Dog-eating and my culture
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2003:
Dog-eating and my culture by Bing A. Dawang
Just before World Animal Day, which coincides with the feast
of St. Francis d’Assisi, the patron saint of animals, a local
newpaper defended the dog meat trade in the Philippines, in
particular in Baguio City and the Cordilleras, by claiming that dog
eating is a part of the Igorot indigenous culture.
As a full-blooded Igorot, I take offense.
The newspaper quoted Isikias Isican, said to be curator of
the St. Louis University museum, as saying that there is a clear
cultural basis for butchering dogs because they were “butchered by
Igorot tribes before going to war, or to cure certain afflictions.”
Isican generalized that dog-eating is a part of Igorot
tradition by recalling that in 1904 a few Igorot men and women were
displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition (“world’s fair”) in
St. Louis, Missouri. Described as as heathen pagans, they
butchered a dog as part of the show.
In the same article Hanzen Binay, formerly defense counsel
for several dog meat traders and now a Benguet prosecutor,
questioned the wisdom of the Philippine Animal Welfare Act.
Objecting that the law was supported by British animal advocates,
Binay asked rhetorically why Britain does not respect the Igorot
culture.