Parkmall, Cebu’s first pet-friendly mall, is again hosting the most diversified and biggest gathering of pets, pet lovers and enthusiasts, and industry stakeholders after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s Pet Festival Philippines 2022, with the theme “Welcome to the New World,” will bring together various pets for a week-long competition and display of various products and services scheduled from May 16 to 22, 2022.
Various pet clubs, top pet shops, and animal welfare groups are also joining the event, making it the country’s largest and most diversified gathering of its type.
Parkmall’s CEO and general manager Neal Carlson Co led the opening ceremony of the week-long festival on Monday morning, May 16.
(L-R) Parkmall’s Assistant General Manager Melinda Co-Chua, Parkmall’s CEO and General Manager Neal Carlson Co, Parkmall’s Mall Manager Yael Aileen Sacris-Torrejos, and Island Rescue Organization (IRO) President Annalyn Aizpuro. | Photo by Wenilyn Sabalo
He was joined by Parkmall’s Assistant General Manager Melinda Co-Chua, Parmall’s Mall Manager Arch. Yael Aileen Sacris-Torrejos, and Annalyn Aizpuro the president of Island Rescue Organization (IRO), during the ceremonial ribbon cutting that kicked off the event.
Co, in his speech during the opening ceremony, emphasized on the importance of responsible pet ownership.
Pet expo and exciting exhibits from pet tenants, local pet shops, pet brands, and pet clubs await mall customers and spectators from May 16 to 22.
“It’s been a long pandemic, never-ending quarantine status, but there was one way to get through it all. It was bonding with our family and with our pets,” he said.
“But the ecstatic return of having a pet isn’t just fun. Pet ownership is a responsibility and a commitment, and its true test only gets heavier when businesses are opening, and people are going in the office,” he added.
Rhiza Elanor Jumao-as, Mandaue City Veterinarian and chief anti-rabies vaccinator, for her part, said the week-long activity is a reminder that pets, whether great or small, form part of our lives.
The Office of the City Veterinarian in Mandaue City, she said, will continue to support activities promoting animal health and welfare.
In a brief speech, Dr. Verna Agriam, Regional Animal Welfare Officer of the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas (DA-7) said Parkmall, so far, is the only mall in Cebu that has been fully compliant with their animal welfare regulations.
Pet expo and exciting exhibits from pet tenants, local pet shops, pet brands, and pet clubs await mall customers and spectators from May 16 to 22.
Meanwhile, a pet blessing, a sacred gesture for animals to have good health and happy lives, is scheduled on Saturday morning, May 21.
This will be followed by the Parade of Pets, Pet Talks (an interactive workshop and forum on pet home medical care and how to assemble a pet emergency kit), and an orientation on the Pawsitive Academy in the afternoon.
Pawsitive Academy is a seven-week workshop where any breed of dog will be made to undergo obedience training.
To culminate the week-long celebration on Sunday, May 22, Parkmall is bringing back “Pawshionista” or the runway competition for dogs. This year’s theme is “Pet Gala: Pawshionistas of the New World.”
Non-profit organization IRO that rescues and rehabilitates ‘aspins’ and ‘puspins’ before putting them up for adoption every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month as part of Parkmall’s regular Dog Walk, will benefit from the event.
IRO has been Parkmall’s partner for all of the mall’s pet-related events.
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