During the dark days of the pandemic, when UP’s campuses were emptied of their usual denizens, there were some who were left behind. Among them, the population of community cats and dogs that called the campus buildings home. Soon, reports emerged from UP’s campuses of acts of compassion being done by some faculty, students and staff, including the security guards and custodial workers, who went out of their way to feed and take care of the community cats and dogs during the lockdowns.
The UPCats of Baguio
UP Baguio circa 2020 was one source of such reports. A Facebook post dated May 11, 2020 featured photos of some of UP Baguio’s resident cats being fed by UP Baguio Assistant Professor of Physical Education Jennifer Inovero. An earlier Facebook post also showed a student-volunteer making the rounds to feed UP Baguio’s “UPCats”. Yet another post showed a security guard conducting temperature checks on the cats per COVID safety regulations. This post tugged the heartstrings of the public so much that it caught the attention of mainstream media.
“During the pandemic, nagpalista ako sa Chancellor namin as a frontliner sa Animal Welfare Committee,” explained Inovero. This allowed her to enter the campus to feed the cats. “Nakatulong yung mga cats sa mental and psychological state ko kasi, as you know, ang hirap ng buhay natin noon,” Inovero said. “At saka going around the feed stations, I treated that as cardio exercise. So the benefit was mutual, and siguro naman masaya yung cats kasi matataba sila noon.”
#UPLBCats and #UPLBDogs
In UPLB around the same time, something similar was taking place. Dr. Rosa Mia Cabanting, who now works for the Philippine Rice Research Institute, was a graduate student at the time and staying at the International House Residence Hall along with the other grad students who had been stranded in the campus during the lockdown. She and her fellow dormers took to feeding the cats in the dorm and eventually the surrounding buildings as well. When Cabanting found herself offering up a litter of kittens for adoption via the Facebook group UPLB Lockdown Diaries, that was when UPLB alumna, development communicator, entrepreneur and animal welfare activist Chiara Karenina Manuel reached out to her. Working with fellow volunteer, they managed to have the mama cat spayed at the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Quezon City, along with an initial batch of 10 cats.
This led to more trips to have more animals sterilized to prevent them from reproducing. They soon realized that they needed to make the operation more sustainable. Plus, they needed to document the animal population and the impacts of sterilization on both the animals and the humans, and to educate the community on how to properly deal with the animals. They started welcoming more people who want to help, created a Facebook page, and in May 2021, the student volunteer organization Compassion for Animals Through Service of UPLB Students or CATS of UPLB was created.
“We needed to communicate to the people who approach us that we are not a rescue group. Hindi kami veterinarian. We have to ask veterinarians for assistance. Nagdadala kami ng mga alaga sa vets because we want other people or organizations to emulate us as responsible colony managers. Community animal care ito for us,” Manuel said.
An uphill battle
Inovero and CATS of UPLB are among the organizations, units and individual volunteers whose focus is responsible pet ownership and caring for the wellbeing of UP’s campus animals. Others have been standing up for UP’s non-human community members for a while now. In UP Diliman, for instance, there is the Friends of Campus Animals UP (FOCA UP), the first animal welfare volunteer group in UP Diliman, created in July 2015 by UP Journalism professor Khrysta Imperial Rara, and Dr. Jonathan Anticamara, associate professor at the UP Diliman Institute of Biology (IB), who on his own has been taking care of the cats and dogs around the IB building since 2010, and often partners with Rara in conducting spay-neuter programs in the UP Diliman campus and educational campaigns even in other UP campuses.
Whether veteran or relatively new volunteer, they all agree on one thing: that caring and advocating for UP’s community animals is often “an uphill battle”, and that it is the human side of the equation that makes the problem so complicated.
“First of all, some authorities don’t fully understand what animal welfare is,” Rara said. “Akala nila, basta napakain mo lang at napasunod mo sila sa gusto mo, tapos na. But welfare is not from the humans’ point of view. It must be from the point of view of the animal. Look at it from the animal’s eyes, because the animal has to be able to make a choice.”
Failing to gain the support of authorities can make the job exponentially harder. As priorities shift, some initiatives meant to benefit the most ignored sector of the UP community can be left high and dry. The UP Baguio Animal Welfare Committee, which was formed in 2018, lasted only three years. “Now we’re only faculty volunteers,” Inovero said. “Kung ano yung ginagawa namin before, tinuloy lang namin. At saka we’re already attached to the campus cats.” The volunteer-caretakers rely on sporadic donations to provide for the cats, but mostly the funds come from their own pockets. “Mabigat sa akin financially, at kapag may nagkakasakit, emotionally and psychologically din,” Inovero admitted. “Minsan parang gusto ko nang bumigay, pero iisipin ko lang, kung tumigil ako, paano na yung mga cats?”
In 2023, UP students were shocked to learn that Balay Kaibigan, UP Diliman’s center for animal-related activities, was going to be permanently closed. Balay Kaibigan, located on Juan Luna Street, was established in 2019 as spaying and neutering initiative for UPD’s campus animals. By 2023, at least 872 dogs and cats had been neutered and at least 150 of them were adopted. Following negotiations between the University Student Council and the administration, it was decided that Balay Kaibigan, be relocated to the Diliman Environmental Management Office. By then, volunteers had managed to adopt out most of the cats and dogs who lived in Balay, and only the six resident dogs that served as Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) for the students remained.
For Rara, this “setback” came with a twist as earlier, in August 2023, UP Visayas launched its Balay Kalagday under the UPV Animal Care Program through the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod, in partnership with the Office of the Chancellor. Balay Kalagday in UPV’s Miagao campus would serve as a “halfway house” where campus cats and dogs would be cared for following the “trap-neuter-vaccinate-release” (TNVR) framework. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Balay Kalagday was, by UPV Chancellor Clement Camposano’s admission, inspired by Balay Kaibigan.
Animal welfare, human management
It’s not just trouble with animal politics. Too often, it’s trouble with humans in general. CATS of UPLB has a policy of maintaining their members’ anonymity to protect them from online and physical harassment as they go about their tasks of feeding and caring for the animals. Cabanting and her fellow volunteers have been yelled at by irate people after some cats or dogs defecated inside buildings or knocked over trashcans, despite the fact that it was humans who covered up the grounds with concrete and left trashcans full of food waste without lids. “Parang since wala silang nakikitang benefits doon sa hayop, ang daling magbitiw ng mga salitang katulad ng ‘lalasunin ko yang mga pusa na yan pag di ako nakapagpigil,'” she said.
For Anticamara, this is all rooted in a widespread culture of cruelty. “There’s a lot of cruelty in the Philippines. Sometimes this cruelty isn’t obvious na pananakit but, for example, hinahayaang dumami yung mga anak ng cats and dogs tapos pag nanganak na, itatapon. How can a system like UP not address that or consider that a priority?” Especially since there are effective and compassionate solutions to the problem of stray animals, he added, citing the successful zero-strays policies in Italy and the Netherlands.
Stronger together
Anticamara, for his part, considers his efforts to care for the campus animals as simply part of being a biologist who considers long-term ecological impacts. “I want to seek solutions through science. I know there’s a problem—sobrang daming strays, sobrang daming abandoned animals that are suffering. I think that’s a problem with a solution, so para sa akin, it’s more of what’s the best scientific solution to this problem.”
For people caring for animals in UP, the struggles are very, very real, and so is the worry of how long one can keep it up. “I made an action and so far it’s working. But I don’t think I can sustain it. Ito ang problema ko: if I’m not here, what will happen?” Anticamara admitted. “I can wish that there’s a systematic solution that everyone in UP can agree on. Doesn’t matter who you are—economist, mathematician, engineer, psychologist—we share, as one humanity, a common environment. Di pwede na ang value lang natin is how much money will this give me. Lahat ay sa Nature nanggagaling.”
In UP Baguio, the UPCats are as much a part of the community as the humans are. “I believe that dogs and cats have real emotions,” said Inovero. “Let’s just leave them be. They have the right to live in a clean, safe environment, kasi living things din sila. Let’s care for them like we care for our family members.”
“Mahirap itong work pero at the end of the day, very fulfilling sya,” Cabanting said about why they persist. “We do this for the University, para maging stable ang population ng animals. We do this for the people, so you don’t need to deal with a lot of unvaccinated animals or para walang nangungulit sa inyo sa dorm na nanghihingi ng food. Ito ang kino-communicate namin: na hindi mo kailangang kumuha ng something from these animals para alagaan mo sila. Buhay kasi ang pinag-uusapan, buhay ng mga aso’t pusa.”
“How to be an animal welfare activist? In your own little way, number one is: be kind to animals,” Rara said. “In your thinking, dapat may compassion ka na. Be compassionate and kind to all living things.
“And number 2, if you’re a UP student tapos nakita ninyo na marami nang stray cats or dogs sa college ninyo, form a group then do research on animal welfare. Kasi you can do more as a group than alone. You’re stronger together.”
Email the author at upforum@up.edu.ph.
Read more articles from the UP FORUM
Read more about activism in UP via these links:
- From Placards to Memes
- UP’s Tradition of Protest Music
- Activism and UP’s mandate of public service
- We encourage activism. . . because we care.
- On the Screen and in the Streets: Student Activism during the COVID 19 Lockdowns
- The Evolution of an Activist