The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) has filed charges against five Manila City Pound officials for alleged animal cruelty.
PAWS in a statement said they filed before the Office of the Ombudsman charges against Hector David Dimaculangan, Virgil Benedict De Jesus, Joey Diaz, Nicanor Santos Jr., and Narcisa Bacanto Javier for allegedly violating the Animal Welfare Act and for grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
PAWS accused them of cramming 60 cats into a 2x3 foot cage, subjecting impounded dogs and cats to starvation and dehydration, and for failure to provide veterinary treatment to sick and injured dogs.
PAWS added that during their visit to the pounding area, “the number of diseased, dying and dead animals observed within the facility...shortly after the imposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) indicated that the animals were not euthanized but were left to die from neglect and disease.”
PAWS alleged that it is done “perhaps to spare the city of the expense of having to euthanize them.”
PAWS Executive Director Anna Cabrera called for an end to pound cruelty, stating “the law clearly provides that while strays may be impounded in the interest of public health, the animals must be caught and kept humanely.”
“If they end up not being claimed or adopted, they must at least be also given a humane death following euthanasia protocols mandated by A.O. 13 series of 2010 as amended by A.O. 9 series of 2011 (Revised Rules and Regulations on the Euthanasia of Animals,” she said in a statement posted on PAWS Facebook page.
Cabrera also called on Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso to help PAWS in upholding the Animal Welfare Act.
“While we lodged the case before the Ombudsman, we trust that Mayor Isko would take urgent action and stop the ongoing inhumane practices towards animals being committed by the officials in charge of Manila’s very own city pound,” she said.