There's a petition on the web that gives any person of any nationality the opportunity to push a vote for YES for the new Filipino House Bill. The bill is House Bill 2991 of the Filipino House of Representatives, and it basically says that people who massacre animals will pay. Some of the quotes from representatives included the following:

"Traditionally, dogs were sacrificed and their meat eaten when a family was faced with bad luck, or when a death was witnessed. It was the belief that a dog's spirit protected and guarded the spirits of the living family. However, this was an infrequent practice. Greed and corruption has evolved the ritual into a massacre of over 500,000 dogs a year in the Philippines as a commercial industry. Although most Filipinos detest the practice and do not eat dog meat, it is still concentrated in areas in and around Baguio City and the Cordilleras Region."

"The Philippines' Animal Welfare Act of 1998 (Section 8 of the Republic Act No. 8485) prohibits the torture of all animals with the exception of livestock. In addition, it does provide an exception to killing for religious purposes. Unfortunately, the Act fails for three reasons: (1) there is no direct prohibition against the commercial dog meat trade; (2) the penalties are minimal; and (3) there is a lack of enforcement due to corruption and bribery of police officers."

So, then, the bill is there because:

"...this barbaric commercial industry provides a steady flow of income not only to the traders but to officials and police officers, the dog meat trade remains unscathed from the Welfare Act. However, House Bill 2991 is currently pending in the Committee on Revision of Laws that provides a stiffer penalty to dog meat traders. Introduced by Representative Francis Escudero, the creation of the bill was based on the need to upgrade an Act that, as noble as the objectives of the law are, the traders remain elusive because the penalty is unrealistic. The penalty must be upgraded."

The point is that yes, cattle are slaughtered in as mass a quantity as the dogs in this country. However, the cattle are eaten by most people in this country and exported to local markets. The dogs are eaten far less, and are sold and exported illegally (don't forget that if they're exported FROM the Phillipines, they must be imported into another country - and some of these countries are importing the meat illegally, as well).

Here is a link to the petition web site; visit it if you please: [link]