Dogs and cats in Sulawesi, Indonesia, have been stolen from homes, trafficked across provinces, packed into cages, and slaughtered in brutal live-animal markets and slaughterhouses. But across the island, real change is taking hold.
Lady Freethinker’s PROJECT Sulawesi is helping dismantle the systems that allow this cruelty to continue by targeting the trade at its roots: supply, profit, enforcement, and public awareness.
A new Lady Freethinker video shows the reality of the dog and cat meat trade in Sulawesi and the progress now being made to protect thousands of vulnerable animals every month.
Launched in July 2025, PROJECT Sulawesi is Lady Freethinker’s coordinated response to one of Indonesia’s major hubs for the dog and cat meat trade. The campaign follows LFT investigations that exposed devastating cruelty and dangerous conditions in North Sulawesi’s live-animal markets, where dogs and cats were confined in filthy cages and forced to endure the terror of slaughter all around them.
The investigations also revealed a path forward. The trade in Sulawesi is driven by supply routes and profit. By cutting off trafficking corridors, strengthening enforcement, supporting vaccination, and helping communities reject the trade, this suffering can be stopped before more dogs and cats are forced into markets and slaughterhouses.
Already, the campaign has helped support historic government agreements and new regulations to prohibit the trade, including a landmark Governor Regulation in Gorontalo banning the dog and cat meat trade, with other provinces pledging to follow.
Support from Lady Freethinker has also helped fund the construction and renovation of 24/7 border checkpoints along key trafficking routes. These checkpoints are designed to intercept traders, disrupt the transport of dogs and cats, and cut off the supply routes that feed North Sulawesi’s markets and slaughterhouses.
Gorontalo Border Checkpoint (L); Interception Effort (R) (Lady Freethinker)
The campaign is also helping protect both animals and communities through mass rabies vaccination efforts, while public awareness campaigns are reaching thousands of people with a clear message: Dogs and cats are not food.
In a previous update, LFT shared that Parigi Moutong Regency in Central Sulawesi issued official circulars explicitly prohibiting the trade, slaughter, and distribution of dogs and cats for consumption and requiring monitoring and enforcement by local authorities.
Each step matters. Stronger laws mean less room for traffickers to operate. Border checkpoints mean fewer animals transported into the trade. Rabies vaccination campaigns support safer, healthier communities. Public education helps rebuild positive relationships between people and dogs and cats.
Most importantly, communities are standing up for the animals, calling for an end to a cruel and dangerous trade that has gone unchecked for far too long.
From investigations to enforcement, from cruelty to protection, and from silence to action, PROJECT Sulawesi is showing how lasting change happens. Lady Freethinker will keep fighting until no dogs or cats are stolen, transported, sold, or slaughtered for this trade.
Thank you to every LFT supporter helping make this work possible for the animals who need it most.
