Shocking new footage of dogs and cats being bludgeoned over the head and blow-torched whilst still alive at an ‘extreme’ market in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province has prompted campaigners from the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia coalition to urge the Indonesian government to keep its promise to ban the island's brutal dog and cat meat trade. The DMFI comprises local and international groups Animal Friends Jogja, Jakarta Animal Aid Network, Change For Animals Foundation, Humane Society International and Four Paws.

The treatment of animals filmed by DMFI is not only extremely brutal, but also flouts public health and safety regulations designed to protect citizens from deadly rabies transmission and the spread of zoonotic diseases. Despite the national government’s Director of Veterinary Public Health, Mr Syamsul Ma'arif, making a groundbreaking and progressive public pledge last month to end the trade which he called 'torture for animals', DMFI’s new footage shows that markets in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, are continuing to slaughter thousands of dogs and cats every week and sell the meat for human consumption.

Since its first in-depth investigations in December 2017, DMFI has gathered alarming evidence of animal cruelty and violent dog and cat theft which it has submitted to both central and provincial governments, including North Sulawesi. This has sparked both national and global outcry including a letter to President Joko Widodo calling for an immediate ban on the dog and cat meat trades signed by more than 90 Indonesian and international celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Chelsea Islan, Dr Jane Goodall, Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres. DMFI’s global petition has also been signed by over 940,000 people from around the world.

In February this year, the Mayor of Tomohon’s office met with DMFI representatives and pledged to end the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats at Tomohon market and to work with the coalition to promote respect for animal welfare with the aim of ending the dog and cat meat trade in the city. However, DMFI’s latest video shows that it is business as usual at these barbaric markets.

There is also increasing concern among Indonesian citizens at the lack of action by law enforcement officials to deter or punish gangs of thieves who terrorise neighbourhoods and steal dogs and cats from back yards and houses. Jakarta Animal Aid Network says it receives countless reports each week from devastated pet owners who have had their dogs stolen by armed dog thieves.

The dog and cat meat trades in Indonesia also operate in breach of disease control regulations put in place to curb the spread of fatal zoonotic diseases such as rabies, despite the government’s pledge to eliminate the disease by 2020. Rabies is endemic in 25 out of 34 of Indonesia’s provinces, and dogs and cats of unknown disease status are routinely transported across provincial borders and islands and into densely-populated cities, in clear breach of the law, and threatening those cities and provinces – including Jakarta – that have worked so hard to secure their rabies-free status . With little sign of law enforcement action, the thieves and traders appear immune to punishment. 

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