Tackle proposed Animal Welfare Act amendments, Congress urged

Golden Retriever Killua was brutally murdered and found by his owner in a sack (Photo courtesy of Vina Rachelle / Facebook)

MANILA, Philippines — Camarines Sur 2nd District Rep. LRay Villafuerte has urged both the House of Representatives and the Senate to discuss proposed amendments to Republic Act No. 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998, in light of a pet dog being killed in his province.

Villafuerte on Monday said the death of Killua — the Golden Retriever who was killed by a man who claims that the dog chased his son — should be a wake-up call to Congress to address bills that have been seeking to amend R.A. No. 8485.

The lawmaker said he had filed House Bill No. 6059, which seeks to revise the Animal Welfare Act. However, it has been pending before the House Committee on Agriculture and Food since November 2022.

“We are hoping that Killua’s senseless death in the hands of its owners’ neighbor would be a wake-up call for the members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to act on proposed amendatory laws meant to tone up the 26-year-old Animal Welfare Act by establishing a better system of state supervision and regulation for dealing with animals,” Villafuerte said in a statement.

Villafuerte hopes both chambers of the 19th Congress can hold committee hearings while the session is on a break from March 23 to April 28.

Under the bill, an Animal Welfare Bureau (AWB) will be created as an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, with regional, provincial, and municipal offices.

If the bill is enacted, Villafuerte said the AWB would be tasked to establish an “emergency animal response and rescue system to appropriately respond in cases of calamities such as but not limited to floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters” and “promulgate guidelines for humane slaughter of animals, in consultation with the National Meat Inspection Service, local government units and other concerned government agencies.”

Aside from these, the AWB will be in-charge of the following:

• implementing a system for inspection of animal facilities to ensure compliance with animal welfare standards and regulations
• monitoring compliance of local government units with animal welfare programs, standards, rules and regulations
• ensuring proper coordination with non-government organizations (NGOs), people’s organizations (POs) and the academe for the strict enforcement of the Act’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR)

Law enforcement agencies like the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and other offices will be required by the bill to designate animal welfare enforcement officers who will assist the AWB.

“These would-be deputized animal welfare enforcement officers shall have the full authority to seize and rescue illegally traded and maltreated animals and to arrest violators of this Act, subject to existing laws, rules and regulations on arrest and detention,” Villafuerte said.

According to the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), the act of a certain Anthony Solares, who killed Killua, appears not to be an act of self-defense. 

PAWS explained that while Solares claimed that his child was chased by the Killua, closed-circuit television camera footage showed that the man was the one going after the dog.

House lawmakers last March 20 condemned the incident, saying that there might be a need to revisit the country’s animal welfare laws.

However, PAWS announced earlier that a post-mortem examination on Killua showed that the dog was positive for rabies, a viral disease that can be fatal if transferred to humans, usually through animal bites.