How Rina Ortiz Found Purpose in Rescuing Animals

She has spent a lifetime rescuing animals. Along the way, they have taught her life’s most important lessons.

Animal rescuers are a special breed. They have an endless well of compassion for lost cats and unhoused dogs, and while they can’t possibly pick up every stray animal wandering the streets, they damn well try. Rina Ortiz has been rescuing abandoned cats and dogs since childhood, initiated into the practice by her grandfather who helped her pick up her first dog when she was five years old. She grew up surrounded by animals, at times living in a farm in Batangas where she took care of a herd of goats, turkeys, pigeons, along with an ever-growing number of cats and dogs.

As an adult, she ran Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) programs, considered the most humane method of managing street cat populations. But seeing how the pandemic worsened the conditions of community animals, who survive on scraps and are exposed to the elements, she realized that she was being called to commit to animal welfare full time. In 2022, she established Biyaya Animal Care, a self-sustaining network of veterinary centers that support the operations of the Biyaya Animal Sanctuary. The shelter sits on a two-hectare property in Alfonso, Cavite, and is currently housing and rehabilitating around 2,000 rescues, 80 percent of which are dogs, most of them looking to be rehomed.

For her shoot in Uptown Mall, BGC, Ortiz brought four of her own rescues who have become pets: Margarita, a Great Dane who was abandoned by her previous owners; Anniese, a shaggy mixed sheepdog found on the streets; Daphne, an aspin rescued along South Super Highway; while Peggy, who was named after the Deadpool dog for apparent reasons, is a Maltese who was surrendered to the pound and about to be euthanized before Ortiz stepped in and took her home. All of these dogs were found in an abysmal state: malnourished, covered in ticks, losing their hair, or gravely ill. But with patience and a lot of love and care, they’ve completely recovered and grown trusting and calm enough to be brought to a busy mall. 

Aside from their range of sizes, Ortiz explains that she chose these four furbabies to represent a range of dogs. Neither exclusively pro-aspin nor pro-purebred, but simply pro-adoption, she says that Biyaya believes in “Love for All Kinds.”

Biyaya is the full expression of Ortiz’s lifelong journey with caring for animals, but turning it into a profession was a relatively late pivot in life. She had spent 30 years as a yoga teacher, being the first Filipino student to study with the guru, the late B.K.S. Iyengar. Founding the Iyengar Yoga Center Manila in 2004, Ortiz made an annual pilgrimage to India to study with him and his children, eventually becoming the head assessor for Iyengar Yoga in Asia.

In the Rina Ortiz Podcast, she describes how she struggled during the pandemic. Teaching had become restricted to Zoom calls and it just wasn’t filling her cup the way it used to. On the other hand, her husband noticed the spark she got from rescuing animals. He told her, “Why don’t you quit your day job and do what you really want to do?” Until then, she had never really considered the possibility. 

Ortiz still lives by a line from the Bhagavad Gita learned along her yoga journey: “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.” In other words: do the work, but don’t be attached to the outcome. You can control the effort, but not the result. It’s a reminder to focus on the present, and to not let anxiety over success or failure get in the way of doing your job. Ortiz sees it as a call to service. Her advocacy for animals can be seen as an extension of her yoga practice, teaching others to become better human beings through connection with oneself and all of creation.

“Animal welfare is human welfare,” Ortiz says. This is something she wishes more people understood. Animal rescuers are often criticized for caring more about animals than people. But different people are called to different things; for people like Rina, it is understanding that animals cannot help themselves when they are abused, abandoned, or left behind in a disaster.

When dogs and cats are vaccinated against rabies, it reduces the risk of humans getting rabies. By keeping animals healthy, we can also prevent many viral zoonotic diseases like swine flu and bird flu. In one year, Biyaya vaccinated 17,500 animals and sterilized 23,600. Last year, Ortiz received a Veterinary Clinic Award on World Rabies Day.

Ortiz’s big goal for 2035 is to achieve a rabies-free and stray-free Philippines. Her main work, beyond trapping cats in tricky places or chasing runaway dogs, is working with the LGUs to strengthen their TNVR programs and educate citizens on responsible pet ownership, which accounts for a large part of why so many animals are left out on the street. 

“We cannot rescue our way out of this problem,” she said. “We cannot shelter our way out of this problem. We cannot feed our way out of this problem. We cannot impound and euthanize our way out of this problem,” she said in her keynote speech at CatCon 2026, the first gathering of community cat organizations and TNVR advocates held last July. Shortly after, she posted a reflection on her Instagram page. “We often believe that the world’s greatest problems are solved by better systems, better policies, better technology, or better strategies. They help. But they are not enough. Because every system is ultimately held together, or broken apart, by the quality of our relationships.” 

The hardest relationship of all may be the one we have with ourselves, Ortiz concluded. She has written a book to be published by Marina Cruz and Rodel Tapaya’s iStorya Studios titled A Field Guide to Rescuing. While it reads like a workbook filled with technical information, it is also a story about how, in rescuing animals, we are also rescuing ourselves. We think we are saving their lives, she says, but they save something in us, too. Perhaps rescuing restores that ancient connection and trust between living creatures; the recognition that we are all bound to one another. 

In this story: Beauty Editor: Joyce Oreña; Art Direction: France Ramos; Producer: Mavi Sulangi; Videographer: Ang Tantuico; Hair & Makeup: Tinay Alvaran of Toni & Guy.

Special thanks to Megaworld Corporation. Shot on location at Uptown Mall BGC.