UPMBT supporters TopBreed provide holiday treats on UP Doggo Day

The nineteen dogs of the University of the Philippines' Emotional Support Animals (ESA) Program in Diliman received a much-deserved holiday treat late last year from one of the supporters of the UP Fighting Maroons' Men's Basketball Team: TopBreed.

Founded in 2019 by then UP Chancellor Michael Tan, the ESA Program provides psychosocial support for students and university staff that may experience stress, depression or anxiety. The program manages, trains and utilizes campus animals to render emotional and therapeutic support to those who need them.

Considered as the leading Philippine-made dog food brand in the country, TopBreed provided these canines with nine hundred kilograms of high-quality dog food, as well as additional essentials like TopB+ vitamins and ShamPooch dog shampoo.

Aside from the treats, the dogs also underwent general check-up and deworming. They were also inoculated with anti-rabies vaccines from TopBreed veterinarians. TopBreed also provided pet supplies to ESA handlers from the different colleges and units in the Diliman campus that are under their supervision.

Helping in these efforts are members of the Friends of Campus Animals (FOCA UP), the first campus-based animal welfare volunteer group that helps with the ESA Program. Serving as the home of these emotional support animals is Balay Kaibigan.

TopBreed's decision to provide assistance to the ESA Program was an offshoot of their efforts to reach out to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs back in early December, one that the Men's Basketball Team also shared.

UP-Diliman Vice-Chancellor for Community Affairs Dr. Aleli Bawagan shares, "The University recognizes the ability of animals to help people destress. Therapy dogs are already being tapped in universities abroad to help students deal with academic stress. But even the ESA’s were not spared from the hardships of the pandemic. We appreciate the efforts of Top Breed to vaccinate and deworm UPD's emotional support dogs and donate dog food. We look forward to more collaborations with them in the future."

For their part, Universal Robina Corporation's Agro-Industrial Group (URC-AIG) managing director Vincent Henry Go says, "TopBreed is thrilled to take part in the UP Doggo Day. We are very happy to be given a chance to express our brand’s mission of providing top care to pets specially to these dogs who have provided comfort and emotional support to those in need. We would like to commend UP for coming up with this brilliant program that benefits both animals and humans alike. We salute the University for this endeavor and for taking good care of our fur friends, the emotional support dogs."