Animal welfare advocates took to social media on Friday, April 26, to slam the killing of a pregnant stray dog, known as Cindy Maria, who had been residing at the San Sebastian Cathedral grounds in Bacolod City.
“I was so heartbroken when I heard the news today that there’s a priest in the Cathedral who ordered his people to put her inside a sack and have her killed while she’s pregnant with her puppies,” Greenfield Ramirez, Spay and Neuter Negros founding member, said on her Facebook page.
Cindy Maria’s mouth and feet were tied up, and she was stuffed into a sack to suffocate on the Church grounds, JP Ninjutsu also said on his Facebook page.
Msgr. Ronaldo Quijano, rector of the San Sebastian Cathedral, in a statement issued Friday said he never ordered the extermination of stray animals in the cathedral vicinity.
“I even coordinated with barangay officials through the parish office on how to handle and regulate the dogs as they imposed dangers among the faithful, and their waste was scattered in the Church’s vicinity”, he said.
“We do not tolerate any unjust cruelty towards animals and for any of God’s creation,” Quijano said.
Bacolod Bishop Patricio Buzon also said no order was made by Quijano to have animals at the Cathedral grounds killed.
Ramirez, in her post, said Maria is the stray dog she had been feeding since the COVID-19 pandemic along with other animals in the plaza area.
Homeless people sleeping outside of the Cathedral also gave Maria food, she said.
Animal advocates claimed puppies and cats at the Cathedral grounds had also been killed in the past.
BACH Project PH, in a Facebook post Friday, also called for justice for Cindy Maria and her unborn puppies.
“Many animal lovers had come to know her for her gentle nature,” it said.*