Culture and politics forum

"I'm sure all of us have seen them,covered in sores,fleas,no hair etc-so what's the answer?"

On my street I feed them and send them to the little dog care place (which incredily is also on my street) to get a bath once in a while. Man, those dogs do love me too!!! My neighbors think it's weird.

For a tourist, sadly the answer is probably ignore them. Maybe give them some scraps when you have the opportunity. Sadly there isn't much you can do.

You can absolutely help! There are a lot of organizations all across Thailand that help with strays. Currently I am plunked down in Ko Lanta walking and spending time with the dogs at Lanta Animal Welfare
run by the amazingly big hearted Junie of 'Time for Lime' fame.

They always need donations and volunteers - as far as I know there are many of these organizations on the islands and in Bangkok and Chiang Mai as well.

http://www.lantaanimalwelfare.com/start.htm

A few hours or a few hundred baht a week can make a lot of difference.

Cheers!

We used to have around 20 soi dogs on our soi (Sukhumvit Soi 27) in Bangkok. When they all got going the noise was unbelievable. I'd be on the phone and the other end would be saying "Where the hell are you?!"

Yes no easy solutions. Sure support the foundations that are doing great work, but in places like Bangkok, where there is an immense number of strays, mass sterilisations combined with culling would be a good start.

I remember reading about a dog "ashram" out in Kanchanaburi what had some totally mental number of dogs -- tens of thousands from memory. I can't imagine the racket on a full moon.

MAC,

I'm pretty sure somtam lives in Indonesia, but used to live on Soi 27 all those many years ago. Great area.

By the way, did you make it over to Larry's Dive on your latest trip?

On the stray dog topic, I agree that most efforts are only a drop in the bucket, but even just a drop is better than nothing at all. Even in the United States, nearly 4 million homeless dogs and cats are euthanized every year. Like somtam says, spay and neuter is the long-term answer.

I occasionally volunteer with a few of the animal rescue groups in my area. Their philosphy is pretty simple. Rescuing a stray animal won't change the world. But it means the world for that stray animal. The SCAD (Soi Dogs) group I mentioned above seems to be doing great work and is worthy of a little support. Cheers.

Now I have two soi dogs. My cleaning girl fed this stray, he followed her here, my wife fed him, took him to the vet for a cleaning on the corner... he decided our soi was the place to be. So now I have adopted another dog - or he adopted me. Pretty soon we'll have a pack out front.

Well, "Dtong" got a bath today. he was a dirty dog. At first he was nervous, but then he got so he was rather enjoying it, with tail wagging and no resistance to staying put. We're also in the process of fattening him up.

If i could take all the strays home with me I would.

Very sad really.

:(

I developed a fear of Thai strays in Ayutthaya, pretty much everytime i was within 50 metres of one they went crazy, barking, snarling... i guess the Auytthaya dogs just don't like me or perhaps they're beaten/harrassed more by people. It definately took some enjoyment away from the place. There were a few more dotted around in other places, usually markets, but no where near as bad as here. I only saw one hairless dog, near death, lyining in the middle of the road and that wasn't very nice to see.

I think some effort to control the numbers is a must, as Somtam says, through sterilisation and culling might be the way to go.

I know this might be a sensitive subject (and it probably belongs in the culture and religion thread but since it's connected to soi dogs, I'll leave it in here), but doesn't abusing animals conflict with Buddism?

Had a pretty ordinary experience with one of the wife's Brother-in-Law's dogs on the latest trip to Thailand.One night it got sick,whimpering and crying all night.In the morning it was in a bad way,could'nt move and laying on the ground outside the house.The family put an umbrella over it to make it as comfortable as possible and basically it was just left to die.Could'nt do anything else-no vet available and even if there was they probably would'nt have taken it.Died that afternoon and we buried it in the garden.

Yeah Somsai - that's something that gets me too. I've seen some creatures killed in the most barbaric and inhumane methods imaginable in the name of 'food' in SE Asia but then they won't put a dog out of its misery to ease its suffering? I don't really get it. I'm just now sure how they distinguish between the two.