Police, animal care group save 65 dogs

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna—Authorities rescued 65 dogs from suspected dog meat traders in Alfonso, Cavite, on Tuesday.

Luis Buenaflor, director of the nongovernment Animal Kingdom Foundation (AKF), said the dogs had just been loaded into a van that was supposed to bring them to Northern Luzon provinces where there is a thriving market for dog meat.

“The dogs were bound for Baguio City,” Buenaflor said in a phone interview yesterday.

He said aside from the 65, one dog was already dead when the authorities arrived.

Members of the Cavite police intelligence branch and the AKF arrested four persons during the foiled transport of the dogs in Barangay Matagbak around 9 p.m., said Senior Superintendent John Bulalacao, Cavite police director.

They were identified as Jose Mithcham, Jackson Ilagan, Dexter Almayda, all residents of San Pedro, Laguna, and Rosario Maravilla, who Buenaflor said was known as the “first lady” of the underground dog meat trade. Four other persons evaded arrest, the police said.

Police impounded the suspects’ van and four tricycles, which they believed were used to collect the dogs from different locations.

Buenaflor said dog meat sold in the North usually comes from Southern Luzon, particularly Laguna and Cavite.

“It looked like the dogs were collected over the past two days,” he said.

He said illegal dog traders would usually go around residential areas, stealing stray dogs or buying “unwanted” dogs for P100-P200 from dog owners.

He said dogs are slaughtered on the way to North Luzon, usually in Pangasinan or La Union. Dog meat may cost as much as P1,500 to P2,000 per kg, Buenaflor said.