Major step forward for our Dog Meat-Free Campaign in the City of Yogyakarta!

Major step forward for our Dog Meat-Free Campaign in the City of Yogyakarta!

Added on Wednesday, 18 December 2019
As part of our ongoing collaboration with the City of Yogyakarta (“Jogja”) government, local government-sponsored billboards have now been put up in two prominent locations in the city, with a clear message: Dogs are friends, not food!

The billboards’ messaging is the first of it’s kind in Jogja, with the government promoting key animal welfare principles and clearly stating that dogs are Man’s best friend and not for consumption!

Billboard 1

The billboards state, “Dogs are loving animals; They are Man’s best friends. Not food.”

This is followed by listing of the 5 Freedoms:

  • Freedom from hunger and thirst
  • Freedom from pain, injury and disease
  • Freedom from discomfort
  • Freedom from fear and distress
  • Freedom to express normal behaviour


This is the second part of the city’s socialization plan to end dog meat consumption city-wide, following our co-hosted seminar last month targeting key stakeholders and those who will be responsible for enforcing laws and regulations pertaining to ending the dog meat trade, including (government officials, law enforcement agencies, and the veterinary community.

We sincerely applaud the city of Jogja for their progressive approach to promoting animal welfare and the value dogs hold in our societies as loyal companions who must be protected against cruelty, and hope other cities take their lead….

We are getting ever closer to our first Dog Meat-Free city in Indonesia, and in January 2020 we will meet again with the authorities to sign our agreement on enforcing regulations that will result in the closure of all dog meat trading operations city-wide, saving thousands of dogs every month from the inherently brutal and dangerous dog meat trade!

 

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In Bobby’s Honour

We found Bobby sitting in a wire cage in a busy dog meat market in North Sulawesi whilst we were conducting investigations in December 2017. He was surrounded by scenes from a horror movie, and the terror in his eyes was haunting. We knew we couldn’t leave him.

It breaks our heart that he left this world too soon, but he left having known love and with a name. And in his name, we will never give up until the dog and cat meat trades end throughout Indonesia.

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Hero’s Story

The Dog Meat Free-Indonesia coalition spent many long and heartbreaking months investigating the inner-workings of the dog meat trade throughout Indonesia. As people who do what we do because we care so passionately about animals, doing investigations never gets any easier. It is soul-destroying and heart-breaking, but essential in documenting the reality of the trade so that we are best-positioned to fight it, and to ultimately realise our goal of ending the dog meat trade.

But we always save those we can…

On one particular day, we had the chance to save a dog who we named 'Hero'.

Change is coming in Indonesia and throughout Asia… Never before has the dog meat trade or the consumption of dog meat been questioned the way it is now. People are turning their backs on a trade and a practice that can no longer hide behind a defense of ‘culture’ or ‘tradition’.