My involvement in the issue of the wicked Philippine dog trade started in 1982, while working with another animal welfare organization then, I chanced upon a small article in a national daily newspaper about the unbelievable trade. At that time, it was not illegal to kill dogs for human consumption and this wicked trade was consuming around 1 million dogs every year. In 1998, the Philippine government introduced the Animal Welfare Act known as RA8485 but unfortunately, at about the same time, the organization that I used to be with stopped working in the Philippines. This instigated me to go back to the Philippines and there I was to witness at first hand the full horror and the suffering that the dogs were forced to endure. There was no choice; I instantly knew that I (IWCT) had to take over where others had left off.

Unable to speak the language and where I looked different to everyone else, it was not easy being a stranger in the Philippines but I did know one Filipino who helped me at first, still, I encountered tremendous struggle. On the upside, I did have the new law to help me. Philippine law makes it illegal for humans to eat dogs, the problem is, these regulations are not being implemented and the laws are not enforced. Consequently every week, more than 2, 000 dogs in the Philippines still end up on the dinner plates of Filipinos. If this in itself was not bad enough, the cruelty suffered by the dogs involved is beyond belief.

Cowering with fear as IWCT comes to the rescue.		Rescued and on the back of our truck the same dog shown here on the right.

In November 1998, IWCT officially started its work in the Philippines and eventually set up in the Philippines an associated animal welfare organization named Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc. (AKF). AKF is fully and legally registered in accordance with Filipino law. This was done to better educate the local population and to encourage our Filipino employees to better understand the meaning of "Animal Welfare", plus it gives us greater credibility employing local people and excludes us from being criticized as outside interference. All of which has work very well, but the downside is we have found it impossible to raise funds in the Philippines; consequently all the funds have to be raised externally by IWCT.