A WORKER feeds a herd of dairy carabaos at the Philippine Carabao Center in the Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija province. The facility maintains a carabao gene pool and helps preserve the population of the farm animals in the country. WILLIE LOMIBAO/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Worried about the indiscriminate slaughter of carabaos for meat and meat products, Gloria de la Cruz, director of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) based at Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in La Union province, predicted last year that the farm animal would disappear in the next 10 years in Pangasinan province.
The carabao population in Pangasinan has not increased, but its decline has significantly slowed down since 2013. “I think our joint campaign with the PCC to save our carabao population worked,” said Eric Jose Perez, provincial veterinarian.
Records from Perez’s office here showed that the population decreased from 77,675 in 2013 to 77,000 last year. The difference of 675 was way below the average yearly population decrease in the last six years.
From 135,538 heads in 2007, the figure was down to 92,296 in 2010 and 77,675 in 2013, or an average yearly decrease of 4,873.
Perez said the campaign focused on a provincial government ordinance enacted in 2013, which regulated the sale or slaughter of female carabaos.
Anyone caught selling and slaughtering a “breedable” female carabao will be punished under the ordinance. First-time offenders will be reprimanded and must attend a one-hour orientation on the law. Repeat offenders will lose their license to transport livestock.
“This is why we now rarely see female carabaos in slaughterhouses in the province. Even at the cattle market in Urdaneta [City], shippers from other provinces no longer sell female carabaos,” Perez said.
Female carabaos can only be sold and slaughtered if these are at least 9 years old, when these have given birth multiple times and are no longer breedable, he pointed out.
In Mangaldan town, which is famous for its “tapa” (dried carabao meat) and “pigar pigar” (deep-fried carabao meat), female carabaos are no longer slaughtered.
The ordinance also established a buy-back plan in which the provincial government buys breedable female carabaos to be distributed as additional stocks to local dairy cooperatives. Some P1.5 million was initially allocated for the scheme, and P500,000 in the succeeding years.
“So far, we have already bought 13 heads and we have distributed them to qualified beneficiaries. We hope to buy more this year,” Perez said.
The beneficiaries, mostly farmers’ associations, use the animals for breeding and milking.
To complement the provincial government’s effort, the PCC has been distributing to farmers’ groups imported carabaos, such as the Bulgarian and Italian Murrah, for crossbreeding.