House bill seeks setting up of dog stations at malls

MANILA, Philippines — A congressman from Parañaque City has filed a bill requiring all shopping malls in urbanized cities in the country to have at least one dog station where owners can deposit their dogs while they roam the mall premises.

In House Bill 7108, Parañaque Rep. Edwin Olivarez said that pet dogs are clearly becoming part of the Filipino family so it is “just proper” to have campaigns to “protect the welfare of our pets, more particularly the canines.”

The lawmaker said that while Filipinos love frequenting shopping malls, these establishments lack facilities for their dogs so it is “quite inconvenient to bring these animals with them although they badly want to.”

Under the bill, shopping malls shall be mandated to “provide a facility that would temporarily look after and protect the welfare of domesticated dogs when the pet owners need to go for a little shopping in the said mall.”

Olivares noted that the Philippines stands out as East Asia’s biggest dog owner with “six times per-capita number of pets seen in China, which is the biggest country in the said part of the continent.”

“The number of Filipino pet owners is growing significantly each year. There is now close to nine million households across the country with at least one dog,” he added.

“If pet dogs are being considered as man’s best friend or even a member of a family, we should allow their owners to have the option to bring with them their pet dogs wherever they go to the malls instead of just leaving them in their homes,” the measure reads.