Wacku Helped Raise Cruelty Penalties. A 2026 Bill Would Raise Them Again.

On September 29, 2026, Akbayan Party-list Rep. Percival Cendaña filed House Bill 11495, the proposed Animal Life Advocacy and Guardianship (ALAGA) Act. Representatives of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) stood with him, along with some therapy dogs. The Philippines raised its cruelty penalties in October 2013, less than a year after a dog named Wacku walked into a House hearing.

What the new bill asks for

The bill sets penalties on a sliding scale. Causing an animal’s death could mean up to three years in prison and a fine of up to P500,000. Grave injuries could mean up to a year and a half and a fine of up to P80,000. Lighter injuries could mean up to a year and P30,000.

It would also create a National Commission on Animal Welfare with enforcement powers. Cendaña says the bill is meant to address difficulties in prosecuting cruelty cases under the existing law. PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera says the commission would provide the administrative and financial capacity to carry out animal welfare laws nationwide.

Wacku goes to Congress

PAWS, which Cabrera leads, brought Wacku to the House in November 2012. Two months earlier, in Northern Samar, a drunk neighbor had cut off his upper snout with a machete while he guarded his owner’s tricycle.

His owner, tricycle driver Amar Adrayan, took him to the veterinary hospital at the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman. PAWS happened to be in town running a spay and neuter outreach, and students and faculty told them about the dog. He had already had surgery, and PAWS worried the school couldn’t fully care for him, so they stepped in. He ended up more than 700 kilometers away at the PAWS rehabilitation center in Quezon City. Cabrera says he was aggressive toward men at first. He softened.

PAWS had been trying to amend the Animal Welfare Act of 1998 and kept getting delayed. Cabrera says the room gasped when Wacku walked in, and that without him the group wouldn’t have gotten that response. The amended law was signed in October 2013. Fines went from a maximum of P5,000 to as much as P100,000.

Five years of waiting

Wacku became one of the longest-staying dogs at the center. Cabrera says dogs with disabilities are usually the first to be adopted in a shelter. In the Philippines she sees the opposite: the odder a dog looks, the less likely anyone takes him home.

In January 2018, Road Dogs and Rescue, a Los Angeles network, got in touch. A follower had passed Wacku’s story to founder Nikki Carvey, and she wanted him. Cabrera was hesitant at first and sad that he couldn’t find a home in the Philippines. After five years, she says, they decided to give it a chance.

Plenty of people applied. Carvey chose Liesl Wilhardt of Eugene, Oregon, a fellow rescuer who wanted Wacku as her own dog. Wilhardt started Luvable Dog Rescue in 1999. She had seen a video of Wacku climbing onto a man’s lap to be petted. Her first thought, she told reporters, was “What a survivor.”

Cabrera flew with him on March 11, 2018. She says the goodbye left her teary.

Oregon, and snow

Wacku was scared of the Wilhardt household at first. By the next morning, Wilhardt says, he was a happy dog eager to meet everyone. A rare spring snowfall had just hit, so his first walks in the US were in snow.

His new home, on 55 acres, came with eight other dogs, including Picasso, a dog with a facial deformity who had already drawn media attention. Wilhardt says Wacku can still eat and give kisses, though eating is messy, and that people stop noticing his face once they spend time with him. She thought he might work as a therapy dog.

A newer arrival, a dog named Newt, joined the household in 2021. A December 2021 report still lists Wacku there with Picasso and Newt. We could not find newer reporting on him.

Accounts of the move differ on a few details: his age (six or seven), who flew with him, and how Wilhardt first heard about him.

Aspin Day

PAWS made August 18 National Aspin Day in 2021. This year’s celebrations included a Palarong Pang-Aspin, a set of games for Filipino dogs, at Ayala Malls Vertis North.