Furry friends

The perennial problem of stray cats and dogs continues in many areas of the country. In our very own subdivision, we bear the hassle of meeting a gang of dogs that walk by our street every night as they search for homes that may give them their dinner. We remain wary about how they can inflict harm on innocent humans if they suddenly become aggressive. During an informal conversation in our village's group chat, one neighbor suggested catching the strays and giving them to a crocodile facility as food. I'm quite unsure of this person’s claim on the matter. Regardless of whether it is true, serving domesticated and live animals as food is highly unethical.

My husband and I often joke that we are DINKWACs, a new acronym in our generation which stands for “double income no kids, with a cat.” Others replace the last letter with a “D” for their preference of dogs. We, along with many others, treat our furry friends in the household as our own children. It is in this way that we make them a part of our family. I'm sure many people feel the same way toward their four-legged companions. Thus, knowing that some of these animals may be fed to another as food would make many of us feel very strongly about it.

There are many ways to solve the problem of strays, and Cebu City has captured the very essence of it. In their CNVR program (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return), the city aims to replace traditional methods like impoundment and euthanasia as ways of keeping strays off the streets. The city’s department head for Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries, Dr. Alice Utlang, told me that there are ways for people and animals to coexist peacefully. Killing is not the solution, for they too have the right to live. Together with many others who believe in this modern approach to controlling the population of stray animals, the city is making great strides to become more progressive in veterinary services.

The issue of dealing with wildlife is another matter altogether. Many were alarmed by an incident in Region 8 where a snake entered a household and ate a cat. There are indeed many imbalances in nature, and these are effects of climate change. Even the presence of a rare moth in the metropolitan area has caused concern for many people. The differences in temperature and the increasingly erratic weather patterns have also disrupted these animals’ habitats.

Our lives are so deeply intertwined with the ecosystem that we inhabit. We may not be in a direct predator-prey relationship, nor are we hosts to many organisms, but we have a responsibility to ensure that we can live in harmony with the creatures that share this planet with us. It is becoming clearer that both humans and animals must adapt to a new, unpredictable world. This is why compassion and understanding matter now more than ever. The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members, including its furry friends and its wildlife.