PAWS Slams UP Student for Using Dog at Anti-Duterte Protest Rally

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) criticized a student of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus for using his dog when he joined the protest rally against President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday, February 23. The animal welfare group also reminded the media and the public not to allow such acts of animal cruelty.

“LOOK: A doggo named Arwen stays woke at UP Diliman for today's nationwide #WalkoutPH protests!” Rappler wrote on its Facebook page that day, as a caption to a photo of a white small dog taken by a certain Gino Estella. The dog looked stressed as its front legs standing on a placard bearing the sign, “Defend press freedom! Stand up!”

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As expected, tons of netizens criticized the dog owner especially that the weather was too hot for the poor dog, that the animal does not understand what’s happening. On the other hand, some commenters suggested the protest organizers were not able to convince enough students to join the rally, which is why they decided to add a dog.

According to Rappler, thousands of students from various schools in Metro Manila and some provinces walked out from their classes, and some militant groups joined the anti-Duterte rally. Aside from press freedom, the protesters also raised their concerns about extrajudicial killings (EJKs), women's rights, migrant rights, and the TRAIN law.

Meanwhile, PAWS was alarmed about the dog’s health and condemned the dog owner, who they identified as a UP student. And although they did not mention the news website Rappler in their statment, the animal welfare group emphasized that it is also the responsibility of the media to report to them if there are cases of animal abuse.

“We strongly condemn the irresponsible owner of the dog that was brought along in the recent protest rally. We were informed that the dog owner is a student from UP Diliman. While we understand that we need to express our freedom and fight for human rights, it is ironic that some of us neglect that animals have rights, too.” PAWS said on Saturday.



“We would also like to remind the media to use their power to report to us if they know cases of animal cruelty, instead of just reporting them and make money out of it.” It added. As of posting, PAWS said that the UP student (whose name was not revealed) has not yet replied to their message. Meanwhile, Rappler has not yet commented on this issue.

Contributed by Renato Pasayao