Jericho, Heart, and Karylle:
Leaving “pawprints” of love in our hearts
By: Lucile B. Tañalas
Considered one of the best young hunk actors in the showbiz industry, Jericho can send ladies swooning by just flexing his muscles or winking at them. He is ruggedly handsome, no doubt about it. But beneath his seemingly rough exterior lies a soft
spot for our furry friends—the native dogs and cats.
“It comes naturally to me to love animals and to take care of them because I really find them adorable and they make me happy,” Jericho says in a video clip he shares with pretty and multitalented actress Heart Evangelista, also an animal lover
herself.
“I know how important dogs are because they give us love and friendship and inspire us and at the end of the day they’re just there to listen to you and love you back,” Heart echoes.
Dogs and cats love us like no other. Kick them (dogs and cats) for no reason at all and they will still vigorously wag their tail in greetings when you come home or lick your face like there’s no tomorrow!
But every day, dogs and cats are rendered homeless. “They are sold, kicked, or killed,” laments Jericho.
Singer-actress Karylle shares the same sentiment with Jericho and Heart, fellow PAWS volunteer celebrity endorsers. “Animals do not have a voice that’s why they need us to speak for them,” she says in a separate video clip. “If you are not sure you can spend for a pet and if you cannot give time, don’t get a pet,” she voices out.
Anna Hashim-Cabrera, who comes from a family of animal rescuers and is PAWS program director since 1997, laments the sad state of our native dogs and cats. “In the Philippines, native dogs are often victims of cruelty and neglect. They are
treated like some live burglar alarm system, they are tied out on the gate, left in the sun and the rain, and they are just
usually fed table scraps,” she sighs. “Their counterparts, however, the breeded dogs, are fed premium dog food, taken to
groomers or long walks in the park.”
Pioneering PAWS
Enter the Philippine Animal Welfare Society or PAWS—a perfect acronym for our furry friends whose unconditional love supersedes ours.
Founded by British educator Muriel Jay in 1954, PAWS takes in abandoned dogs and nurses them back to health and readies them for adoption. When Muriel went back to England, however, the once vibrant PAWS slowly slipped into a long coma.
Then in 1986 Nita Hontiveros-Lichauco breathed life to the comatose PAWS. As current president, Ms Lichauco continues her unceasing campaign for the welfare of native dogs and cats.
Today, PAWS is alive and kicking! Its mission is to prevent cruelty, alleviate pain, fear and suffering in animals and to promote a society based on humane principles. It also envisions the Philippines as a nation that respects animals, practices
responsible pet ownership and protects wildlife.
“Every day we pass them (stray dogs and cats) by,” says PAWS of these once well-loved pets. “They dodge cars, look for food in the garbage, battle malnutrition and sickness in silence…. There is no government agency dedicated to their welfare (to
give them low-cost medical care or provide them with a halfway home). They don’t vote, they can’t speak and their ‘rights’ are still not recognized by most members of society. And yet their pain and suffering is as real as yours and mine.”
How lamentable that we often turn a blind eye to these animals we consider our best friends!
Campaigns of love
The rising cases of animal cruelty and pet abandonment pushed PAWS to launch a campaign called “See Beauty Beyond Breed.” It is about loving our native dogs and cats because they are just as cute, lovable, and loyal as their breeded counterparts.
Heart’s campaign is for us to open our hearts to these strays and “love and treat them well because they were given to us by God to love us and let’s try to do our responsibility to take care of them.” Says a tagline in one of her posters that
features a native dog, Brian, “Love is in the HEART not in the breed.” How fitting!
Jericho prays that everybody may be aware that the aspins (asong pinoy formerly known as askals or asong kalye) deserve the same treatment and love that are given to their breeded counterparts, that these aspins from PAWS can be adopted. “You will not have problems when you adopt dogs and cats from PAWS,” he promotes.
Karylle is sad to know about the rise in pet abandonment at PAWS. She advises would-be pet owners to think 100 times before owning a pet to lessen the number of pet adoption at PAWS and abandonment on the streets. “Some things are meant to last a lifetime,” Karylle campaigns. This means 100 percent commitment to loving and taking good care of your pets which can live from 8 to 15 years.
Born to be homeless?
The heart-tugging TV ad “Homeless Not Worthless” by PAWS focuses on what a typical street cat and street dog experience every day: dancing with death!
Many of us have witnessed the “confusion in a cat’s eyes as she calculates whether it is safe to come out of the drain hole she is hiding in. Or in a stray dog’s rude awakening’ as the car he is resting under pulls away and he has to wearily run
toward another parked vehicle just to seek shelter,” PAWS explains.
The tagline in Filipino says, “Bigyan siya (cat emerging from a dirty manhole) ng bahay para humaba ang kanyang buhay.” For the weary and hungry dog resting beside the base of a lamppost, the campaign reads: “Magaling na bantay, wala namang bahay.”
If we will not care for them,then who?
Our part
Animals play an active role in our lives. They serve as pets, protectors, or rescue teams during times of disaster. Anna encourages pet owners to: (1) make their pets’ short stay with them the best time of their life, (2) give them antirabies
vaccine for everyone’s protection, (3) spay or neuter* them to have less stray dogs and cats that will contribute to stray animal overpopulation which gives rise to animal cruelties, and; (4) ask their veterinarian about spaying or neutering their
pets or read up on it at the PAWS website www.paws.org.ph.
Like Jericho, Heart, and Karylle, let us leave pawprints of love to our native dogs and cats. “To have a commitment to be there for them in sickness and in health and to grow old with him—that’s the ideal human-pet relationship that we encourage,”
is Anna’s parting message.
Lucile Bernardino-Tañalas is associate editor of Health & Home.
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