Activists slam bills to legalize greyhound racing

MANILA, Philippines - Animal welfare groups yesterday trooped to the Senate to lobby for the junking of two House bills that would legalize greyhound racing in the country.

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) led different groups in condemning House bills 5291 and 5648 that would grant two dog racing clubs franchises to construct, operate, and maintain a greyhound racetrack in Cebu, Rizal, Pampanga or Laguna.

The groups sought an audience with Sen. Jamby Madrigal, who brought along her eight-month-old greyhound to dramatize the plight of abused greyhound dogs.

Madrigal lamented the idea of using the dogs for gambling, adding she gained support from Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Vidal, who has expressed concern over the dog sport.

Sen. Bong Revilla, chairman of the Senate committee on public services, said he will call for a new review of the two House bills to determine if indeed there will be legal problems.

Revilla’s committee issued committee report 409 last May 21, recommending the approval of HB 5291 without amendment.

“We will consider that if there is opposition. Why didn’t they speak up during the public hearing? We cannot just ignore them,” Revilla said.

“They know it passed at the House. They know the next destination is the Senate, they should come here especially since we had a hearing,” he added.

PAWS said the new industry of greyhound racing will trigger the breeding of hundreds of greyhounds. They expressed concern over the increasing rate of homeless dogs due to unregulated breeding of purebred dogs and the lack of government-funded spay-neuter programs to prevent overpopulation of native dogs.

Statistics showed that there are 9.6 million dogs in the country today, about 3.2-million of which are homeless.