Earlier this month, Two Serendra, a condominium complex in Bonifacio Global City, was under fire for releasing a citation that penalizes anyone up to P10,000 who feeds community cats.
CARA Welfare Philippines posted a statement about this on its Facebook page:
Here’s the full post:
Although we are aghast at how Two Serendra’s Administration chose to approach the issue of their community cats, we remain hopeful that all parties shall reach a beneficial solution for all given a respectful dialogue and full cooperation of all parties with each other,
As stated in the MOAs between CARA and Serendra Condominium Corporation, we maintain that:
• Spayed or neutered cats will not be forcibly removed from the property as they are important to keep rats at bay and keep other stray cats from coming in.
• Employees should be educated about the basic principles of trap-neuter-return (TNR) such as how to recognize community cats, not to hurt the cats as they are already fixed, vaccinated against rabies and cannot do any harm.
• Employees should be educated about what CARA and the property are doing to HUMANELY manage the community cat population.Nowhere in any guidelines for humanely managing community cats does it say that:
• Starving them is ok.
• Relocating them to a strange place to fend for themselves is ok.
• Having them picked up by the city pound to be euthanized within days is ok.We would like to remind everyone that the Animal Welfare Act, amended by Republic Act No. 10631 in 2012, protects dogs and cats from cruelty and neglect in the Philippines. Anyone who commits the following is violating the law:
• subjects an animal to cruelty, maltreatment, and neglect
• tortures an animal
• neglects to provide adequate sustenance or shelter
• abandons a petHere are CARA’s action so far about this issue:
• We have initiated discussions with Serendra Retail as early as August to continue protecting the cats.
• While the public and employees are not allowed to feed the community cats in Serendra’s Retail area, we have worked out an arrangement to ensure the cats are fed by feeders assigned by CARA.
• We have sent the Serendra Board two letters requesting a dialogue for the residential area.
• We have reached out to the City Vet Office and Office of the Mayor to help address this issue.According to Mahatma Gandhi, the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. We trust that we can judge the greatness of Serendra by the way it treats its community cats.
We would also like to take advantage of this situation to remind everyone that CARA is COMPLETELY run by VOLUNTEERS who SACRIFICE much time and effort to promote animal welfare in the country. We study, work, and have personal lives just like you yet we do not get paid a single centavo for all that we do for love of animals.
Should you have comments and suggestions, please share them in a respectful and constructive manner. Let us be compassionate not just to animals but also to our silent volunteers. Offer solutions and WILLINGLY carry them out. Only if WE ALL DO OUR PART can we eventually save all animals who need help.
 Should you wish to also volunteer with CARA, please click bit.ly/VolunteerAtCARA
 Should you wish to donate any amount to support our TNR efforts, click bit.ly/CARADonate
 Should you wish to adopt a pet, click https://animals.caraphil.org/adopt-me to check out our adoptables and https://bit.ly/2MW3yzC on how to adopt a pet.
 Should you wish to invite CARA to speak about responsible pet ownership, pet adoption, spaying/neutering of pets, and the Animal Welfare Law, email secretary@caraphil.org.
 Should you wish to visit the Laguna Pit Bull Sanctuary, email volunteeratlpb@gmail.com.
 CARA has recently launched a Dog Boarding Service near Ortigas Center to help support the advocacy. To book a slot, call +632 532 3340.We are grateful to all our supporters. Thank you to everyone who adds your voice to all the helpless animals out there.
We reached out to Two Serendra and Alveo Land but we didn’t get a response from them as of this writing.
Anything to add to this story? Share your thoughts with us.
