doggie dilemma

May 31st, 2006

            One afternoon, while my cousin Joanna and I were walking along a nearby street, a wooden signboard nailed on a tree by the playground caught my attention. It says something like,

            Municipal Order No. 99-14

            Prohibits dog-owners from bringing their pet dogs to defecate or urinate in the street/ sidewalk/ park. Offenders are subject to a ten-day imprisonment and a fine of:

                    P 200 — 1st offense

                    P 500 — 2nd offense

                    P 1000 —3rd offense

            At first it makes sense.  Of course, who would want to see dog bowels in public places? I’m sure nobody likes to step on a dog poopoo especially that invaded by flies. As much as possible, we like to maintain the cleanliness of our surroundings by eradicating as much waste as possible and by keeping things in proper order. And such calls for the cooperation of everybody including dog-owners.

            Only one thing bothers me though about that municipal order.  Dog-owners have no control over the physiological and biological processes occurring within their dog’s system and so, how do they know whether their dogs like to urinate or defecate?  Unlike children who are toilet-trained, dogs know not how to speak and thus cannot tell their owners, “Nauuo na po ako” or “Naweeweewee na po ako”. So what if a dog-owner happens to bring his dog for a walk and suddenly the dog pees at some Meralco post somewhere along the sidewalk? Does the dog-owner get jailed for that?

            If such law exists and is implemented in Bantayan, Dumaguete, I bet my brothers and I have been jailed and fined countless times already.  Coz every time we bring Billy out for a walk, he pees at every post and every grassy area we pass through. They say it has something to do with the dog’s sense of territory and there’s nothing we can do about it unless we let him wear a dog diaper.

            How I wish local lawmakers would be wiser in making laws. Instead of making municipal orders like the above mentioned one, why don’t they just invest their time and the people’s taxes making more useful projects like ‘public dog restrooms’?

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