2024 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"
18th Edition
Ormoc: Akon Iro: Collaborative Pet Ownership for Sustainable Stray Management
Akon Iro encompasses the whole concept of animal welfare based on being a responsible pet owner. 'Akon,' which means 'My' in the Visayan vernacular, describes the action of taking account for or taking ownership of. When we take into our care an innocent life, we are accountable for it up to its very end. A life, after all, is not a commodity to be disposed of when its use is spent in service of us. Every member of a community, and not only its leaders or a few selection, should take responsibility for the lives they take into their charge.
Companion animals, in particular, are dependent on their owner to provide them with their five freedoms:
- Freedom from thirst, hunger, and malnutrition.
- Freedom from discomfort and exposure.
- Freedom from pain, injury, and disease.
- Freedom to express normal behaviour.
- Freedom from fear and distress.
Unfortunately, people have been conditioned to convenience rather than to consequence. Companion animals are viewed as a commodity that, when they become an inconvenience, are disposed of unconventionally in the most inhumane way. Focusing on programs such as capture and indiscriminate euthanizing of strays makes no dent in the continued increase in stray population. All eyes are on dogs when there is a bite incidence or a road accident or spread of a human-transferred canine disease.
Akon Iro looks at the other end of the leash and brings to light and public awareness that community-concerned problems brought about by the increasing population of strays are because owners of companion animals are uneducated or ill-informed of solutions and veterinary services available to assist them with taking care of their companion animals.
Akon Iro helps members of the community by empowering them to find unique solutions in their community for managing strays and assists in educating owners on pet healthcare made accessible to their community.
The goal is to be a stray-free community brought about by responsible pet ownership. The objective of rehabilitating the pound is more than just turning it into a temporary holding facility for captured strays and into a rehabilitation and education centre that will provide constituents of Ormoc city with not only quality low-cost pet healthcare but also run programs on public education and inclusion in active participation for the development of sustainable solutions in the management of stray population.
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