 In 2007, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) suggested the alternative term "aspin", short for "asong Pinoy" (Pinoy dog) probably to avoid the stigma associated with the term ""askal"".In Cebuano, dogs are called irong Bisaya, which literally means "Visayan dog" or "native dog" (note that the word "Bisaya" doesn't explicitly mean "Visayan" but it is a term pertaining to people and animals native to a specific locale.For example, ""manok Bisaya"" simply refers to a breed of chicken native to a locality), implying that these are not thought of as a mixed-breed dog so much as unbred mongrels with no purebred ancestors.