Fur parents’ fury

The first time I heard of funeral services for pets was about six years ago. A pet lover I know sent a photo of her beloved dog, lying in an open coffin surrounded with small wreaths and candles.

In my teens I had bawled for hours when our 15-year-old dachshund died. Four candles were lit as we buried him that evening with his blanket, supper dish and other stuff at the foot of the banaba tree in our front yard.

That kind of affection for pets was still not common at the time; I got a lot of ribbing when I went to work the next day with my eyes swollen from crying. Even my mother, no pet lover, teased me with a popular ditty at the time, “Napakasakit, Kuya Eddie...”

Today surveys show the Philippines ranking highest in pet dog ownership in the Asia-Pacific, with over 80 percent seeing the pets as family members or protectors of the household. A Social Weather Stations survey in 2023 showed 64 percent of Pinoy households having pets (78 percent dogs, 50 percent cats).

And pet funeral services have gained popularity, even among those with gardens where their dearly departed fur babies can be buried. The services come with optional packages that allow fur parents to keep mementoes of their pets: pieces of fur in faux jewelry or glass domes, and most importantly, the ashes from cremation, kept in lovely urns.

Presumably, the ashes belong to the departed pets, and aren’t just ashes from inanimate objects.

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I can understand the public opprobrium that has been heaped on Jonathan Legaspi, owner of Ahjay Paws Aftercare Pet Crematorium in Bacoor, Cavite, which has been found to have dumped the carcasses of at least 29 pet dogs and cats in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan instead of cremating the remains.

The issue is not just about the cost of the undelivered service. Depending on the size of the dog, the service package and the company, pet cremation prices range from P3,000 to about P10,500. Special urns add to the price tag. As animal welfare advocates pointed out, the owners of the dead pets have been so distressed and furious over the treatment of their fur babies – a sentiment that non-pet lovers will never understand.

Legaspi has denied involvement in the dumping of the pets by people in a white van, which reportedly took place on Oct. 29. The dead pets, dumped in sacks, still bore their identification tags and details that led to their owners.

On Oct. 31, Bacoor Mayor Strike Revilla ordered the closure of Ahjay pending investigation.

Many of the bereaved pet parents are reportedly filing complaints of estafa against Ahjay and its owner.

Violations of environmental rules are also being eyed by the National Bureau of Investigation, which has launched a probe into the operations of other pet crematoriums. NBI Director Melvin Matibag has said he himself is a pet lover and feels the pain of the owner-victims.

Days later, more sacks containing animal remains were found at another site in San Jose del Monte. The Philippine National Police is investigating the issue.

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We’ve come a long way from the days when stray dogs were rounded up and brutally killed for pulutan, prepared kinilaw style or like ceviche for drinking sprees.

For a long time, eating dog meat was common in several Asian countries. China’s Guilin City and Guangxi province are known for selling dog and cat meat. But studies have shown growing public opposition to dog meat consumption in China, and it is now banned in several cities such as Shenzhen.

A tourist guide in Guilin told me that dog meat is popular in cold areas because it is better than a heavy leather jacket for keeping the body warm. This must be why among the last holdouts defying the ban in our country on the slaughter of dogs for meat are certain folks in Baguio and the Cordillera highlands.

Dog meat consumption continues in Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, Timor-Leste, Nigeria, Cameroon and DR Congo. South Korea has banned it, alongside the breeding and slaughter of dogs for meat, effective February next year.

While Pinoy appetite for dog pulutan has been drastically curbed, there’s still a wide room for promoting the welfare of humans’ best friend.

Dogs are still kept as living doorbells-cum-bodyguards, held in cramped cages or tied to short leashes by the gate, rain or shine, in the pounding El Niño heat.

As for cats, I know people like me whose homes are hangouts for neighborhood cats because of the cat food and clean water that we provide for them. At any one time, I always have at least four such cats in my home, free to roam, although once acclimatized, they rarely leave the premises.

There are companies (The STAR included) that also “adopt” street cats, feeding them regularly within the premises and turning them into pets. The cats are useful in keeping out rodents.

This is a long way from about three decades ago when I attended a cooking school, where we were taught to use cat meat as extender for commercial siopao chicken filling. No lie – I still have the mimeographed recipe. We were told that the meat could be sourced from a supplier in Pampanga who bred cats for their meat.

Today groups such as PAWS – the Philippine Animal Welfare Society – are filing cases or helping initiate or sustain the criminal prosecution of people for violations of laws against animal cruelty.

The Animal Welfare Act, Republic Act 8485, was passed in 1998, and enhanced under RA 10631 in 2013. The recent events show that further refinements are needed in the law, along with stringent enforcement.