When does a “pet lover” commit animal cruelty? When they start to think it is “cool” to buy nondomesticated wildlife for a pet, keep them in a cage or tie them to a tree with a chain, or worse, dispose of them later on.
So-called hobbyists, or lovers of special pets, risk being slapped with fines or jail time for violation of Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, especially if their pets, most probably undocumented wildlife, sustained serious injuries.
Fortunately, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is maintaining a temporary shelter for rescued, confiscated and abandoned wildlife at the heart of the urban jungle called Quezon City.
Make no mistake about it, the National Wildlife Rescue and Research Center (NWRRC) at the Ninoy Aquino Park and Wildlife Center (NAPWC) is not your typical zoo.
Abandoned pets
Besides the animals rescued or confiscated by authorities, NWRRC is the temporary shelter for wild animals that were voluntarily turned over by their owners.
Most of the animals abandoned at the NWRRC were overgrown pythons or monkeys that became wild and annoying and started to pose a threat to humans.
Mere possession of animals—whether as pets but without the necessary permit from the DENR—is a violation of the Wildlife Act.
The law protects threatened or endangered species, and prohibits illegal wildlife trade.
The Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the DENR requires special permits for the trade of wild animals consistent with the policies espoused by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement among governments which aims is to ensure that trade in of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
“Wildlife belong to the wild. They should be free,” said Glenn S. Maguad, OIC of the NWRRC.
Speaking mostly in Filipino, Maguad told the BusinessMirror in an interview at the NWRRC the other Saturday that some people think it is cool to have undomesticated animals as pets.
“It is not cool,” he said. “They buy the [animals] and later on, after some time, they grow tired of keeping them as pets because they become difficult to feed and maintain, then they turn them over to us,” Maguad added.
Temporary shelter
Around 1,400 mammals, birds and reptiles are currently sheltered in the NWRRC, which operates 24/7. Just a year ago, there were around 1,200 animals.
Maguad said the influx of rescued or confiscated animals is unpredictable. Sometimes the center would receive reports requesting for the rescue of stray wildlife in residential areas.
The NWRRC is maintained by the DENR-BMB and the NAPWC. It is being manned by three resident veterinarians, including Maguad, and 20 animal keepers.
Designed as a temporary shelter for wild animals, the NWRRC—the only wildlife rescue center in Metro Manila—is becoming overcrowded. This is because other than being unfit for release back into the wild, many of the animals are subject of court cases.
“The rescued animals are evidence in court. Our job is to keep them safe until the court decides what to do with them,” he said.
Small, growing industry
While there is an industry promoting wildlife as pets, trading of wildlife is strictly regulated and requires special permits, DENR-BMB Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said.
Owning undomesticated animals as pets is like owning a dog or cat, she added. It goes with the responsibility of providing the animals with tender, loving care. Hurting them is punishable by law with a fine or even jail term.
“Of course we discourage pet owners [to take care of undomesticated animals]. But there is already a legitimate industry that promotes undomesticated animals as pets. It started as a hobby. Now, there is a small industry. There are also farms that breed undomesticated animals,” Lim told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview last Monday.
Bred in captivity, such as farms that specializes in undomesticated wildlife, these animals learn to adapt and become domesticated.
According to Lim, the DENR-BMB allows hobbyists and pet lovers to keep undomesticated animals as a pets, as long as they are not captured from the wild.
“We encourage pet lovers to buy only from legitimate pet shops [with special permits] to make sure that the source of the animal is a legitimate business and the animals were not captured from the wild,” she said.
She noted that a lot of famous individuals own “exotic” or nonnative wildlife like former Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson, who even showcase his pets that include tigers and a python at his famous Balwarte Zoo, which is frequented by local and foreign tourists in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.
Special permits
According to the DENR-BMB official, acquisition, possession, transport and trade of species are subject to special permits in accordance with the Wildlife Act.
“As long as the person requesting a special permit is capable of taking care of the animals, we issue special permits. It all depends on the capacity [of the person]. If it’s their pet coming from another country, we allow them to bring it here and only require certification from the country of origin,” she said.
Corresponding fees are required for permits that involve the trade of nonthreatened species, which includes any species that is not on the brink of extinction, for the issuance of Certificate of Wildlife Registration, depending on the number of pets involved.
For transport, the DENR-BMB issues a Wildlife Local Transport Permit.
Bringing wildlife outside of the country also need a Wildlife Export Certification for Non-CITES species and a CITES Export Permit for CITES-listed species.
‘Domesticated wildlife’
Maguad said most animals voluntarily surrendered or turned over to the NWRRC were already domesticated and dependent on humans for food.
Out in the wild, these animals, especially those that sustained injuries or those with no skills and capability to hunt for food, would die and would most likely return to the city and cause trouble, he pointed out.
Most of the species at the NWRRC are annoying or badly injured, such as long-tail macaque or pythons, which have been captured while wandering near or within the human settlement or have grown so huge that feeding becomes a problem.
Sometimes, Maguad said some maimed long-tail macaques would eventually die or live miserably in cages in the park.
The most humane thing to do to these maimed animals, he added, is to put them to sleep rather than prolong their suffering.
“One monkey we confiscated in Quezon City has a metal chain embedded in its skin. Another was worse—the chain was embedded in the bone. I had to put it to sleep because surgery will not do any good. It would eventually die,” he said.
Mini zoo
In the 1970s the NWRRC was a mini zoo besides being depository of rescued or turned-over wild animals.
In 2011 it was converted into a wildlife rescue and research center and no longer a mini zoo.
However, the NRWWC has remained accessible to the public.
As part of the NAPWC, the NWRRC showcases some of the animals that were rescued by authorities and continue to attract a good number of visitors.
Showcasing the rescued animals has been part of the strategy to educate the public about the importance of Philippine biodiversity.
However, Maguad said it appears to facilitate illegal wildlife trade as it encourages the visitors, especially children, to buy from the black market and keep the animals as pets, which is exactly what the center do not want to happen.
“If you go around, you will not see any myna anymore. Because myna could talk, children are amazed and ask their parents to buy them one. What we [NWRRC] did is keep the myna hidden,” he added.
Information campaign
Maguad said they plan to make the information, education and communication more in-depth by telling stories of wildlife animals, and close the center to public.
“We plan to close the NRWWC to public for good. In the first place, it is not a mini zoo. It is a quarantine area and for rehabilitation of rescued animals,” Maguad added.
Nevertheless, he bared the plan to showcase some of the animals in strategic locations of the park.
“We want the public to know that the animals here are not zoo animals but are victims of cruelty,” he added.
He added a select number of maimed animals, with stories about their experiences in the hands of people, will be showcased.
“We are going to build big cages in the park, and produce tarpaulins to tell their story,” he said, adding that every animal in the park has stories to tell about the cruelty of illegal wildlife traders, hunters or even pet lovers.
This, he said, aims to enlighten the public of the cruelty of keeping animals caged or tied to a chain, which will, hopefully, discourage them to “order” from wildlife poachers, or illegal wildlife traders.