You can also send monetary donations of any amount.

Donations in Kind:
CARA Clinic
2365, Singalong St. Malate
353-3381/0910-7297026

Monetary donations:
Account Name: CARA Welfare Philippines
Bank of the Philippine Islands
Atrium Branch, Makati City Philippines
Account # 3191-0467-05

You can also send your donations through Paypal. Use the Paypal Donate button under “Emergency Rescue Donations” on the CARA website Donations page. Please note on the message text area of the Emergency Rescue Donations Paypal donate page that the amount you’re sending is for the Laguna Pit Bulls.

**Laguna Pit Bulls Photos by Maria Parsons for CARA Welfare Philippines.
View more photos of the Laguna Pit Bulls rescue:
San Pablo Laguna Dogs
San Pablo Laguna Dogs 2
San Pablo Laguna Dogs 3

We’ve been doing walkies at different times of the day, and the question is: What time is the best time for walkies?

Morning Walkies
I notice that whenever we go for walkies in the morning, the dogs are real bundles of energy! I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that they’ve just been “fully charged” after a good night’s sleep. No one also complains (or throws a doggy tantrum) whenever I lead them in a short sprint. We get to see a lot of our senior neighbors too, busy with their morning garden rituals. Of course, my dogs love the attention the neighbors give them!

Morning walkies would probably be Kubrick’s favorite. He’s really active, and he enjoys the runs and short sprints a lot. Unfortunately, we only get to do this during the cool months (November to January). It gets real hot in the mornings during the summer, and none of us want to suffer heat stroke or sunburn for the sake of walkies… unless, of course, we wake up extremely early in the morning

Afternoon Walkies
This is probably what we do most during the summer months: afternoon walkies! We usually do this about an hour or less before sunset. By this time, it’s not so hot anymore. In our village, this is also the time when kids go out to play with their nannies in the park. Shantee just loves kids, so I wouldn’t be surprised if afternoon walkies is her favorite.

Afternoon walkies is probably what we usually do lately. It’s still a bit humid during that time, but at least it’s bearable — and better that the sweltering heat of noon and mid-morning.

Night Walkies
Living in a gated community, night walkies is possible for us. We’ve got great security in our village, so it’s quite safe to go out at night — even at midnight! We usually go out for night walkies whenever I have to do overtime at work, or when overtime work is taking too much toll on my evening and I needed to go out and get some fresh air. The dogs are quite sluggish already by this time, so we usually spend a lot of time with night walkies because they’re so slow

Night walkies is Pixel’s favorite. She’s a very shy dog, and I think she enjoys the quiet solitude of night walkies. There are few cars to make her jump, and practically no humans or other dogs to scare her. I must admit that night walkies is indeed a peaceful walk, perfect if you’d like to take it slow and think. Night walkies is also my favorite — the best thing to do to wind down a normally busy work day.

So what then, is the best time for walkies? Considering all these, I would say, anytime is the best time Though I think the best answer will probably be that it depends on the weather and the availability of humans to take their doggies out for walkies.

My dogs and I have our favorites. How about you and your pet? Morning, afternoon, or night walkies?

PVET Farm & Pet is actually an offshoot of Medicomm Pacific’s PVET Drug Directory, primarily to aid practitioners in the animal and veterinary industries. But this digest have some pretty useful information for us pet owners too!

They have a section dedicated to Pets, a treasure-trove of information on pet food products, supplements, and miscellaneous pet products such as accessories, toys and ID tags. There’s also a directory listing of some veterinary clinics in the Philippines — I saw some popular ones I’m familiar with, but not that many listings.

I honestly think that this publication would be a lot more beneficial to vets than typical pet owners… After all, many of us would rather just ask our vet what’s the best food for our dog, or supplements. It’s hard to be bothered by all the technical details when you’re not sure what they really mean However, it also helps to have a reference where you can easily compare nutritional values of pet food before purchase without needing to travel all the way to stores where all brands are available — if there’s even a store out there that has all available pet food brands in the market. This is just the first issue, so hopefully the next one will have more stuff for us pet owners!

PVET Farm & Pet
Medicomm Pacific, Inc.
4/F The Taipan Place, F. Ortigas Jr. Road
Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Email: info@ppd.h
Phone: 638-1461 to 69
Fax: 638-3232
Website: http://www.ppd.ph

The Pet Blessing will be at 9AM. But the 50% discount on grooming service is for the whole day! Take note though, this is for their Xavierville branch only.

For more information, please visit and like The Purple Groom Facebook page.

Are you going to be there? See you!!!

GlamoPET: A red carpet promenade for dogs
Sunday, 26 February 2012
3PM – 5:30PM
Hobbes and Landes Bonifacio High Street

You can pre-register for free by sending an email to mail@hobbesandlandes.com with the following details:

Name of Pet owner:
Name of Pet:
Breed:
Contact Number:

I’ll be bringing Shantee for this event since a fashion show is more her thing than Kubrick’s. She loves getting all dolled up — she believes that “dressing up” means extra attention from humans and going to new places. Besides, it’s going to give us a bit of “alone time.” My husband Marc and I have been training Kubrick for his upcoming dog runs in March. Though Shantee still gets her regular walkies, Kubrick gets walkies plus running time with us. We can’t take her along our runs; I don’t think she likes it much At least with this fashion show, she’ll be in her element and enjoy herself

Hobbes and Landes also has a Pet of the Month promo for dogs who like dressing up. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find the time to swing by their store before February 20 so Shantee can join too.

See you on the 26th!

You see, I honestly have mixed feelings about it. I’m happy that the man was penalized for doing such a horrible act on a friendly creature (based on the account, the dog was in a cage when he shot it, so it was pretty much defenseless), but also a bit disappointment with his sentence. He needs to pay the court Php5,000 (approximately US$120) and the complainant Php15,238 (about US$365) for damages. If he fails to pay the fine, he faces jail time.

I honestly do not know the financial status of Carlos Gozum (the man who shot the dog), but in my opinion, a Php20,238 fine is too small a fine. Ok, you could probably add the stress of the court hearings and prospect of jail for three years (though the complainant went through the same, and more). But the thing is, the penalty was a mere pittance for the suffering the dog and her family went through.

I guess what bothers me the most was how little the “cost” of animal cruelty was in the court of law. You shoot a dog, you get fined Php5k plus damages to the complainant. Such a fine is something that you can more or less get out of. It’s not really “high enough” that would-be dog-shooters can think twice before acting on it. Now, if the penalty alone was Php500,000++ or even Php100,000 — it would certainly be a different story.

On the brighter side, Carlos Gozum was convicted — a court actually sentenced him with a penalty of a fine or face jail time. Recognizing animal cruelty here in the Philippines as punishable by law and actually upholding it is a welcome change for the creatures who cannot fight for their right to live on their own. It’s still a victory for animals, albeit disappointingly small. As I say, baby steps.

On the even brighter side, Aimee the Labrador survived the shot. She is now living happily with her family.

I guess I’m just really affected by this since my family had owned a very loyal Labrador until Ondoy. His name was Coal. He looked “scary” (he was huge, muscular, and all black), but he was as gentle as a kitten (he was actually very friendly with the neighborhood cats unlike our other dogs). We loved Coal, especially my dad. I think I can speak for our family and say that Coal was worth more than any amount — he and the love he gave us were priceless.

Kudos to Renato Tuazon and his family (with the help of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society) for their battle in court for Aimee. It’s not financially easy to sustain a case for three years, not to mention the stress and the emotional strain of court battle and the pain of seeing such a lovable creature suffer. But they still persevered and saw through the case. What’s more, they went through all that for their dog.

I see this case of Aimee as a paradox of animal cruelty here in the Philippines. On one hand, you have Carlos Gozum, the man who shot a puppy helpless inside a cage; and a measly penalty of Php5,000 plus damages. On the other, you have the Tuazon family who fought a long 3-year battle in court and winning the case. A bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless.

I’m hoping that this case will show light to other ongoing animal cruelty cases here in the Philippines. Maybe there will come a time when the penalty will be greater. But for now, we can settle for the loud and clear message the outcome of this case tells would-be animal abusers: you can get charged for animal cruelty in the Philippines.

I honestly have a lot of mixed feelings about the events in 2011. Typhoon Sendong was such a horrible catastrophe, claiming so many lives of people and animals alike. But it was also a year of changes, especially for my dog blogs.

2011 saw the blog redesign of both Pinoy Dog-Lover and Dog Fashionista after so long, as well as our first-ever participation in a pet event as a media partner. We also had our first major blog contest with awesome prizes thanks to our generous sponsors. Kubrick even won the Crypt Keeper’s Choice (Most Original Costume) in PAWS’ annual Scaredy Cats and Dogs Halloween costume contest.

But that’s not the best part… For me (as well as the rest of The Canine Crew), the best thing in 2011 was being able to get to know fellow dog-lovers and their pooches. Some we’ve met in real life for doggie dates, others we’ve interacted more than ever online. Simply put, it’s YOU guys, our readers, who’ve made our 2011 worthwhile

Thank you for being part of our 2011, most especially for supporting our blogs! We’re looking forward to another happy year with all of you, and we hope you’ll continue to be part of our journey to another meaningful year in Pinoy Dog-Lover.

Yours truly,
Gail, Shantee, Kubrick, Pixel, Leica, Patatas and Popoy.

So far I’ve been able to gather two stories. I’ll give an overview here in the blog, but it’s best you visit the full post for details. Oh, and prepare a box of tissues — these stories of amazing animals will surely warm your heart.

Dogs save family from Iligan floods
Typhoon Sendong sneaked in the middle of the night, when Marrietta Ardiente and her family were asleep. Before the furious flood waters swept through their village, Aspins Loloy and Jackie immediately woke up their humans — scratching the door and barking loudly. Because of the dogs’ warning, Marrietta and her family were able to get to safety. They lost their home, but unlike most families affected by the flood, their family is still complete. The family was so grateful for the dogs that even in the evacuation center, they could not bear to be away from their dogs — their life savers. Complete details from Bandila here. *Please note that the video is in Filipino.

Dog saves girl in Cagayan de Oro flashflood
In Cagayan de Oro, seven-year-old Jennylou Yecyec and her family climbed up to the roof of their home in the hopes of safety. Unfortunately, the strong flood waters easily destroyed their home (which was made of light-weight materials). In the chaos, the young girl and their pregnant dog got separated from the family. But the dog didn’t leave Jennylou’s side, fighting the current by all means to stay with her, and eventually implored Jennylou to ride piggy-back on her. Jennylou and the dog were swept to sea — the girl hanging on to her pet as the dog swam for the both of them. In her last act of heroism, the exhausted pregnant dog swam to a floating log to which Jennylou clung on to. The moment the girl was safely hanging on to the log, the dog was gone. She succumbed to exhaustion and the open sea has swallowed her. The dog was never seen again, but Jennylou and her family survived. They were rescued at daybreak, and eventually reunited.

Jennylou and her family have never been able to give their dog a proper name. But they would forever be grateful for the child’s selfless rescuer. They must have loved the dog a lot and made her feel part of the family — why else would the dog think beyond its natural instinct to survive and give up her life for the child? More details of the story from Inquirer.

I can’t help but become teary-eyed when reading stories like these. We all know animals have a natural instinct for survival, but the bond we have with them surpasses that to a point where they are no longer just concerned for their own safety. We love them, and they love us back with everything they can give — even their lives.

From PAWS’ CDO Disaster Photos album in Facebook:

PAWS’ volunteer veterinarian Dr. David Arceo is in CDO now doing an ocular on animals affected by the disaster: Despite their cadaver sweep for 2 days, there are still many to be collected. The stench is overwhelming. There are still a lot of dogs alive and a few have been fed. Many horses dead. 2 badly sick and hungry. Heat of the sun is tremendous.

In disasters such as Typhoon Sendong, humans are the priority in rescues and relief efforts. That’s very understandable, and I’m not arguing with that. But I still couldn’t help but feel sad that animals will be last to, if not never, get help and be attended to. Even harder is that I myself don’t even have the resources to get these animals to safety — CDO is miles away.

Photo by PAWS Volunteer Vet Dr. David Arceo. More photos from his ocular in Cagayan De Oro can be found on the PAWS Facebook photo album.

Thank you, Dr. David Arceo, as well as all the animal welfare volunteers helping out to alleviate suffering for animals. Animals are living creatures; they also deserve to have another chance at life like we humans do. If humans won’t help them, no one else will. It’s really comforting to know that help for the animals are already in progress.

Even from far away, we can help PAWS in their efforts.

To donate online: http://paws.org.ph/site/540/default.aspx
** You can select the “One Time Gift” of any amount option and specify in the Paypal message that you would like your donation to go to their Sendong relief and rescue.

To donate through bank deposit: http://paws.org.ph/site/543/default.aspx

Don’t have a gift for your pooch yet? Check out some of these Christmas gift ideas you can give your dog! Some of these are also great gifts for your dog-lover friend

• Alpo Chop House – How about giving your pet a “special” meal this Christmas? Our dogs love Alpo Chop House, so every Christmas we try to give our dogs a can each. We usually mix the wet food with the dry kibbles, but for Christmas, we let them have something special — their favorite, all wet dog food!
• Beggin’ Strips – Another treat our pets can’t refuse! They go crazy over Beggin’ Strips. If your dog fancies these treats as much as my dogs do, I’m pretty sure this is a gift they would surely love.
• Customized dog tag – Your dog might not appreciate this as much as you would (since a pet tag is mostly for information purposes). But pets like Shantee — who enjoys wearing “things” — certainly will! It’s like having a custom “pendant!” You can get one customized for your pets (and even decorate it with charms!) from Will Wag for Tags.
• Doggie clothes – Perfect for dogs who like to dress up! Get them something new this holiday season, something they can even wear and show off during your parties. Dogs who love attention will definitely enjoy wearing new stuff (I know our Shantee certainly does). Check out Doodles Paw Couture, they even have holiday-themed dresses for your pooches!
• Pooch accessories – How about a new collar for your pet? Or a harness with a brand-new leash? Or maybe even a portable water dispenser? You can get these and more from Bow & Wow. They’ve got lots of stuff for your pets, and with your purchase, you could even help out a pet in need with their current Christmas program.
• Pet massage and Grooming – If you’re sure (and I do mean absolutely sure) your pet would like a massage from a stranger, then by all means get him one for Christmas. Same goes for grooming. But if the massage or grooming session would only stress your dog, it might be better if you give him something he’ll enjoy more. After all, you wouldn’t want your pet to be stressed out because of your “gift,” would you?
• Doggie day out – Got a very social dog? Take him out for a doggie day out! Dedicate an entire day just for him, visit pet-friendly places like Eastwood City or Bonifacio High Street where your pet can meet up with his fellow canines for an afternoon of fun!
• A Christmas “walkies” – Saving money this Christmas? Well, here’s one gift I’m pretty sure any balanced dog will love: WALKIES! Just make sure you give your dog his Christmas walkies before the usual Yuletide fireworks, or you’ll both end up stressed out instead of having fun

But you know what? Even if you don’t give your dog a gift this Christmas, he’d still love you just the same. He’ll be happy as long as he has you. Such loyal and caring creatures — that’s why we can’t help but love them!