Adonis, as revealed in the Greek mythology is considered an ever-youthful vegetation god, a life-death-rebirth deity.

The reference to Adonis, the Greek deity, is accidental. Our Adonis' story, one of Animal Kingdom Foundation's rescued dog from an operation in San Jacinto, Pangasinan, is not of mythological stuff but the following narration with its near death-"rebirth" events is inspiring in its entirety and, surely, the Greek god won't mind having his name attached to a dog, especially if it has an interesting story.

On the last week of June 2006, during one of the risky operations of catching dog-traders by the Animal Kingdom Foundation, Inc, an animal-welfare group based in Metro Manila, in the village San Jacinto, Pangasinan, a skinny dog with tiger-like stripes bound for slaughter was spared due to the assertion of AKF's veterinarian Winston Samaniego. The skinny dog was already snared from its cramped cage by the dog-trader when the team of AKF Researcher Greg S. Quimpo, the supposed customer who is interested in buying dogs, Veterinarian Winston Samaniego and Ms. Suzanne Llanera, AKF's Managing officer, acting as business partners, arrived at the dog-trader's open view slaughter house and, immediately, Veterinarian Samaniego discouraged the slaughter stressing that they prefer bringing the dogs alive to a slaughter house up north. And so the skinny dog was spared from a painful fate.

The recovery of a number of dogs, now rehabilitating in AKF's Animal Rehabilitation and Rescue Center in Capas, Tarlac was a product of a month-long surveillance by animal-rights advocates, Greg S. Quimpo and Veterinarian Samaniego. The Criminal Investigation & Detection Group-Unit of Lingayen, Pangasinan spear-headed the raid and a complaint of violating RA8485-The Animal-Welfare Law of 1998- was filed in the prosecutor's office of San Jacinto, Pangasinan against the butcher by the Animal Kingdom Foundation activists.

While isolated from the other dogs in the center, the skinny and traumatized dog escaped from the holding pen, climbed the wall of a dried-out pool and jumped over the concrete fence out into the darkness. Considered as an escapee, the dog was not hoped to be recovered.

Until one night, the kennel staff and the guard of the center heard a persistent scratching coming from the iron gate. It was the skinny dog! He has returned. Closing the gate behind them, the kennel staff, Mark and Jed, tried to snare the dog back to the pen while the guard, Nick, stayed behind and watched. The skinny dog was elusive and made the two boys pant in exhaustion. While the two were catching their breath, they let the dog approached Nick. Throughout the night the dog never left Nick's side. He found a spot outside Nick's room and slept there while everyone in the center were in their room. The next day, they named him Adonis and, with the blessing of Charles Wartenberg, AKF's President, officially declared Adonis as the center's guard dog.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM FOUNDATION INC.
Animal Rehabilitation and Rescue Center

A non-profit, no-kill dog shelter dedicated to saving abandoned, neglected, abused and slaughter-bound dogs.

The AKF Animal Rehabilitation and Rescue Center is fully operating on donated funds from the United Kingdom. Much of the medicines and facilities utilized in it came from the UK. A few corporate and business establishments like Pedigree, Inc., Philippines and Oxford Suite Philippines have also donated dog-food and towels. The center sits on a 2.5 hectare rented property with enclosed concrete walls. It has considerable numbers of kennel where rescued dogs move freely. Each kennel features covered shelter with concrete floors and wide open ground where the rehabilitated dogs roam and roll with gusto.

The lone holding pen where distressed rescued dogs are delivered has a feature sensitively built for stress-free hauling. Upon entering a double-gate, the back of the delivery truck levels up to a wall with mound of earth on the other side. Once the back of the truck is open, the dogs alight from the truck unassisted. This has been proven to be an effective and safe way of hauling-off frazzled and unruly dogs rescued from far-away areas.

Several closures were constructed with varied uses. There are pens for male and female dogs, for ferocious ones and for disease-stricken ones. The clinic on the ground floor of the main house is the major treatment area. It can hold services such as neutering, spaying, treating skin-diseases, surgical operations, vaccinations, confinement and recovery of sick ones, de-worming, control of external parasites such as ticks and fleas, mange infection and laboratory tests for fecal, blood and microscopic examination. Competent Filipino and English veterinarians handle these delicate operations.

The upper floor of the main house has features and amenities to accommodate friends of AKF. It is a fully air-conditioned area with rooms, hot and cold shower, complete kitchen and sala set with combined mixture of hard wood and tiles.

The other building built for the staff features rooms with its own hot and cold shower and double-decked beds. The wide spaced sala and kitchen are fully air-conditioned. It has its separate laundry areas and a porch to welcome visitors.

A considerable number of fruit-bearing trees, mostly mango, which give the whole area an aesthetic appearance, lined up side by side on the pathway and lead to the entrance facing the pleasing façade of the main house. The trees are taken-cared of and expected to produce fruits for harvest.

The AKF’s Animal Rehabilitation and Rescue Center is, indeed, an ideal place to house distressed dogs victimized by the illegal trade and to welcome animal-lovers who have passions to save them.