Activists protest legalization of dog meat

MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- Animal rights activists are challenging a law that would legalize the consumption of dog meat among indigenous people in the northern Philippines.

The governor of Benguet province has received at least 75 protest letters from the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria and elsewhere, asking that he refrain from endorsing a resolution that would make dog meat legal, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

A 10-member provincial board last November approved a resolution exempting the indigenous people of the Cordillera Mountains from national laws prohibiting the sale and consumption of dog meat.

The resolution allows 'the butchering of animals, dogs included, as part of their rituals and practices,' and states that commercialization is inevitable to protect this right.

The board objected to police raids of markets and restaurants run by indigenous people, citing their right to the 'ritual' use of dogs.

In a letter to the provincial governor, Anneleise Smillie, education director of Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, wrote that citing tradition was 'an extremely poor argument for maintaining a merciless practice that should be relegated to the history books.'

Copyright 2006 by United Press International