A REPORT TO THE PUBLIC (Particularly to donors in cash and inkind for the Cainta pound dogs) THE CAINTA POUND STORY: We learned that dogs in the Cainta pound needed help due to limited resources of the local government sometime early September. In a report to the Admin team, a member posted this report: September 16 · One Cainta Pound Location: Gen. Ricarte, Brgy. San Juan Cainta Rizal 8 A.M. - 5 P.M. (Monday to Sunday) • As of September 15: 88 dogs are in the pound. • The Total Capacity of dogs in the pound is 100 (out of 98 cages). They prefer 1 dog per cage, BUT, they put dogs together in 1 cage if the number of dogs exceed more than the estimated capacity of the pound. (Male and female dogs in one cage instead of putting the same gender). • Dog catchers are always doing their work every day.They use net and the so called “pang-silo”? for catching dogs. According to them, their way of catching it is safe and not harmful for the dogs. • Dogs are fed twice a day but sometimes they are fed once. They eat NFA rice with chicken head/fish and sometimes leftover foods. • Of course they accept surrendered dogs; good thing that the pound implements “NO KILL POLICY”, the sad news is, every week there’s a dog dying due to its poor health (no intake of any nutritious food/vitamins). • Few have anti-rabies shot but most of the dogs don’t have. They said that dogs with collar got its vaccine already. • Seldom once to adopt a dog from their pound, as observed, they are less healthy compared to the dogs at Pasig pound. • Adoption fee is P100. They personally bring the dog to its new owner and also to check if the environment is good for the dog.They wait for at least a week before letting the new dogs to be adopted because they want to know if someone will claim the dog. They badly need the following: • Dog Food • Mat • Food Bowls • Soap or Detergent Soaps etc..(For cleaning and hygiene purposes) • Medicines and Vitamins The admin said the report came from a Cainta resident who isi an animal lover. This resident told me that he informed the Mayor of his desire to help the dogs in the pound. The Mayor, he said, agreed. We decided to provide some food and medical help. On Sept. 25, our volunteer brought bags of dog food to the pound located inside the Cainta Public Cemetery. She gave a report to the Save ALL AdmiN Team which includes seeing two dead dogs inside cages. On Sept. 26, we started feeding the dogs, then 77 in all. This was the report of the admin who went there: September 26 · My observations @Cainta Pound: -Almost all of the dogs are in their bad state of health. -They dont have a proper way of cleaning the food bowls. (every monday only instead of every day) --There are no bowls used specifically for drinking water, instead the bowls used for eating are also being utilized for drinking water. Likewise, it has been observed that dogs were given water even though the bowls have still leftover foods. -Cages are rusting which may affect dogs health. -Cockroaches are everywhere. -No nutritious foods. cannot afford to buy liver/meat because of the low budget. On Sept. 28, two volunteers went to the pound and here is part of their observation, among others: A. RUSTY, DILAPIDATED CAGES WITH PROTRUDING STEEL BARS THAT CAN INJURE DOGS. B. ELECTRIC WIRES BITTEN BY DOGS WHICH CAN ELECTROCUTE DOGS WHEN IT RAINS OR WHEN THE POUND STAFF HOSE THE CAGES TO REMOVE THE POOP AND URINE C. THERE WERE NEW PLASTIC MATS BUT OLD ONES WERE IN THE CAGES, THE REST WERE IN THE STORE ROOM. D. THE BOWLS ARE ONLY HOSED WITH WATER AND NOT CLEANED WITH DISHWASHING LIQUID. E. THE TWO DOGS WHO DIED SEPT 25 WERE STILL IN THEIR CAGES. THE ADMIN AND MEMBER ASKED A MANONG FROM THE POUND TO BURY THE DOGS. On Oct. 1, admins Eo Cedeno and Mary Jane Quema and Save ALL Halfway Home assistant manager Thelma Tudio met with CAINTA MAYOR JOHNIELL KEITH KIT NIETO at his office where HE welcomed the assistance Save ALL offered. In return, he offered the resources of his good office for the good of the dogs in the pound. I did not make it to the meeting as I had to finish cooking the food for the dogs (rice, pumpkin, liver, rosemary, apple cider vinegar, carrots, and the supplement coco nectar, among others). We fed the 77 dogs and a vet from Mace Clinic in Mandaluyong (formerly St. Gabriel) did distemper and blood tests and found two positive for distemper and all were positive for erlichia Since erlichia is a disease that a dog gets from ticks, the main vet, Dr. Mace Licuanan-Resurreccion gave a treatment plan that can be done on-site or at the pound for all dogs for erlichia. We observed that most dogs were weak, and tick-infested. We saw a pound that was so dirty, smelled of urine and poop of dogs, and saw dying and very sick dogs. There were more weak dogs who could not get up. There is no proper drainage system to this day. Last Sunday, we saw cages with no plastic mats or mats that were bitten by dogs or broken, and plastic mats just left on one side of the place, dirty. Dogs found it difficult to stand up in the cage as their paws kept getting stuck in the holes. On the same day, Oct. 1, we decided to have five weak dogs brought to the clinic for treatment at the clinic in the hope that they will all be saved. Two pound staff were there and one noted the cage numbers of dogs who were pulled out. The following day however, two died in the clinic due to erlichia, low platelet count and weakness. On Oct. 3, I and admin Mary Jane Quema and a Cainta resident went to the Mayors office. He asked his male staff to bring us to the agriculture office where we discussed the challenges in the pound. We informed agriculture office head Linda Hernandez that dogs in the pound have erlcihia and thus need immediate treatment. We also expressed concern over the observation of a volunteer that dogs bite the electrical wiring and the pound staff hose the area with water. We told her of our concern that a dog/dogs might be electrocuted. We learned from Ms. Hernandez of some security problems as three dogs with breed caught the day before were reported missing the next day (Oct. 3). I asked what they were doing about this problem but I did not get any reply. On Oct. 8,a vet from the clinic went to the pound to give two shots to all 77 dogs: an antibiotic shot and a vitamin shot. This cost the group P15k plus. On the same day, we asked the vet do tests on four pups . Pups and senior dogs are known to be more susceptible to contracting any disease. After feeding the dogs, I and volunteer Jesus Ballesteros Ugaban went to the agriculture office and gave Save ALL’s report in a letter form to Ms. Hernandez. I left a copy for the Mayor, the pound assistant head named Fely and the vet (both names were not given to us until now by the staff which we don’t understand). It was only later that we learned the Cainta municipal government has no licensed vet. We informed her that two dogs tested positive for distemper and that distemper is a difficult disease to handle. It is transmitted thru the air and thus it is not safe to move a dog from the pound to any area where there are dogs with no vaccination against the said disease. We expressed concern that: 1. all other dogs in the pound will be infected if there are still distemper cases there; 2. in the event a dog with distemper escapes from the pound (during feeding, one did escape making us worried sick to this day), dogs with no vaccines or a dog with vaccine but whose immune system has been compromised can contract the disease when brought home. An entire dog population in a subdivision or barangay can be wiped out. This has happened in one posh subdivision in Metro Manila. In the letter, we asked for a moratorium on caching dogs because of the distemper and erlichia outbreak in the pound. It is very expensive to have dogs be treated for erlichia and specially for distemper. We are worried that animal lovers of Cainta will be distraught if they lose their dogs one by one., after spending thousands of pesos on their dog’s or dogs’ treatment. In either meeting with Ms. Hernandez, she did not mention the need for a memorandum of agreement between them and Save ALL for Save ALL to feed the dogs and provide medical treatment asap. Neither were we informed that they had partner NGOs or non-government organizations to help them in the pound. On Oct. 11, we had five more dogs brought to the, one was pregnant and another was a pup who was very sick. The pound staff knew that all dogs were brought tot he clinic and why. They saw the tests being done and even the distemper kits. By Oct. 11, we had 20 dogs in the clinic whose medical treatment we paid for not the municipal government. But three of the dogs died. This left us with 17 dogs in the clinic. The pregnant dog we named Diamond gave birth to three pups on Oct. 13. Since Oct. 6, we have been giving doxycycline, an antibiotic, and multivitamins and a natural supplement that raises the platelet count of erlichia-positive dogs called coco nectar. During the first week, the staff were rather helpful They would help volunteers wash bowls, put food and meds in bowls ,and they would actually put bowls in the cages when volunteers with no anti-rabies shots were not available or had not arrived. I was so happy when they informed us that the agriculture office agreed to an indefinite moratorium until we have resolved the problem in the pound. I was so happy, I posted this in the Save Animals of Love and Light – Save ALL community page (almost 14k followers now) and the Save ALL secret group (P4k plus members). I posted the video here. By the way, some of our volunteers are Cainta residents. They, members of Save ALL, expressed joy that the Cainta local government wanted to provide better care for the animals through Save All’s help. But as the days passed, we have noticed some changes in the way the staff dealt with us or treated volunteers. 1. While we were still feeling the pace of the feeding during the first wek, we would finish the feeding and washing bowls after 5 p.m. But then we would tell the staff to go home ahead of us and we even offered to close the office for them since the stuff inside are mostly Save ALL donations or bought items like dog food, meds, coco nectar, bowls and bins. I also trusted the volunteers. In the event anything is lost and a volunteer is proven to be the culprit, Save ALL is willing to pay for the lost item. We also suggested they close the office while we are finishing the feeding and promised to leave the bowls, most of which we bought, at the back of the office. 2. On the second week and thereafter, volunteers have informed me that the staff complained frequently that they can’t leave at 3 or 4 p.m. their usual time to leave, because the volunteers took time feeding and washing the bowls. This surprised the Save ALL admin team as we understand that office hours is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 3. On the fourth week, the staff started leaving at 3 p.m. and there were times they would leave at 12 noon, leaving all items needed outside the office which was okay with us. 4. However, what made things more difficult for the volunteers is the fact that the staff either leaves very early (9 or 10 a.m.) on weekends or can not come at all AND do not leave enough bowls for the feeding. 5. I was there last Sunday with Doc Mace Licuanan who I asked to do an on-site assessment of all dogs FOR FREE to come up with a new treatment plan after we have discovered that a pup we got from the pound died suddenly . The bacterial culture from an Alabang testing center showed that the pups have leptospirosis, and not just erlichia. We paid P11,000.00 for the tests. 6. Since Oct. 3 when the Mayor referred us to the agriculture office on pound matters, I did not want to bother him with pound concerns and trusted that all information we relayed to Ms. Hernandez, and pound assistant head Fely (thru the two meetings, the letter and her staff) and the pound staff would reach him. He told us to discuss these matters with the agriculture office during our meeting on Oct. 3. 7. Last Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24 and 25, I kept calling two officials to inform then of the leptospirosis problem as many dogs started to die in the pound with no distemper symptoms. 8. I wanted to warn them that the problem in the pound no longer affects dogs alone, but can be detrimental to the public or Cainta residents as well. Leptospirosis can be passed to humans when a dog escapes from the pound and interacts with other dogs whose urine may accidentally be touched by a human-- from objects, walls, anywhere. 9. I informed one staff of this problem since she was the only one who actually answered my call. I told her Doc Licuanan will go to the pound at 9 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, as this is her only non-toxic time in the clinic . I told this staff this is urgent as the problem has now become a public safety hazard. 10. The staff said she had to sing in a choir or something that Sunday, and another staff had a family gathering so they would feed the dogs early at 7 a.m. and could not assist Doc Licuanan. 11. I decided to go there despite the fact Save ALL had a dog event at SM Fairview in the afternoon. I asked Noriel, a Cainta resident we asked to help us, to go there earlier than his usual 12 noon to 5 p.m pound work time. 12. Doc Licuanan, based on her on-site assessment, asked Noriel to move 9 dogs to the left most row of cages so as to lessen the possibility of the diseases affecting the other dogs. She also advised me to 1. continue the doxycycline treatment indefinitely until the next assessment 2. call her asap if a dog at the left most row of cages or what we call “sick bay” will not eat for two days straight so we can bring the dog to the clinic and try to save it in the clinic where equipment and more meds are available. 3. Remove the vegetables from the food to lessen the diarrhea incidents. 4. If possible, ask pound staff to keep a row between the left most row of cages and the next row empty of dogs to serve as a “barrier” so that the other dogs may not be infected easily. It is quite difficult to stop the infection of dogs by any or all of the diseases now present in the pound--- leptospirosis, distemper and erlichia—but we had to try. 13. Unfortunately, despite all our efforts, the pound officials and staff seem to resent our presence there and this has baffled us to this day. Twice, our volunteers said they felt offended by a staff during these very rare times she showed up there. She doesn’t hold office there so they were surprised every time she would make a visit and start questioning what they were doing which were just part of the vet’s instructions. She made the volunteers feel very unwelcome, questioned their presence, even saying PAWS was invited by them or something, and questioning the meds the volunteers were putting in the food, saying we should be giving meds in liquid form and not in capsule form. Not all our volunteers have anti-rabies shots and so we have reminded them several times not to touch the dog, much more give meds orally. Thus, the capsule form which can be placed in the food as, again, suggested by the vet. 14. At another time, this staff , in a loud voice, asked why there was a plastic of trash at one side of the pound. There is no trash bin in the pound. A plastic bag is the only place volunteers can put uneaten food. And the staff themselves put the uneaten food there, not just the volunteers. It was their idea since they had no trash bin. They even asked us if we can bring one. 15. Basically, from the start, we never felt welcomed but we did not dwell on that as we wanted to help the dogs. 16. We are members of an animal welfare group and our goal is to help animals who are sick, who are emaciated, who are not being cared of properly, and who are forced to stay in a place reeking of the smell of urine and poop, with no proper drainage system. 17. Despite the rather brash treatment they have been getting, the volunteers continued to feed the dogs and give the meds, with no pay, and without reimbursement of their transportation fare. Only the young man named Noriel is being compensated at P200 per day to put the bowls in the cages so that we would not hear any more complaints from the staff. This is to reimburse him for his fare. We do not understand why the agriculture office and the pound staff resent our presence in the pound. For one, since we arrived, they did not have to feed the dog twice as one official claimed they used to do. That made life easier for them, right? Our volunteers do the following when they arrive: 1. get bowls that are still in cages wash them 2. put water with colloidal silver in ceramic bowls 3. put home-cooked food and doxycycline antibiotic in steel bowls. The food is cooked in my house everyday. 4. wash bowls if the staff did not leave the additional bowls we bought. 5. Put colloidal silver again in ceramic bowls (dogs need 40 ml each per day. Colloidal silver loses its effect when it gets in touch with steel or plastic for a long time.) I brought 64 bowls, asked the small manag to buy 5 more on the first day, and another staff offered to buy 70 more bowls for which I gave P1,750.00 I thanked her for this offer. 6. Put dry dog food in one bowl and water in another bowl and leave these for the evening meal of the dogs. The idea is to make them strong to ward off the diseases in the area which comes form ticks (erlchia), air (distemper) and urine (leptospirosis). 7. Wash all bowls that were used. We only asked the pound staff to do three things for the dogs, not for us : 1. put multivitamins in each bowl in the morning when they feed the dogs as the time difference between the multivitamins and doxy should be three hours. 2. About 8 days ago, I asked that they put the liver I sent in small packets in the morning food so that the dogs will eat the food and thus, be able to get the multivitamins they need. 3. boil lemongrass or tanglad and go around the cages to allow the steam to kill the distemper virus. Tanglad is a natural disinfectant and the cheapest one in the market. Since Doc Licuanan suggested a new diet for the dogs: we also asked (only last Monday though a volunteer) to remove all vegetables from the food to stop the diarrhea caused by bacterial infection. I asked a volunteer to inform the staff that the morning meal be limited to lugaw /porridge (no corn as this makes digesting food difficult for the dogs), rosemary we left there, and the liver I also left there. Then mix with the vitamins. This actually translates to MORE savings for the pound: They only have to buy rice which is P1,650.00 per sack if the get NFA rice. A pound staff said on Oct. 3 that they spend almost P4,000 every week on dog food . We use one sack of rice for 12 days for the food we bring there every day. So malaki ang matitipid nila. Also, since we provide dog food and natural food, the pound does not have to spend for the second feeding which they said they used to do. They insisted during the Oct. 3 meeting that they feed twice a day. I told her though that I did not believe that as most dogs were skinny and weak. A week after our feeding, the dogs were standing up and their tails were wagging, some with smiles on their faces. I also saw 10 dogs caught by a manong there, and only one had mange and one was skinny so I told the pound staff the dog could not have been brought in in that condition : EMACIATED. . Matataba ang walo sa dogs na nahuli. Allow me to reiterate that we did not go to the pound to make problems for the municipal government or the pound staff. We went there EVERYDAY for one simple reason: to feed the dogs and find help for sick dogs. We asked for the moratorium due to the risks posed on other dogs who are loved by residents of Cainta. We have spent about P260,000.00 for medical bills and P100,000.00 for food , supplies and other expenses. There are still Cainta pound dogs in the clinic whose medical bills Save ALL will pay for. These amounts do not include donated items like dog food, shampoo that we had planned to use soon if we had not been banned from the pound, a strong anti-flick powder from the U.S. from Doc Licuanan, zonrox, and many others. We could have walked away after being treated as if we are stupid, lowly beings by officials and staff. (By the way, the Oct. 8 letter of Save ALL remains unanswered to this day.) But we chose to continue feeding the dogs everyday, tried to get medical help for them until this virus and bacteria are gone from the pound, despite the expenses we have incurred and will still incur. Another thing that bothered me was the fact I was told to to go Cainta last Monday. Pinapatawag daw kayo ni Mayor, ngayon na, sabi ni Ate ___. I wonder why they it never crossed their minds (the staff) that volunteers do have work outside of Save ALL that brings us income for our own families, some of our income going to funding Save ALL projects. I, for one, live in Q.C. and can not go to Cainta in a a few minutes. I informed her that no one can order me to go anywhere at a time I have a meeting with a client. I asked her to tell her Ate ____ that she can not order me around since I am not an employee there. I added a government official like her Ate ____would have written a letter to our group or at the very least, sent a text message asking for a meeting and informing us of the agenda. I believe this is what decent people do and is part of the ethical standards set by the Commission on Civil Service for the conduct of government officials and employees. What is unbelievable to this hour was a volunteers report that on 28 October 2014, Ms. Hernandez, head of the agriculture office, told our volunteer that our presence inside the pound is illegal because we did not go through a bidding nor did we have a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Cainta local government. Such experience caused unnecessary distress to our volunteer, who fears that he/she had violated the law for entering the pound. Our organization are wholly composed of volunteers like him/her for manpower and financing. Without them, there would be no Save All. It baffles us that we are required to undergo a bidding when our organization does not have a commercial transaction with the local government of Cainta. During our meetings with Ms Hernandez on Oct 3. and Oct. 8, we were likewise not informed that a MOA is required. Nor were we informed that two non-government organizations have MOAs with them to allegedly help them in the pound. QUESTIONS: 1. Why were we allowed to feed and provide medical assistance to the dogs for about six weeks but were suddenly banned from the place? This, after the group has spent more than P300,000.00 and will still pay for dogs treatment at the clinic? 2. Where are the members of the two NGOs in the past six weeks or before that, when the dogs were starving and dying? Patay gutom talaga ang dating nila whenever we woud bring food. 3. What is the content of the MOA? What are the two NGOs supposed to provide for the benefit of the dogs aside from anti-rabies shots? Because if feeding and medical treatment are in the MOA, then they should have done this a long time ago since we were told the contract was signed three years ago. 4. Are the services for free like Save ALL? Will no government funds be used whatsoever for any of the services, even to buy medicines? Because Save ALL never asked for a single centavo from the municipal government. I am asking these questions because we were told Save ALLs assistance is no longer needed in the pound because the two NGOs will take over. If a MOA was signed, what are the contents of the MOA .Does it include not allowing another animal welfare group to provide free feeding and free medical treatment? Also, would it not have been a good idea to bring representatives of the two NGOs and Save ALL in a meeting so that Save ALL can turn over whatever treatment plan we have been implementing based on the vets recommendations? 5. If the NGOs and the MOA are the real reasons for actually instructing cemetery guards verbally not to allow Save ALL volunteers to enter the area and the pound, then why the hostile act of banning us from the pound? Would it not have been sufficient to inform the group through a letter that two groups with whom they have a MOA will take over feeding and medical care? Why did Ms. Hernandez leave instructions with the guard to bar us from entering the cemetery and the pound? That is a hostile act in my book. Why? What did Save ALL volunteers do to deserve this treatment? AT THIS POINT, SAVE ALL ADMINS AND MEMBERS--- ESPECIALLY VOLUNTEERS-- ARE DEVASTATED AND DISTRAUGHT OVER THE ACT OF THE MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF CAINTA. ACCORDING TO MS.HERNANDEZ, THIS DECISION CAME FROM MAYOR KIT NIETO HIMSELF. WE HAVE BEEN CRYING SINCE WE LEARNED OF THE BAN. WHY? BECAUSE WE ARE CONCERNED ABOTUT HE 64 DOGS IN THE POUND, 56 OF WHOM WE HAVE BEEN FEEDING, TALKING TO, WALKING, AND SIMPLY LOVING FOR THE PAST SIX WEEKS. IT WAS VERY CRUEL ON THE PART OF THE CAINTA MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT TO SIMPLY CUT OUR TIES WITH DOGS JUST LIKE THAT. BUT I GUESS THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW PAINFU IT IS TO LEAVE BEHIND BEINGS ONE HAS LEARNED TO LOVE. WE WILL CONTINUE TO CRY, I GUESS, FOR DAYS TO COME. BUT WE WILL CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR A MIRACLE THAT THESE DOGS WILL BE FED LIKE WE DID, BE GIVEN MEDICAL CARE LIKE WE DID, AND LOVED LIKE WE DID. Photos 1 and 2: Save ALL admins with Mayor NIeto on Oct. 1 Photo 3: The rusty dilapidated cages Photo 4: The place is hosed by staff which made two volunteers worried as there were electrical wires near the dogs which they bit Photo 5: Bullseye was brought to the clinic and died about two weeks after. He was too sick to be saved. Photo 6: Dog dead seen Sept. 25, buried upon the request of admin Mary Jane Quema on Sept. 28 Photo 7: Dog brought to the clinic, positive for distemper. His name is Basil Photo 8: A skinny dog. A pound staff said skinny dogs came in the pound in this condition. They feed the dogs twice a day, she said. Photo 9. Another skinny dog. We brought this dog to the clinic but the dog died. Her name was Goldie. Photo 10: the plastic mats
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 15:37:10 +0000
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