BEHIND THE SCENES

‘Murdering’ a dog
ALFRED P. DIZON

BUGUIAS, Benguet – It may take awhile for Cordillerans to eat kimchi instead of dog meat as proposed by the country’s representative of the Network for Animals. By that time anyway, there would be more Koreans in the Cordillera than the locals who have migrated elsewhere. Mel Alipio of the NAP, during a seminar on “kimchi” production in this town said Cordillerans have to be taught to eat more vegetables than dog meat.

Together with Oscar and Lili Oh, visiting Korean educators, the NAP conducted a kimchi production seminar, the first of kimchi production workshops. “We have started with the Rural Improvement Club of Buguias. In the future, we will also train club members in Benguet towns, then the rest of the region,” Alipio was quoted as saying. Kimchi is a local delicacy in Korea consisting of pickled vegetables.
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He said Cordillerans should eat more local vegetables (womboc), raddish, pepino) as part of their regular diet, aside from meat. Eating dog meat, NPA members said, is “unhealthy” while killing of dogs is cruel. The NAP, a non-government organization is against cruel treatment of animals. The NAP claims it is an organization that has spearheaded the anti-dog meat eating campaign in the Philippines, particularly in the region barking at the cruelty of people to animals.

“We must look into the health aspects of eating dog meat,” Alipio said. “We have so many vegetables in the Cordillera. What we are trying to introduce is eating of processed vegetables instead of eating dog meat, which is healthier.”
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The Cordillera region is considered one of the places in the country where dog meat is a delicacy, aside from its value in customary and indigenous practices. Dogs are usually used in Cordillera rituals, customary practices and sacrifices. It is also considered a delicacy in northern Philippines among the Ilocanos, Ibanags and the Igorots the latter of whom some confused lowland people still call nitib like they are not natives too. It is an undisputed fact that eating vegetables is better than eating meat. But to impose on people (particularly Cordillerans) not to eat dog meat because doing so is being cruel, I believe, is going a little bit too much.
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Dogs are considered best friends of men, even better friends than people. But then again, there are pets and there are non-pets. I for a fact wouldn’t have the stomach to kill my dog and feed it to my friends as pulutan. So even if my dog sometimes scatters the garbage and I get murderous feelings, I wouldn’t do anything to harm it. You see the number of clothes stolen from the house clothes line stopped ever since we tied the German dog mestizo near the gate where its menacing stare could frighten the most dangerous nincompoop around.

I like my dog, but I can also eat dog meat. Although I only do it every three to four months in any of a friend’s family’s string of restaurants specializing in the gustatory delight. For me to eat dog meat everyday would be boring. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be branded an ancient Jurassic mammal for doing so. ***
I also wouldn’t want to smell like a dog. If you smelled a koboy who had a drink too many of San Miguel gin, ate a lot of dog pulutan, didn’t take a bath in years and wears his trusty old leather jacket everyday, I guess you have an idea of what I mean.

Since the NAP is against cruelty to animals, maybe they should study their advocacy. Would killing a chicken ala pinikpikan (killing the chicken slowly by beating it black and blue like the Igorots do and later burning its feathers over an open flame) constitute cruelty? It is disputable if killing a chicken this way is a sacred cultural rite. But then again, most tribal norms and traditions have been corrupted for the sake of commerce and tourism not only in the Cordillera but worldwide. So let us leave this to be talked about by the academicians in their ivory towers.
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How about killing other animals like cows, carabaos or pigs for food? Would this be cruelty? If we don’t kill animals, there may come a time there would be more of them than people on this blighted earth. I maybe gone by that time and I wouldn’t care if they mingle with some of the most hypocritical and corrupt human mammals I know.

Anyhow, should also start as part of its advocacy the banning of fierce dog fights in western countries like England. This Banana Republic’s cock fights are nothing as compared to western dog fights where the primal instincts of the “civilized” gentiles erupt in ecstasy like sexual climax every time they see a dog mangled with its body being torn to sheds by its opponent.

And oh, how about those seasons when western governments allow people to hunt deer or other animals for a certain period of time like in Canada? You see, I dread now going fishing at the China Sea in Bauang, La Union particularly when a NAP member is around lest I be branded a murderer – of a fish.