We need you to support us in our work to protect the dogs of the Philippines..............

How we started and why we are needed.

I first got involved with the evil Philippine dog trade in 1982. I was working with another animal welfare organisation then and read a small article in a national daily newspaper. At that time it was not illegal to kill dogs for human consumption and around 1 million dogs every year were being consumed by this wicked trade. In 1998 the Philippine government introduced the Animal Welfare Act known as RA8485 but unfortunately at about the same time the organisation that I used to be with stopped working in the Philippines. This instigated me to travel to the Philippines and here I was to witness at first hand the full horror and the suffering that the dogs were forced to endure. There was no choice, I instantly knew that I (IWCT) had to take over where others had left off.

It was not easy being in a foreign country, unable to speak the language and where I looked different to everyone else. I did know one Filipino who helped me at first, but it was a real struggle. On the upside I did have the new law to help me. Philippine law makes it illegal for humans to eat dogs, the problem is, these regulations are not being implemented and the laws are not enforced. Consequently every week more than 2000 dogs in the Philippines still end up on the dinner plates of Filipinos. If this in itself was not bad enough, the cruelty suffered by the dogs involved is beyond belief.

In November 1998, IWCT started its work in the Philippines and two and a half years ago, IWCT set up in the Philippines an associated animal welfare organisation named Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc (AKF). AKF is fully and legally registered in accordance with Filipino law. This was done to better educate the local population and to encourage our Filipino employees to better understand the meaning of “Animal Welfare”, plus it gives us greater credibility employing local people and excludes us from being criticised as outside interference. All of which has work very well, but the downside is we have found it impossible to raise funds in the Philippines; consequently all the funds have to be raised externally by IWCT.

To find out what we are doing to protect the dogs of the Philippines today Click Here.