The sad story of the Asong Pinoy (Philippine Dog)

My mom and I were very very sad last night after we watched a documentary on dog meat trade. Dog meat trade, while prohibited by law, is still rampant in a specific northern province of the Philippines.

According to dogmeattrade.com it is estimated that around 500,000 dogs are killed annually in the Philippines for human consumption. Despite the passage of the law prohibiting it, it is still flourishing because of lack of strict enforcement and insufficient public education. The barbaric practice has a lucrative commercial market which makes it easy for the violators to ignore the law.

It was very hard to see the plight of my poor brothers. Hundreds crammed in cages with ropes tied around their snouts to prevent them from barking or whimpering. They all have this horrified, dazed look because most of them came from homes, are captured or sold to traders, then, crowded into the back of the van en route to the place where they will be tortured and killed.

My mom felt horrified and hugged me tightly while we watched the show. I know I’ll never experience that fate. I have a loving family and more food or toys than I could ever want or need; but, what about other dogs? She cried mostly because she felt so helpless. If there were no practical constraints, she would adopt all of them. But, for now, all we can do is to disseminate information and help in the campaign to stop this atrocious practice. We are also hoping to get your opinion and ideas on this topic.

Love,
Charlie


For more information, visit:

http://www.dogmeattrade.com/

http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/cruelty_issues_around_the_world/dog_meat_campaign.html

Making amends

Hi pups! Im so sorry that I have been out of the loop lately. Blame my mom.

To make it up to me she spent yesterday mending and washing my stuffies so that they will look nice and clean again. Of course, I supervised. She also gave me a new stuffie to play with. It's very nice but when you press it's tummy, it snores loudly and frightens me.

Here are the pictures of my stuffies after they have suffered surgery and almost drowned in the big bad washer and dryer. I promised to take care of them well so that they won't have to go through that again. Poor babies! But, they do smell good after washing.

This is so embarrassing!!!

Will someone please remind my mom that I'm a boy-dog so she'll stop putting orchids on my head.

In my defense, I was smiling because she was dangling three pieces of cheese just so I'll pose for these blackmail-worthy pictures.

Happiness is...

...having a mom who works at home and does not mind

(in fact, happily welcomes) a little distraction.

...playing with my stuffed toys

and destroying them

Whooops!

...having a friend to play with

...and meeting a new one.

(This is Poochie, a friend I met while mom and I were taking our nightly walk around the nieghborhood. )

Close encounter with a scary and slimy creature

What is this weird looking creature?

They named it Pong. My hoomans have always kept it in an aquarium. Over the past few months, it grew very fast. But, it was not a threat to me since it was always imprisoned in its glass home. However, mom decided to let it crawl all over the house today just to see how fast it could do it. The creature crawled. At first, it was unsure of the path it would take, then, recognizing the voices, it crawled towards the hoomans and stretched its long neck to look at them.

Then, it saw me. It crawled very slowly but has decided a path towards me. I panicked and hid in one corner. I was seen. I don't know where to go anymore. The thing was still staring at me with its slimy eyes (shudder). It opened its mouth to show a toothless smile but that was not very reassuring because its beak looked very sharp. Pong had me cornered. I tried to bark at it but it was not threatened by my voice. It creeped steadily towards me, inching closer and closer to where I was hiding. When it was only a few inches from me, Mom grabbed it and placed it back in its aquarium. She was scared that I might hurt it.

I might hurt it?! It was coming to hurt me! Hoomans! Sometimes, they have a screwed up way of looking at things.