Iloilo dining & markets
Clean, cared-for streets that suit a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
HumanityInitiatives
Iloilo & Guimaras, Philippines
When the animals thrive, we all thrive
What is happening to pets, rescues and street animals across Iloilo and Guimaras — what is helping, what is hurting, and which solutions deserve to be funded and scaled. It is built to be answered by many hands, not paid for by one.
For funders and partners
Fund the Palangga Paws Mobile Clinic
"Palangga" means "beloved" in Hiligaynon. A Humanity Initiatives programme.
The flagship programme, and the right first move: sterilisation and rabies vaccination brought to the barangays of Guimaras and Iloilo, rather than waiting for animals — or their owners — to travel. This is the sequence Soi Dog proved in Phuket: reduce the inflow first, build facilities later.
Step 1 · Now
Partner with the vet offices under the Anti-Rabies Act
Request a meeting with the Iloilo City, Iloilo Provincial and Guimaras Provincial Veterinary Offices.
Step 2 · Month 1
Start small, visible giving
Open one publicly tracked donation channel and post results after each clinic day.
Step 3 · Months 1–3
Sign up the first food and market partners
Approach five eateries and one public market; work through JCI Iloilo and local food associations.
Step 4 · Months 3–6
Apply for international CNVR grants
Use the first clinic days' published numbers to submit applications.
Getting a clinic vehicle starts with our government partners. See the van plan
For eateries, resorts and barangays
The Animal-Friendly seal: good for animals, good for business
Resorts & homestays
Visitors notice healthy, vaccinated animals — and come back.
Families & barangays
Fewer bites means fewer costly rabies shots for households.
The mission
Assess honestly. Elevate whoever is helping. Replace what is failing.
On Guimaras and Iloilo, care for animals runs on private kindness. A handful of rescuers, feeders and sympathetic vets absorb costs no one reimburses, while breeding, rabies fear, poisoning and culling keep adding to the load.
The work here is not to duplicate what those people already do. It is to see the whole system clearly — every actor, every incentive, every gap — then direct attention, partnership and money to the interventions that measurably change it.
And to end the dependence on a single funder. Accountability and shared ownership are the difference between a kind gesture and a lasting institution.
Most urgent
Uncontrolled breeding of community dogs and cats
Without accessible, low-cost sterilisation, one unsterilised female and her offspring can produce hundreds of animals in a few years. Litters are born onto roads, in markets and behind resorts.
Rabies risk and the culling response
Fear of rabies drives culling and poisoning. Culling is both inhumane and ineffective: surviving animals breed back within a season, and vaccination coverage never reaches the threshold that protects people.
Dependence on one or two private funders
Nearly all of the effort in the area rests on a small number of individuals paying for it personally. That is generous, and it is also the biggest structural risk to every animal being helped.
Why this began · Pet food safety
Gabby, the kitten who started it
Her owner reports she fell seriously ill after a store-bought pet milk. Her lesson guides everything here: notice early, act fast, share what was learned.
Why we do this
Kindness, the way it shows up here
A dog and a cat, side by side on the same step, asking nothing of each other. Every animal on these islands deserves that kind of peace — and someone to notice when it is missing.
