PAWS’ New Campaign ‘Have a Heart for Aspins’ Gains Support
Filipina actress Heart Evangelista-Escudero partners once again with the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in their brand new campaign, “Have a Heart for Aspins” to battle the discrimination of “underdogs”!
In a literal sense, these “underdogs” are what we call now as Asong Pinoy (Aspins) or dogs with mixed breeds. In fact on August 23, 2018, Heart, accompanied by her own Aspin, Panda, which she lovingly calls Pan-Pan, visited the PAWS shelter to make their new campaign official to the press.
The Philippine Animal Welfare Society, together with Heart Evangelista-Escudero, launched their new campaign, “Have a Heart for Aspins” on August 23 with the press.
With the #AdoptDontShop accompanying the campaign for the underdogs, Heart is one with PAWS and other animal lovers to encourage the public to adopt from shelters instead of buying from pet shops, hoping that this act would uplift Aspins by treating them equally with purebreds. In addition, Heart also enjoins people to make the first step by calling these dogs with mixed breeds as Aspins instead of the seemingly derogatory name, Asong Kalye (Askal), as if the dogs are not deserving of a home.
More importantly, what Heart takes to the limelight with this campaign is a more responsible sense of ownership to battle animal cruelty.
PAWS Looks Back
During the press conference, PAWS looked back to celebrate the history of movements they have won for the better treatment of Aspins, starting with the amendment of the Animal Welfare Act in 2013. With the help of Senator Francis Escudero, husband of Heart Evangelista-Escudero, as well as the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, penalties for animal offenders were raised from Php 5,000 to Php 100,000.
Looking back, Heart also shared how her dad has been the main person in her life to influence her in this advocacy. She also recounted an incident when, at 10 years old, she rallied against dog offenders in their neighborhood.
Heart shares her love for dogs of mixed breeds at the recent launch of Have a Heart for Aspins campaign.
From this standpoint, Heart, by being a volunteer at PAWS since 2005, felt it was her life’s goal to be active in the cause, starting with PAWS’ 1st campaign, “See Beauty Beyond Breed”. A series of campaigns followed from then on, leading to the present campaign to continue to raise awareness about the Aspins.
For updates on the new campaign, you can visit PAWS Philippines‘ Facebook Page.
Sources: PAWS Philippines
All images are courtesy of PAWS Philippines
