Frenchman who allegedly locked Thai workers in cage accused of donations scam

[BestB]

30 minutes ago, taninthai said:

Agree with this ,we have a few animal charities/ volunteers in our province and they take care dogs as in feed them and getting injured strays or animals in distress to a proper vetinary clinic,,that is what they take donations for to help with vet bills.

from what I see online the guy does genuinely care for animals on the face of it,,,,,,but with any charity when start getting huge donations a lot is lot in admin ,directors costs etc etc,,some would argue it’s fair enough if some donations help his lifestyle if he has chosen to spend his life helping animals,,who is to say that’s right or wrong.

But once you have enough money to last a few decades why keep on asking fir donations if a genuine person . 

[thaiboss]

sometime the best covered scam find the end same as the or some tempel scam

[DennisE]

3 hours ago, BestB said:

A live update, for anyone interested, All staff are gone from the shelter no one taking care of the dogs.

Here’s the latest information I found. Apparently the dogs are currently being taken care of and according to the whistle blower people a plan is in place. Apparently there are some very angry employees but no one has shown any proof of employees being locked up in kennels so sounds like it’s a labor dispute to me involving someone who probably did at least make some mistakes but I have no idea about him.
 

That doesn’t concern me I was just concerned about someone taking care of the 200 dogs out there because I read that there might not be anyone out there but apparently they’re going back to work. I’m going to keep informed in case because I was literally prepared to drive out there in the morning. See this answer I received on Facebook: 

[taninthai]

This looks dodgy to me animal welfare whistleblowers was only set up on nov 19 and every story on there page is about this place and this guy,,,,looks like this guy has seriously upset someone or someone has a big vendetta against him.

the whole thing of him putting the 22 dogs to sleep is way out of order ,with all the donations they are advertising for and receiving these dogs should heave been taken to a vet,,,he admits on video tape he is not a vet.

[ukrules]

25 minutes ago, DennisE said:

according to the whistle blower people a plan is in place

Yes, I've been watching the plan play out, I wonder when they will take over the property?

[DennisE]

4 minutes ago, taninthai said:

This looks dodgy to me animal welfare whistleblowers was only set up on nov 19 and every story on there page is about this place and this guy,,,,looks like this guy has seriously upset someone or someone has a big vendetta against him.

the whole thing of him putting the 22 dogs to sleep is way out of order ,with all the donations they are advertising for and receiving these dogs should heave been taken to a vet,,,he admits on video tape he is not a vet.

That might be the case there’s obviously something wrong one way or the other. But if I know there’s a kennel full of dogs two hours away from me who could be potentially starving I feel a little bit of an obligation to help but according to the animal whistle blower organization they have it covered. We go out there in that area occasionally so we still might check it out. 

[DennisE]

6 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Yes, I've been watching the plan play out, I wonder when they will take over the property?

Who owns it? 

[DennisE]

This is maybe the kind of thing I should be doing in my retirement because I know I wouldn’t screw it up. And I have plenty of experience handling money cash in fact hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash that isn’t mine in my old job. 

Edited December 24, 2019 by DennisE

[DennisE]

18 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Yes, I've been watching the plan play out, I wonder when they will take over the property?

I was just concerned about the dogs but it sounds like they are on it at least for now. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

10 hours ago, darksidedog said:

 Prosecuted for euthanising dogs with rabies? What should he do? Kick them out on the street to infect others?

If people want to donate and he has been looking after hundreds of dogs with the money, I see no problem.

 

Obviously, this case is touching pretty close to home for you. So I certainly can understand your sensitivity on the subject.  

 

 

 

I have no idea what's actually been going on out at this couple's place, but would have two general observations.

 

--If someone is euthanizing dogs, especially ones that may have rabies, I would presume Thai law requires some kind of license to do that.

 

--If the couple have been collecting contributions as a supposed charity or non-profit, I would presume they would have to have registered with the appropriate Thai authorities for that purpose, and comply with whatever the applicable regulations are.

 

 

 

 

[maprao]

Don't do any charity work in Thailand 

Don't work without a Work Permit

Don't attract attention to yourself

Under no circumstances make more money than Thais doing the same thing as this will only end in tears.

Should have registered his charity in France for donations.

Employed a recently  graduated Thai vet.

Hopefully the people's  outcry will be as loud for the 4000 illegally imported chickens that were buried alive last week.

Edited December 24, 2019 by maprao

[snowgard]

In october he was in the news too: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/french-expat-says-he-saves-thai-dogs-critics-all-him-doctor-death/

 

[FritsSikkink]

6 hours ago, Redline said:

I worked at a dog shelter here-we were trained how to go be shots-vets are in short supply and expensive for non profits trying to do a their best, pay people, purchase land, buy medicine, clean, walk and visit with animals.  Every year there are more to take care of and try the find homes for.

Thai people don’t want second hand dogs.  The government should be giving assistance to these organizations because they are providing a service the government won’t.

 

No doubt mistakes are made, but these places get chaotic with hundreds of dogs that want their own territory 

Did you have a work permit and was there an official foundation?

[Nakmuay887]

50 Million Baht? where the hell did it all go? that's a good chunk of change 

[Nakmuay887]

there are so many things wrong with this story and even more that don't add up whatsoever. he must have really made someone mad because it seems like the are coming for blood

[White Christmas13]

6 hours ago, DennisE said:

What is the name of the Facebook page? I can’t find it. 

https://www.facebook.com/thesoundofanimals/

[Chazar]

14 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Facebook is hungry for souls.

 full of  souls  alright, ars souls

[DennisE]

I have no clue what this guy did or didn’t do I was concerned about the dogs because last night someone said no one was at the shelter any longer. So I got in touch with people from the animal welfare whistle blowers organization on Facebook and according to them and Michael’s friends and family they are still out there taking care of the dogs for now at least. Although there is one thing about their reply to me that really made me wonder what’s really going on here. I have no idea what happened out there but obviously he made someone mad because they really are extremely dedicated to taking this guy down!
 

Here’s a screenshot of the conversation I had with them on Facebook. They want this dude arrested and locked up and they seem more interested in that than the dogs and they are supposed to be there for the dogs that’s what I thought the “animal welfare whistle blower organization” was for but they seem more interested in sticking it to this guy. 
 

I’ve found in these situations the truth is usually somewhere in the middle so I have no idea what really happened like I said he might not be such a great guy or maybe he does have a point I just don’t know. I got in contact with them and I received this response in the screenshots and they did say at the end of the message that the dogs ARE STILL CURRENTLY BEING CARED FOR I hope that’s true, but apparently they do have the dogs covered still for the meantime I guess. 
 

I also just saw that they posted a letter statement on Facebook this morning claiming that it’s all false accusations and it’s interestingly worded so I don’t know about this. I was honestly just worried about the animals they do depend on people to survive you know and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying to help the dogs. I’m still in contact with them now because I was considering going out there in person to see if I could do anything it’s two hours away from our house but as long as someone is handling it ok. If not they can’t just let the dogs die they made a commitment to taking care of the dogs. 

[DennisE]

I really have to wonder what happened out there because that statement in the screenshot from my Facebook conversation with them is pretty vindictive, it just seems extremely vindictive to me but who knows maybe there is truth to it I have no clue. Don’t be so quick to condemn or judge the man without any evidence to back up at least some of the accusations we don’t know. Regardless I don’t know this man I’m just concerned about the dogs.
 

I was also thinking this would have been the kind of thing that I would have possibly been good at in my retirement years, I have lots of experience managing people including foreigners in countries that are not very nice places, and you have to treat them with respect. I also have lots of experience handling hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in US government money and I never had a problem with it I always accounted for every cent even after the exchange rates. That’s not something I screw up it’s not too late to get involved in things like that I guess. 

[DennisE]

I just hope people let it play out and don’t judge the man we don’t know what happened don’t let that mob mentality take over the whole thing because that’s how innocent people really do get wrongly convicted of crimes. He could have done everything they claim we don’t know it’s also possible that he’s totally innocent we don’t know. I’m more concerned about the dogs because they don’t get to defend themselves either way. I hope the animal welfare whistle blower group speaks for the animals and not only just going after the man. 

[Just Weird]

15 hours ago, taninthai said:

15 hours ago, Just Weird said:

It's irrelevant that he may not have claimed to be a vet, what is relevant is that he injected and killed 22 dogs when he was not a vet.  That is illegal, regardless of any good intentions.

Agree with this ,we have a few animal charities/ volunteers in our province and they take care dogs as in feed them and getting injured strays or animals in distress to a proper vetinary clinic,,that is what they take donations for to help with vet bills.

from what I see online the guy does genuinely care for animals on the face of it,,,,,,but with any charity when start getting huge donations a lot is lot in admin ,directors costs etc etc,,some would argue it’s fair enough if some donations help his lifestyle if he has chosen to spend his life helping animals,,who is to say that’s right or wrong.

The only thing I commented on was his vet fraud, the possible donations scam is just rumour, I believe, I leave that stuff up to the Thaivisa speculators..

[DennisE]

Like I said I don’t know anything about what happened out there but it is probably worth mentioning that it doesn’t necessarily take a doctor to give an injection. I’ve given people injections and even IVs and I don’t have any medical qualifications either on paper that translates to the civilian world anyway but in the military I did receive some fairly advanced medical training for a non medical professional just because of the kind of job I had. An IV can be pretty tricky but a shot isn’t hard at all in fact it’s quite easy. Last year I was giving our old cat insulin injections in fact diabetes give themselves insulin injections. The point is it’s simple to give an injection. I haven’t seen any videos of him abusing animals or the workers so don’t be so quick to condemn the man, at least give him the benefit of the doubt he did after all dedicate his life to this if he turns out to be a crook I’m sure he’ll be dealt with harshly. In fact he’s probably screwed at this point regardless but I’ve found that the truth is usually somewhere in the middle in these kind of situations. Just let it play out. I’m gonna be checking on those dogs though that’s really bad but according to everyone I’ve spoken to on the ground out there it looks like the dogs are covered for now at least. I was gonna go out there today and see if I could help but it sounds like they got it covered for now. 
 

And it REALLY SUCKS for those dogs because no way in hell anyone will donate a dime to that shelter now at least not anytime soon probably even under new management and I wouldn’t give them my money either after all this. I just don’t want to see the dogs harmed over this, this whole thing really blows now the future of the dogs are in question and they can’t say anything. 

[DennisE]

12 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

The only thing I commented on was his vet fraud, the possible donations scam is just rumour, I believe, I leave that stuff up to the Thaivisa speculators..

That has me wondering as well the donation thing, apparently there’s a lot of money unaccounted for but you definitely cannot believe everything you read, and of course it’s possible that someone else besides him was taking the money. When you’re in charge of money that doesn’t belong to you as I have been a lot you absolutely must have strict procedures for that. I used to handle hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash worth of government money when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan and Japan and you have to have very strict accountability procedures when handling someone else’s money!!! And I have also seen what can happen when people do not follow procedures when handling money and people get in very serious trouble!! 

Edited December 25, 2019 by DennisE

[nahkit]

On 12/24/2019 at 10:00 AM, webfact said:

But Wanchai went further. He said that Mr Michael's bank account had received donations amounting to 8 million baht from September 2018 to August of this year alone. 

How does a Thai vet get to know the details of a Frenchmans bank account?

[DennisE]

Like I said I don’t know anything about this guy but this shelter was obviously doing some really good things it just sucks because that’s probably ruined now no matter how much good they did now it’ll be overshadowed by this probably forever right or wrong. And who’s going to suffer in the long run? PROBABLY THE DOGS!!! ???? 

Edited December 25, 2019 by DennisE

[DennisE]

6 minutes ago, nahkit said:

How does a Thai vet get to know the details of a Frenchmans bank account?

Court records and subpoenas probably there is a pending investigation on the man. 

[DennisE]

11 minutes ago, nahkit said:

How does a Thai vet get to know the details of a Frenchmans bank account?

Although you make a good point because I don’t know about Thailand but in the states ongoing pending investigations are usually not public record until the investigation is over. They usually keep it really secret until the individual is cleared or changed with a crime. 

Edited December 25, 2019 by DennisE

[DennisE]

1 hour ago, Just Weird said:

The only thing I commented on was his vet fraud, the possible donations scam is just rumour, I believe, I leave that stuff up to the Thaivisa speculators..

Yeah that’s what I’ve seen and I actually have spoke to people involved in it and right now it looks like it’s just all Facebook rumors but this dude obviously made someone really angry. 

[gamesgplayemail]

On 12/24/2019 at 10:00 AM, webfact said:

Neither of the couple have responded to Thaivisa requests for comment. 

 

who not totally insane would reply to a team of idiots who are not even journalists and know nothing about reporting.

maybe the guy didn't pay you enough to stop reporting this total nonsense ? how much do you need ?

 

 

 

[Redline]

16 hours ago, Momofarang said:

So, if no one wants these dogs, the only sensible and humane solution is to put them down. I just don't get it, a dog that isn't someone's pet is just livestock, or what?..

It’s a sad situation, and they keep multiplying.  Half the dogs are diseased