Joseph Candare pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of violating the Animal Welfare Act and was consequently convicted by a Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court after his arraignment.
Candare’s conviction is the first conviction for a case that PAWS has initiated and filed against an individual violator of animal welfare and rights.
Instead of sentencing him to six months to two-year jail term as mandated by law, Judge Catherine Manodon of MTC Branch 40 ordered Candare to pay a P2,000 fine.
As part of the Candare family’s arrangement with the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), the UP student will also render volunteer work for PAWS in the next two to six months.
“He will be doing most of what other volunteers do. It is perhaps his apology for his deed years ago,” said Charlene Laxamana, administrative officer of PAWS.
Like any other volunteer, Candare will be taking care of 255 cats, 53 dogs, as well as cleaning their cages and doing clerical work.
Aside from the volunteer work, Candare will also receive advice from a psychologist, according to Laxamana.
Laxamana said there had been over 40 convictions in the past for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, but these involved mostly mass animal abuses, such as the transport and sale of dog meat.
Candare, then a 19-year-old student in 2009, admitted on his blog that he tortured and killed a stray cat at the National Institute of Physics compound at the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City
Candare eventually deleted the post after receiving outraged and shocked comments about it.
PAWS filed a court case against Candare after learning of the violation on the Internet and has pursued the case since then.
Source: Inquirer.net
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