• The Philippine government is encouraged to ban inherently cruel practices such as the use of electric motors. • Animal transport legislation should protect their five freedoms. Due to the significant animal welfare concerns associated with long-distance transport, the Government of the Philippines is urged to ban the export of live animals over long distances (i.e. more than eight hours) and replace them with a trade in pure meat. Long-distance transport is inherently cruel, as it is associated with chronic stress for all animals and, for some species and modes of transport, can lead to overpopulation, exhaustion, excessive heat or cold, inadequate ventilation and/or insufficient access to food and water, which can lead to illness, pain, injury or death. The export of live animals, including poultry, is permitted under Philippine law. Administrative Decree No. 41 of 2000 prohibits the transport of pigs at temperatures above 28 degrees Celsius. Administrative Order No.
12 of 2002 contains recommendations on the transport and bans on the transport of chickens. Administrative Decree No. 2 of 2002 also establishes rules and rules of care for the transport of animals by sea and air. • The Philippine government is urged to ban inherently cruel practices such as cockfighting and the use of culling as a tool to manage the animal population. The killing of animals other than cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, poultry, rabbits, carabao, horses, deer and crocodiles is also declared illegal, except in the following cases: SECTION 2. No person, association, partnership, corporation, cooperative or government agency, including abattoirs, shall establish, maintain or operate a pet store, kennel, veterinary clinic, veterinary clinic, livestock yard, pen, stud farm or zoo for the breeding, processing, sale, trade or training of animals without first obtaining a certificate of registration from the Bureau of Animal Industry. receive. • The Philippine Government is advised to prohibit the use of wild animals in public performances of any kind, including zoos, and never to allow animals to interact with members of the public. • The government is encouraged to completely ban fur farming. Fur farming is inherently cruel and causes pain, stress and suffering to animals. Section 8 of the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act (2001) prohibits the collection, hunting or possession of wildlife species unless a natural or legal person can demonstrate the financial and technical capacity to conserve them, unless the animal was captured in contravention of the Act. According to Article 10, the law also authorizes the import and export of live wild animals under authorization.
While section 17 of the law allows commercial breeding of wild animals, even with permit. Authorisations are granted for a period of three to five years (§ 20). In 2003, the National Advisory Committee on Laboratory Animal Research was established with a mandate to develop guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals used in research. The following year, guidelines for the care and use of animals for experimental purposes were published. The guidelines were a merger of animal care practices used in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, as well as practices described by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) and the 1986 European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals for experimental and other scientific purposes. At the beginning of 2005, research institutes had to obtain a licence in accordance with the rules of the Agricultural, Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for animals and birds (care and use of animals for scientific purposes). Upon approval, a research institution must comply with the guidelines and allow the AVA to conduct plant inspections. In November 2004, research institutes had up to 18 months to meet certain requirements, as indicated in a press release issued in early autumn 2004.
As mentioned in the press release, the scope of the guidelines includes the care and use of animals for all scientific purposes, including diagnosis, teaching, research, testing, biologics production, field testing, and environmental studies. Species covered by these guidelines include all fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and live mammals (excluding humans). In general, the guidelines are based on the principles of the three Rs. Section 7 prohibits the abandonment of an animal, with heavier penalties, if the animal is left behind in circumstances that may cause unnecessary suffering. Marcon Abalantac, co-owner and product development manager of KBN Skin Essentials Ltd. Co., said a ban on animal testing would be “a very ideal constellation” and would not negatively impact the beauty industry. Instead, manufacturers could use previous studies, reports and experiments on chemical effects on humans. Although the facilities can be registered, the environment of the animals in some zoos in the Philippines has raised international concerns, and there have been recommendations to improve standards. Since the Animal Welfare Committee is responsible for drafting standards and guidelines, it is inconsistent that the Philippine Association of Zoos and Aquaria does not have representation on the committee. While other pet care facilities such as kennels and veterinary clinics have administrative orders that set out best practices (although they may be more than a decade old), they don`t yet exist for private pet owners or zoos. The government has created structures and laws to make animal welfare a major concern of the country. The continuation of Animal Welfare Week since 2004 demonstrates a high-level political will to improve animal welfare across the country, as does its continued commitment to CITES and the new wildlife enforcement action plan.
Siragusa and staff at the Meat Animal Research Laboratories of the United States Department of Agriculture in Nebraska have developed ATP bioluminescence tests for beef and pork carcasses (Siragusa and Cutter, 1995; Siragusa et al., 1995). A 500 cm2 area of bovine carcasses or an area of 50 cm2 of pig carcasses was buffered with a sterile ATP-free microbiological sampling sponge moistened with saline and Tween 80. After the smear, the liquid was removed from the sponge and ATP from the body`s cells was extracted and removed with a special filtering device, the filtravette (New Horizons Diagnostics, Columbia, Md.). The bacteria were retained in the device, which could then be placed in the luminometer (New Horizons Diagnostics), where microbial ATP was extracted and examined. The test could be completed in approximately 5 minutes and the lower detection limits were 1 × 102 cfu/cm2 and 1.6 × 103 cfu/cm2 for cattle and pig carcasses. An ATP bioluminescence method to assess the microbiological quality of cattle carcases taken by cutting from an area of 5 cm × 5 cm from the surface has been described. The excised sample was rinsed and processed in a somatic cell extractor containing lipase.