Dogs still getting poisoned even after Bali dog meat trade ban, officials say they’ve been ‘coaching’ RW vendors

The dog meat trade was effectively banned in Bali around six months ago, but such a ban is not the sort of thing that just kicks in overnight, or even in half a year.

Dogs are still being poisoned in Bali, allegedly to be used for RW (dog meat) food stalls, even though the island’s governor issued a decree prohibiting the dog meat trade in the province in July 2017.

A distressing video posted to Facebook in January 2018 shows a dog, presumably poisoned, lying on the road, vomiting up, with the OP writing that men had come to collect it. It’s alleged that dog meat suppliers will poison the animals in the afternoon then pick up their dead bodies under cover of the night.

The head of the Animal Health division in Badung Regency Department of Agriculture and Food, I Gede Arsama, condemned the rumblings on social media, reminding the public about Bali Governor Decree 524.3/9811/KKPP/Department of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health, which ordered the end of the dog meat trade.

The circular also called for data collection about dog meat sales; community education and outreach programs; and also, discussion about swapping the sale of dog meat for another meat. The last point, presumably directed at vendors who make their livelihoods of the sale of RW.

According to the data obtained thus far, dog meat sellers counted in Badung alone totaled 34 warungs, or food stalls in five districts.

To conduct the data collection in the past six months since the decree, Badung deployed a joint team of civil service police, officers from the Department of Agriculture and Food, and people from the Department of Commerce and Trade.

“Yes, for the first stage, we have done coaching of all (RW) traders,” Arsama told Tribun Bali on Thursday.

The coaching, or socializing of the decree, was done in the community to make it clear that the sale of dog meat is no longer allowed, he said.

Meanwhile, I Gusti Agung Ketut Suryanegara, of Badung Civil Service Police, says in Badung, RW vendors have been most concentrated in the Dalung area.

“What is clear is that Dalung has the most, I don’t have the number memorized,” he told Tribun.

If vendors are now found, still selling RW, they will be subject to lesser criminal charges, Suryanegara said.