NEWSFLASH

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BENGUET TOWN TESTS CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PET CATS

Kapangan, Benguet, Nov. 25, 1997 - A very interesting news item written by Delmar Carino, Baguio-based writer of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, raises the issue of constitutionality of keeping cats as pest controller.

According to Carino's report, the Municipal Council of Kapangan town passed a Municipal Ordinance requiring every household to own a cat to solve the town's rat infestation problem. The 9-man council passed the ordinance to address the complaints of farmers who said farm rats destroy their crops.

Both Mayor Liso Agpas and Vice Mayor Rogelio de Leon approved and endorsed the ordinance, as it would reduce the use of chemical rat poisons which ruin the environment.

The ordinance would make it a crime not to maintain a cat in the household or to drive away or kill a cat that belongs to the household. Punishment would be a reprimand from the barangay officials and replacement of the cat for the first offense, P200 fine for second offense and P400 fine plus 10 days in jail for the third offense.

But Provincial Legal Officer Juan Nazarro Jr. declared the local law as unconstitutional.

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