Vet warns: Eating dog meat could turn fatal

BAGUIO CITY — The city veterinarian warned the public not to eat dog meat as this could cause sicknesses to humans and turn fatal.

Dr. Brigit Piok, city veterinarian, said dog meat should no longer be patronized as these likely infected with dangerous diseases.

“Dog meat is not subjected to quarantine tests to guarantee its safety for human consumption,” Piok said. “Thus, people have no protection against purchasing double-dead dog meat.”

Eating dog meat is part of the culture of the early people of the Cordillera region.

There are various delicacies of dog meat which is still being sold in Cordillera restaurants.

These include the insides, dog head and even “dog longaniza” known in these parts as pinuneg.

Piok said meat eaters must learn to start abandoning dog meat since it contains suspected diseases that could adversely affect one’s health.

More importantly, she cited need for the public not to patronize dog meat anymore for they do not know where these came from.

The city veterinarian denied claims by dog meat eaters that the same helps in warming one’s body, especially during the rainy season, saying that such claims “are just psychological.”

Although there is an existing ban on the sale of dog meat nationwide pursuant to Republic Act 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act, a number of meat vendors still clandestinely sell dog meat to their patrons under the noses of local market inspectors.

However, the eating of dog meat is not totally banned in Cordillera because dogs can be butchered and offered for indigenous rituals and practices, particularly daw-es or “cleansing” rituals.

Aside from dogs being butchered in the backyard of some local residents and sold to their neighbors, the supply of dog meat in this mountain resort city and nearby Benguet province comes from as far as Batangas and Laguna.

Enterprising individuals usually buy cheap dogs from lowland residents, tie their mouths to prevent them from making noises and load them into closed vans en route to this city. – Dexter A. See