Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Philippine Native Dogs

Dog's are always considered as man's bestfriend. They interact with emotions and could read the thought of their master. Loyalty is the best single word to describe them. This is why among pets, they are the ones who are mostly to be kept home as a companion. I know what I said is a common knowledge not just to pet lovers but almost to everyone. But what I'm going write here is about how our culture (Filipino Culture) towards our native pets. And I want the international community to know this.

I grew up in a family of pet lovers. I could not remember a moment when we don't have a dog at home. We have four now. Two are less a old month puppies we bought from a friend because he can no longer afford to keep. All are native. But our story is not a common thing. Most people prefer to keep High-Breed Imported dogs as their pets. They neglect our very own native dogs and called them "Askal" literally means "Street Dog". They have less compassion for them simply because they are not like Labradors, Pitbulls, Japanese Spitz or any High-Breeds. If you bring an Askal with you in a park it would be a funny thing. We had one dog who just died 2 months ago. He was already 4 years old when given by my friend who's mother was about to throw him away because they have a new schitzu. So we decided to keep. Our City pound catches stray dogs and feed it to the crocodiles if unclaimed in few days. But they keep the imported ones... simply because they are not filipino dogs. They are just like foreigners. I remember one TV program who features Askals treated like poodles. hmmm.... so it's uncommon for filipino dogs to have special treatment. The usual thing is treating them worse than rodents. In Baguio City dogs are even served in local restaurants as their main dish. We filipinos fail to realize that our local dogs represents us, our identity and our symbol. In Britain they take pride of their own British bulldog, in Japan: Japanese Spits, China: Schitzu, Germany: German Shepherd, Denmark: Great Dane, Soviet: Siberian Huskie, US: American Pitbull Terrier, Canada: Labrador Retriever, and more.

But why cant we? Do filipinos hate their own? Does it mean we hate ourselves? Or we hate each other? We are fond of imported stuffs. Like Gucci watches, Armani clothing line, Hugo Boss, and other western stuffs. We don't like to buy products with a "Made in the Philippines" label. Simply because it's from here and made by our own people. What our country needs is PATRIOTISM. This is what other countries in the world have that we absolutely don't. We love the world but dislike ourselves. It manifest on how we treat our dogs. We have to wake up and make a difference!