How Much is that Doggie on the Menu?(Sad!)

A villager prepares to butcher a dog in the Pampanga province north of Manila, Despite a ban on slaughtering dogs.


The old Patti Page song How Much is That Doggie in the Window? takes on a different meaning in a country where dogs are sold not only to guard a sweetheart, as the song goes, or as a friend. Only last week, police intercepted a jeep full of dogs — mouths tied and bleeding to prevent them from barking or howling in protest, feet bound to prevent them running, and all l50 of them piled on top of each other — traveling in broad daylight along a main Manila highway. "These are hard times, sir," the vehicle's owner explained, "and this is just a job, a source of livelihood." He claims to have purchased the pooches for between $7 and $8 in nearby Batangas province, and was transporting them to a not-so-secret slaughter house far to the north in Baguio, where dog meat is a local delicacy. As the owner of the vehicle confirmed, "We've been doing this since time immemorial."