Since launching PROJECT Sulawesi in July 2025, Lady Freethinker, together with Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) and Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA), has driven unprecedented progress towards ending the dog and cat meat trade on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia – home to a network of supply and demand hubs, including the infamous live animal markets of North Sulawesi, where animals endure extreme cruelty.
Through a combination of investigations and sustained advocacy, PROJECT Sulawesi has secured signed Memoranda of Understandings in Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo, creating real momentum for practical, solution-based action in communities while strengthening legal frameworks and their enforcement. This includes the issuance of a Governor’s Regulation in Gorontalo on the 24th of December explicitly prohibiting all aspects of the dog and cat meat trade – only the second regulation of its kind in Indonesia!
We are committed to ending the dog and cat meat trade through sustainable, community- and policy-backed solutions that protect animals by undermining the trade at its core. By disrupting supply, demand, legality, and profitability, the trade can no longer adapt or reappear elsewhere. At the same time, PROJECT Sulawesi is building momentum for wider bans by developing proven, replicable models that can be scaled across Indonesia and beyond.
Exposing the Trade – and the Opportunity to End It
(Lady Freethinker Investigation/Aaron Gekoski)
In June 2025, Lady Freethinker exposed conditions inside live animal markets in North Sulawesi, one of Indonesia’s largest hubs for the dog and cat meat trade. Investigations revealed that the vast majority of the thousands of dogs slaughtered there each month were sourced primarily from Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo, with Gorontalo serving as a critical transit route.
What was documented was indefensible cruelty. Dogs and cats crammed into filthy, blood-splattered cages, forced to watch their cage-mates being brutally slaughtered, trembling and whimpering as they waited their turn. The screams, the sound of heavy blows as dogs were beaten unconscious, and the smell of burning fur afterward are images, sounds, and smells that will haunt us forever.
Yet amid this horror, the evidence also revealed something critical: a clear path forward. The scale of cruelty exposed not only the depth of the problem, but also how it could be stopped.
(Lady Freethinker Investigation/Aaron Gekoski)
Further investigations tracing trafficking routes through Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo confirmed that the trade is driven by ease and profitability. By targeting key transit points and strengthening enforcement, it is possible to disrupt supply chains, remove incentives, and deliver a clear and achievable path to ending the trade for good.
Discussions with local authorities, animal protection advocates, and even traders themselves revealed a clear truth: public and political support for the dog and cat meat trade is weak. The trade has continued not because communities support it, but because it has been allowed to operate unchecked, sustained by gaps in law and enforcement.
That is now changing. Its cruelty is increasingly condemned, and its role in driving the spread of deadly rabies – and in undermining efforts to eliminate the disease through mass canine vaccination – is finally being recognized. As the large-scale trafficking of dogs for human consumption continues to disrupt vaccination programs, the urgent need to end this trade has become impossible to ignore.
(Lady Freethinker Investigation/Ben Jackel)
Growing resistance, combined with new laws and solutions, means this cruelty can be stopped.
Tackling the Trade at Its Roots
PROJECT Sulawesi addresses the crisis at its source by disrupting trafficking routes, supporting the enforcement of new laws, and confronting rabies – a deadly but preventable disease whose spread is directly facilitated by the dog and cat meat trade. By clearly demonstrating the link between the trade and the persistence of rabies, we have worked with policymakers and communities to show that a different path is not only possible, but essential given that Indonesia signed the global “Zero By 30” pledge – to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.
Thanks to your support, we have already:
- Funded vital research and investigations to expose and map the dog and cat meat trade across Sulawesi
- Successfully worked with the Government of Gorontalo Province to support the passage and enforcement of a Governor’s Regulation explicitly prohibiting all involvement in every aspect of the dog and cat meat trade – only the second regulation of its kind in Indonesia. The regulation includes penalties for perpetrators and provisions requiring dog and cat owners to provide appropriate care for their animals.
- Strengthened enforcement capacity to ensure Central Sulawesi’s new Directive and Gorontalo’s Governor’s Regulation translate into real, on-the-ground impact
- Funded the renovation of checkpoints at key trafficking corridors in Central Sulawesi and the construction of new border checkpoints in Gorontalo, staffed 24/7 to intercept illegal trade and cut off the supply of trafficked dogs and cats
- Installed public banners to socialize and reinforce new provincial regulations banning the dog and cat meat trade and associated activities
- Provided nearly 10,000 high-quality rabies vaccines to support mass canine vaccination, protecting both human and animal health
(Lady Freethinker Investigation/Aaron Gekoski)
Together, these measures:
- Undermine the dog and cat meat trade at its core by disrupting supply, demand, legality, and profitability
- Protect community and animal health and welfare
- Build momentum for wider bans through proven, scalable solutions
For the first time, enforcement agencies have clear legal authority and frameworks, marking a decisive shift toward a safer, more humane future for dogs and cats. These measures are ending the trade within and from Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo; cutting off the supply to North Sulawesi’s markets; supporting rabies elimination; and sending a clear message to the traders: the trade must end, and dogs and cats are no longer for sale.
Even Bigger Plans for 2026
Looking ahead, in 2026 we have ambitious plans to expand the reach and impact of PROJECT Sulawesi. This is a major undertaking – one that has never been attempted at this scale in Sulawesi. Together, we will expand our commitment to a coordinated, unified approach that brings law enforcement, education, border control, and community engagement together to deliver lasting, meaningful change for the animals who need us most.
(Lady Freethinker Investigation/Aaron Gekoski)
The scale of suffering has been immense, and the problem has at times felt overwhelming, with no clear place to begin. But now, the solution is clear. Public and political support is real, and the path forward is finally open – because of you.
This is how we save hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats each year from ever falling into the hands of traders. And this is how we change the future – for generations of dogs and cats yet to be born – by building a world where the dog and cat meat trade is banished to the history books.
