Soi Dog Foundation? Any infromation?

[wildewillie89]

https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?e=[UNIQID]&u=602549a912c4969971dde5370&id=50395d128b

Not sure if the above link is allowed, but I am frequently seeing this Soi Dog Foundation campaign pop up on other social media sites. The quarantine facility that authorities rounded up 3,000 dogs is apparently in Nakhon Phanom. They seem to hide that unless you directly ask them where the facility is, it took a few times of me and others asking them to get a response. 

Why this campaign has particularly disturbed me is, one, every post about the story doesn't actually involve any facts; just photos, emotive/guilt tripping language and no less than 5 hyperlinks to donate. But what was more concerning was the fact they have repeatedly used the phrase 'exaggerated rabies scare'. Whether a 2 sentence or 2 paragraph introduction, that phrase is the main point.

For starters, how can any rabies scare ever be exaggerated? Also, as one survey in the NE showed the majority of the population do not understand the medical implications (death) of the disease. Also, companies have only just released the municipality orders of vaccines, which the vet office have pulled rank over and taken themselves. So it isn't till probably June the free vaccine program will commence again in most of the NE (leaving many animals not protected). 

It seems many people are starting to question the legitimacy of this organisation on social media. I have only had one dealing with them (through email) when I looked into adoption. Does anyone actually know about this story?  Or indeed, how credible the foundation is?  

My initial thought is that they have left out a huge amount of details for the donations. From my understanding a dog that ended up being positive for rabies in Nakhon Phanom, bit one man and went around attacking other people and dogs. If we combine that with the fact some local departments just found out recent years vaccines have been fake (Soi Dog Foundation acknowledges this), then surely any government response is better than nothing. But to ignore these details, and just say 'exaggerated rabies scare' is quite shocking. Does anyone know what is happening with this facility? The wife had the Disease Control Office meet with her today as they are using our province to trial some educational programs about rabies and the Minister of Public Health is coming to visit her in 2 weeks about rabies. Rabies is not at all exaggerated. 

I always respected the Soi Dog Foundation, but it seems they are misrepresenting the rabies situation in the country for donations, which personally, I think is not right. I am obviously more than happy to be corrected if this isn't the case. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by wildewillie89

[Oxx]

(1) The link makes it absolutely clear in the first paragraph that this is referring to the North East.

 

(2) You appear not to follow the news in Thailand.  This has been widely reported in both Thai and English language press.

 

(3) The scare is indeed exaggerated.  Statistically the rabies situation is no worse than in previous years.

 

(4) The foundation is credible.  My only gripe with them is that they put SCAD (Soi Cats And Dogs) out of operation in circumstances that were never clear.

[wildewillie89]

4 hours ago, Oxx said:

(1) The link makes it absolutely clear in the first paragraph that this is referring to the North East.

 

(2) You appear not to follow the news in Thailand.  This has been widely reported in both Thai and English language press.

 

(3) The scare is indeed exaggerated.  Statistically the rabies situation is no worse than in previous years.

 

(4) The foundation is credible.  My only gripe with them is that they put SCAD (Soi Cats And Dogs) out of operation in circumstances that were never clear.

Yes, it makes it clear that it is in the NE. However, the rabies situation can be very different depending on where the exact province is. The main issue it seemed people had with the story was not being able to fact check the exact province to find out the true rabies situation. Finally, when they did say the exact province (after many people had asked), a quick search showed the true situation (rabid dogs running around attacking people and other dogs).

For example, one reason why Disease Control came to my province yesterday was to investigate why there is so many cases of rabies here but why their hasn't been any human deaths. So looking at differing local authority implementations and education programs and matching them against other provinces. Our immediate area has never had a case of rabies before, this year 4 dogs already have tested positive. My province hasn't had a rabies case for 12 years, this year in the first 4 months over 20. 

If I can quote The Nation, from March 9th this year:

'According to statistics, the infection rate this year is much worse than in the previous years, as there have been 178 cases of rabies reported in February compared to only 79 cases in February 2017, 47 cases in February 2016 and 40 cases in February 2015'.

These stats say that the problem is indeed twice as worse as last year, and four times worse than 2015, exaggerated? Maybe not high compared to 1980 (which the foundation reference), but I think that is too simplistic to look at it that way due to the obvious variables that can make it spike again (fake vaccines, corruption, lack of education etc). 

*Please link the English and Thai news reports of this story. I would be interested to see them. 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by wildewillie89

[dick dasterdly]

3 hours ago, Oxx said:

(1) The link makes it absolutely clear in the first paragraph that this is referring to the North East.

 

(2) You appear not to follow the news in Thailand.  This has been widely reported in both Thai and English language press.

 

(3) The scare is indeed exaggerated.  Statistically the rabies situation is no worse than in previous years.

 

(4) The foundation is credible.  My only gripe with them is that they put SCAD (Soi Cats And Dogs) out of operation in circumstances that were never clear.

Agree entirely with the first three points, but know nothing about the fourth.  More info. would be appreciated, as it seems extremely unlikely that Soi Dogs would try to destroy a charity with similar aims.

 

As far as I can make out, Soi Dogs have helped in eradicating rabies on Phuket - and are largely responsible for the relatively few soi dogs around as a result of their spaying/neutering policy.

 

I vaguely know the man who runs Soi Dogs (from when I first retired here, and helped out a little - plus a friend who worked closely with him and his sadly deceased wife previously) - and have no doubt whatsoever that it is a worthwhile charity.

[Oxx]

It's not been made public what exactly happened.  The sequence of events was something like:

 

- In 2013 SCAD decided to open a new, larger facility

- SDF decided it wanted to extend its operations to Bangkok.  There was, I believe, some talk of cooperation.

- SCAD closed

 

My understanding is that all three events were related, though what exactly happened has never been made public.

 

The SCAD closure notice is archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20130504082433/http://www.scadbangkok.org:80/about-us/articles.php

[dick dasterdly]

Just now, Oxx said:

It's not been made public what exactly happened.  The sequence of events was something like:

 

- In 2013 SCAD decided to open a new, larger facility

- SDF decided it wanted to extend its operations to Bangkok.  There was, I believe, some talk of cooperation.

- SCAD closed

 

My understanding is that all three events were related, though what exactly happened has never been made public.

 

The SCAD closure notice is archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20130504082433/http://www.scadbangkok.org:80/about-us/articles.php

Absolutely nothing there to indicate that Soi Dogs "put SCAD (Soi Cats And Dogs) out of operation".

[wildewillie89]

 I have been on holidays so haven't watched the news much, but looked at some today. As far as I can see from the very limited press on this particular story (mostly provincial local papers, not 'wide' press - *please link if it is as I have amazingly missed it), dogs that showed any symptoms similar to rabies were sent to the above facility. Which, to me, is understandable considering the previous tactics of killing dogs that could not be quarantined was met with backlash from animal groups. The only other press on the story that I can see comes from similar dog type organisations who have just received information from Soi Dogs, so it is only a one sided piece. 

From the local authorities perspective, policies of what they want to do haven't gone into effect yet (they are currently talking through it - so vaccine, tag, neuter/spay dogs and introduce fines), and people refuse to keep their gates closed (impossible to quarantine owned dogs, let alone strays), so they were limited in what they could do. Majority also have a zero budget so local quarantining is not possible. Everyone also knows that the rabies vaccines for most of the NE are still not ready (until this day), so vaccination of a majority of street and owned dogs was not possible (as what they have thought they have done previous years). So if rabid dogs were running loose (as they were at least in the province the shelter is located), then a fair chunk of the dog population was not protected (outside 3-5kms anyway). That is a legitimate scare to me. 

Soi Dogs Foundation position I find hard to understand though. They wrote to me explaining their position of why they think there is no rabies outbreak this year (which to me seemed rather simplistic as it ignored obvious variables). Then when I discussed the variables they missed out on they acknowledged them; that vaccines over the last few years have been sub-par (not worked), corrupt scandals, but also added that it was the authorities who spread the panic about the rabies scare. From what I saw the authorities were finding every silver lining that could be found as they have stuffed it up so much by not checking vaccines. If vaccines haven't been working over the last few years and numbers are up to 4 times higher and rabies is in provinces that it hasn't been for 12+ years or areas that it has never been, well to me, that is an outbreak. The foundation's stance of calling something not an outbreak just because their was more numbers 38 years ago lacks critical thinking, as numbers can spike very quickly if the conditions are right (as they have started to this year with right conditions - fake vaccines leading to unprotected dogs, no real vaccines ready (3-4 months overdue), and a failure for many areas to implement free neuter/spay in recent times, so the thousands puppies/kittens over the last few years have never received any working vaccination). 

From what I have seen, rabies programs were planned to be run on their natural calendar (same time every year), and it wasn't until the spike in figures of infected animals that the local governments tried to push these programs a month earlier (which to me is completely fair enough and logical). Obviously, this didn't happen and still hasn't happened in the majority of the NE due to no access to vaccines. It is indeed a sad story, a story that should not have come about, but I think the foundation has been quite misleading with this one.   

Edited May 3, 2018 by wildewillie89