EXPLAINER | Why Cebu City Says No More ImPAWnding?

Our city streets are home to numerous stray dogs and cats. Whether it's a dog sniffing for scraps or a cat brushing its head against passing shoes, many of these animals remain unsheltered. For a significant number, their path leads to city pounds.

Cebu City has revised its approach. Since June 2024, it has fully implemented its Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return (C-N-V-R) program, moving away from conventional impounding practices.

Stray overpopulation is a global crisis often met with reactive and unsustainable solutions. "The State of Pet Homelessness Project," the largest international study on stray animal populations, reveals the true scale of this problem. Across the 20 countries surveyed, approximately 362 million homeless pets were identified. This includes an estimated 143 million dogs and 203 million cats living on the streets, with an additional 12 million dogs and 4 million cats residing in shelters.

To counter animal overpopulation, several methods have been tried, but some have turned out to be brutal for the animals involved. CNVR is a scientifically proven four-step process considered the most compassionate method for managing the issue.  

Traditional impounding, regarded as the popular animal control method in the country, is a reactive measure. It addresses the rise of stray animals after they have already contributed to overpopulation. 

If animals are taken away from an area by impounding, it creates a “vacuum” or an open territory with resources like food and hiding places. This quickly attracts new, unsterilized animals to move in. Since these newcomers haven't been spayed or neutered, the population quickly grows back to its original size, or even larger. 

"If you remove the ten dogs, a day or two after, there will be another ten dogs that will occupy the space... There's no end to it. The best way, which is already proven, is CNVR," Cebu City Veterinarian, Dr. Alice Utlang, said in an interview with Patrol ng Pilipino.

Impounding operates on a repeated cycle of capture and housing. If animals are not adopted within a limited timeframe, euthanasia may follow due to shelter overcrowding.

CNVR aims to reduce the number of new litters, controlling stray population growth over time.

Vaccinated and sterilized animals also present reduced health risks and behavior linked to reproduction, contributing to public safety and lower disease transmission.

Sterilized animals generally exhibit less aggression or noise due to the absence of mating behaviors.

In terms of resource use, impounding requires recurring investment in shelter maintenance, staffing, and euthanasia protocols, while CNVR focuses on prevention-based intervention.

Cebu City stands out as the only city in the Philippines with full implementation of CNVR. 

Before CNVR, in the first quarter of 2024,  the Cebu City Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) reported that 184 dogs were euthanized. Moreover, it said that traditional impounding had led to overcrowded facilities and disease outbreaks, forcing them to euthanize the animals to prevent the spread of illness. 

Since the program was fully implemented in June 2024, DVMF reported zero euthanasia and zero impoundment cases among impounded dogs from January to March 2025. 

From June to December 2024, the DVMF impounded 2,033 dogs, with nearly half being released back into the community after undergoing the CNVR. For the first quarter of 2025, an additional 255 dogs were released through the same process. 

That brings the total to 1,229. An impressive milestone in less than a year.

Even with its successes since the implementation, the CNVR program in Cebu City still deals with challenges in its day-to-day operations, such as a shortage of anesthetics, inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and transportation difficulties, as it only has one old animal truck for its operations. This limits the number of animals that can be picked up at any given time and could potentially hinder the overall efficiency and responsiveness of the capture team.

 

To strengthen the program, Cebu City Veterinarian Dr. Alice Utlang shared a memorandum issued on June 18, 2025, announcing that the Cebu City Government now requires all city-resident employees who own dogs or cats to register their pets with the DVMF.

The pet registration costs P200, covering a free anti-rabies vaccination, deworming, and spay or neuter surgery for your pet. This package would collectively amount to thousands of pesos if acquired through private veterinary clinics. 

To put into context, a single anti-rabies vaccination at a private clinic typically ranges from P250 to P500, while deworming costs between P150 to P400 per session, depending on the pet’s size and the dewormer used. 

Spaying comes twice as expensive as the other services offered. 

Cost comparisons:

These rates highlight the affordability of government-provided veterinary services relative to market prices.

As the CNVR program becomes more integrated within the community, the department continues to seek public support for this initiative, promote responsible pet ownership, and call for locals interested in adopting the animals. 

Before the city began its full implementation, some private animal welfare organizations and universities had already administered CNVR programs in their own spaces. Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA) Welfare, Southwestern University PHINMA, and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College of Veterinary Medicine are among those who have actively applied the program to community pets and championed various spay and neuter campaigns.

As the only local government unit to fully adopt this method city-wide, Cebu City is also extending its call for other LGUs to welcome the idea of implementing CNVR in their cities.

While it has successfully championed the program, other areas within the Cebu province still rely on traditional impounding to control the rising number of strays. For instance, when the cases of the deadly rabies virus soared to alarming levels in November 2024, LGUs, such as the Municipality of Cordova, considered the construction of an impounding facility as the primary solution. 

 

Sticking to older methods in other local governments may stem from obstacles in terms of budget allocation, with stray animal welfare efforts given less priority. The financial burden would likely fall on non-governmental organizations. Cebu City, under the strategic efforts of its city veterinarian, overcame such resource-related challenges through “strategic information dissemination and effective implementation.” 

Beyond Cebu, CNVR campaigns are being pushed by animal welfare groups. Recently, on June 22, PAWSsion Project has stepped up in collaborating with the Baclaran church to fund a similar kind of initiative.

The shift to CNVR in Cebu City reflects a policy change prioritizing prevention-based population control. With continued implementation, collaboration, and support, similar models may be considered in other urban contexts.