Hi Folks
If any of you have tried sending an email message to the President, you’ll probably have got the very nice message on your screen ‘Do NOT try that’.
Herewith postal address.
Her Excellency
GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
President of the Republic of the Philippines
New Executive Building
Malacanang Palace Compound
JP Laurel Street, San Miguel, Manila.
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph
Website: http://www.op.gov.ph
Also write to newspapers
Philippines Daily Inquirer
The Editor
c/o Michael Sy
Inquirer Interactive, Inc.
9/F Rufino Bldg., Ayala Ave.
Makati City Philippines 1200
The Editor
Cebu Daily News
CDN Building
North Reclamation Area
Cebu City
Philippines 6000
Please write, as I have done, example attached, with acknowledgement to Zdenka Petricek of the Czek Republic.
Madam President
I understand that you and your parliament are considering introducing greyhound racing to your country. I would beg you to reconsider this for many reasons, not least of which is that many of the racetracks in the UK and the USA are closing down through lack of support, Jamaica recently voted not to go ahead with such a plan, and it will also have adverse publicity on your country.
In a country such as yours, disadvantaged communities can neither afford to purchase these dogs, pay for vet bills, nor keep them appropriately. Injuries are vast and vet bills astronomical. The training methods include starvation, abuse and the use of live bait. Thousands are born in a year, but according to estimates from trainers, most puppies are killed at the age of 2 months, in order to find the “Supreme Racing Dog”.
Human cruelty knows no boundaries; hanging them from trees, throwing down wells,
killing with firearms, trying to railway lines, starving them to death and even electrocuted. The killing and abuse of greyhounds is a mainstream issue which has
been taken to heart by the public.. Opposition to industry practices has been publicly stated in newspaper editorials, by government officials and mainstream animal welfare organizationsall over world.
Dog racing regulations are essentially concerned with gambling rules;
breeding and training centres are virtually unregulated. Greyhound adoption organizations routinely receive racing dogs riddled
with external and internal parasites, open sores and untreated broken
bones. Race dogs are caged up to 22 hours a day. The standard industry
feed is 4-D meat from diseased livestock.
The reality is greyhound racing has inherent problems no one can
remedy, because it is not a sport but a form of gambling where profit dictates the level of care and expendability at each stage of the dog’s development. As in any equation in which man, animals and the expectation of money are thrown together, economic interests will always prevail over concern for the animals. This fundamental fact is what makes greyhound racing inhumane and unfixable.
May I respectfully recommend you to view the information on the following websites, which relates to greyhound racing in Spain, Italy and South Africa.
http://www.greyhoundsinneed.co.uk/ReferenceFrame.htm
http://www.greyhoundsinneed.f9.co.uk/spainbad.htm
http://www.greyhoundaction.org.uk/trackBarcaClosed.htm
http://www.greyhoundaction.org.uk/newsW02.htm
The proposal to retrain retired greyhounds as police dogs is ludicrous. The breed is a calm, gentle, non-aggressive one, and this suggestion illustrates the lack of knowledge of people involved in the proposal.
Greyhound racing is not a tourist attraction, introducing it in your country will only harm it, because of the adverse publicity it will attract around the world. The only people to benefit will be the businessmen who wish to invest in the idea.
May I thank you, Madam President, for having the courtesy to consider the comments contained in my letter.
Yours respectfully