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AFP News – 17 hours ago


Philippine police rescued 300 badly injured pitbulls and arrested seven South Koreans after busting a massive online dog fighting syndicate, the head of the operation said Sunday.

Four Filipino caretakers were also taken in for questioning after the Friday raid at a two-hectare farm in the city of San Pablo just south of the capital Manila, Chief Inspector Renante Galang said.

"The dogs were in very bad shape. They were either sick or were wounded," Galang told AFP.

"This was a major online gambling syndicate in which they cruelly pitted the dogs against each other, sometimes to the death."

The dog fights were being broadcast online to a betting audience.

Galang said two of those arrested Friday had also been held in December after police busted a similar operation in a nearby province, when 240 dogs were rescued. The men had been released after posting bail.

Local animal rights group, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), said a check on the animals showed that many were severely injured, with ripped ears and tongues, including 20 that needed to be euthanised.

PAWS programme director Anna Cabrera said her group was now coordinating with other agencies to try and rehabilitate the pitbulls, many of which had not been properly fed or sheltered.

She said many more could be put down if no help arrived.

"The government simply does not have a facility big enough to hold these animals," she said, adding that the pitbulls were bred for fighting and could not be placed together in a single cage.

She called on the government to overhaul its animal rights law that allows suspects to post bail of about $100 and go free while their cases moved through the country's notoriously slow court system.

A picture released by PAWS on its Facebook page showed one emaciated dog chained to a tree. In the background, steel drums were being used as dog kennels.

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Pitbulls put down in Philippines after rescue
By Teodoro Aljibe | AFP News – 12 hours ago


Twenty-five pitbulls rescued from an online dog-fighting racket run by South Koreans in the Philippines have been put down, and another 215 could be also destroyed, rescuers said Tuesday.

All the dogs, rescued by police from a farm south of Manila Friday, could end up being destroyed unless people come forward to adopt the least aggressive ones that can still be nursed back to health, vet Wilford Almoro said.

Most are weakened by dehydration and poor nutrition, and many of those that were destroyed had serious injuries, said Almoro, of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, a charity that rescues and rehabilitates abused animals,

The remaining dogs "condition could go downhill in the coming days, and if no one will help, then they would have to be put down as well," he told AFP.

Seventeen dogs with the worst injuries were put down on Saturday, including one that had half its tongue ripped out and another with both its ears bitten off, said Almoro.

Eight other dogs were destroyed Tuesday, and another five were set to be put down later in the day, he added.

"Some have unhealed wounds, but most are down to skin and bones and their rib cages are showing," Almoro said, adding most had scars from being wounded in fights.

"They appear to be suffering from dehydration and they are just lying down on the ground where they are tethered."

He estimated that physical rehabilitation for all the animals would cost 3.34 million pesos (about $78,000) and they would also need treatment to correct their aggressive behaviour.

"Just imagine the amount of work required for their continuous upkeep... I don't know if people can raise money for that 24/7," he added.

After police raided the two-hectare (4.94-acre) farm, they arrested 12 people, including eight South Koreans accused of running the illegal dog fights that were streamed live on the Internet to spectators who placed bets.

Dog fighting does not have a large following in the Philippines, unlike cockfighting, which is the country's most popular sport and sees roosters with metal spurs tied to their legs forced to fight to the death.

Almoro said the dogs had been kept in abominable conditions, tied up with chains, in an orchard hidden from view by high walls of sheet metal.

"They were constantly exposed to pain, trauma, and deep wounds. Given their condition, many of them would likely get infected if they remained here," he said.

"Putting them up for adoption is easier said than done, because you have to make sure you are not handing them over to people who would sell them back to dog-fighting gangs."

He urged the Philippine parliament to amend and toughen up the law against animal cruelty, now punishable by a maximum prison term of two years and a 6,000-peso fine.

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