Crackdown On Stray Dogs - Pet Dogs To Be Issued Id-cards

[george]

Bangkok provides free dog registration, microchip implants

BANGKOK: -- , Sept 24 (TNA) - The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), is now requiring dog owners to register their pets before July 2008 and is offering a three-month dog registration and identification microchip implantation for the first 50,000 pet dogs free of charge, starting from Saturday.

The project is part of the BMA's attempt to solve the problem of stray dogs and annoyance in public places caused by pet dogs.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Wallop Suwandee said that dog registration and microchip implantation will be offered at the rabies prevention and control office in Dindaeng and seven Bangkok city government veterinary clinics free of charge.

Dog owners also can also have their pets implanted with microchips at private pet clinics and bring the document from the veterinarians to register their dogs at the district offices.

Canines registered with district offices will get ID cards.

The BMA law requires owners of pet dogs to register thier pets within 120 days of their birth to register their animals with the district offices by July 4 next year.

Failure to complete the registration process means that such dog owners will face a maximum fine of 5,000 baht for violation when a complaint is lodged for their dogs attacking people, defecating, and otherwise creating annoyance in public places.

--TNA 2007-09-24

[mackayae]

Great news.

[jts-khorat]

Failure to complete the registration process means that such dog owners will face a maximum fine of 5,000 baht for violation when a complaint is lodged for their dogs attacking people, defecating, and otherwise creating annoyance in public places.

This sentence absolutely makes no sense; if you have registered your dog you will not be able to deny your ownership, so you can be fined conclusively; this would not be the case if you did not register the mutt and hence cannot be stuck with the responsibility for it.

Ah, Thai logic!

This only would be an improvement of the situation if all unregistered dogs would make the little drive to the sausage factory as they do with the oversupply of street dogs in Isaan (the results are quite yummy and utmost effective)...

[toolonginexile]

registration of pet dogs sounds fine, i agree, but what does the actual "crackdown on stray dogs" look like? having pet dogs registered doesn't solve that problem. what should happen with the thousands of stray dogs? two stray dogs that had stayed around our house for six yeas and have become very attached to us have been removed from our soi about a month ago and stay in a local dog shelter now. perfect solution??? i agree that stray dogs can be annoying but personally i just feel sorry for all these creatures.

[TAWP]

jts-khorat>> I think you hit the nail on this one. Unless they have measures to capture and put dowgs in centers/put them down, this won't help anything. Since way too many of the dogs around here is the 'community dogs' that several people feed (read: throws the trash infront) and no-one take responsibility for when they become a problem or sick.

[toolonginexile]

jts-khorat, hope some of these yummy sausages contain a chunk of your shank!

Edited September 24, 2007 by toolonginexile

[londonthai]

the document doesn't say how much for the registration after those 3 months and how much for the chip after those 50h

[MrSnrang]

How will chipping dogs reduce the number of strays?

What they need to do is round up all of the street dogs and have them spayed-neutered. I can bet it's much cheaper and more effective to pay local vets to round up strays and sterilize them. There are enough vets here that could take care of the problem in their area. It will be expensive but the sooner they do it the less of a problem it will be in the future.

[TAWP]

Most local vets refuse to kill dogs, even if they are old and entering into sickness...

[AlexLah]

How about cats?

By the way they taste great when BBQ!

[londonthai]

it's much cheaper and more effective to pay local vets to round up strays and sterilize them.

dogs registration will bring revenue for the bangkok council from the registration fees.

most probably, as in the other countries, it's a yearly fee.

there is as well a possibility, that private clinics doing chipping will have to pay part of the charges to the town council or backhands to the town bureaucrats

that's why I have asked a question before - why info about registration charges are missing from the document?

[lazeeboy]

about time ..

[canuckamuck]

It is a begining at least.

[permanent_disorder]

good way to start.

for further steps seek advice from the small muslim neighborhoods in bangkok. the population of stray dogs is significant lesser there.

[chinthee]

This doesn't seem to have any teeth to it as mentioned above as there is no announcement of any animal control alongside with this. Unless they are prepared to copy the rational systems in place in most of our home countries to control stray populations, I don't see it working. As I understand it, euthanization as a consequence of failing to place a dog will never be accepted by Thais Buddhists.

At the same time, if they're requiring registration, there needs to be leash laws as well as dog muzzles when in public.

[Tony Clifton]

City dogs need registration : BMA

Dog owners in Bangkok will have to register their canine pets with city authority or risk losing their four-legged friends and facing a maximum fine of Bt5,000.

City dogs need registration : BMA

It is estimated that capital is now home to over 823,000 dogs.

Continued here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine the size of the pile of sh!t all 823 000 Bangkok dogs can produce in one year along with an already deficient human waste water treatment plan in a highly populated area. Most of it dries up where it's dropped, pulverized and then blown by the wind. Bon appétit!

Imagine how many motorcycle accidents are caused by stray dogs on a daily basis. I've heard or read there's an average of 52 people already dying every day on motorcycles. Another burden on the health system, some of the victims become severely handicapped and become a burden on their families for the rest of their lives, just because of a mine field of stray dogs.

Imagine the amount of people bit by stray dogs for simply walking on the street. Another burden on the health system.

Add those up any way you want, apart from the disease they carry, rats seem to be much better Bangkokians than the dogs.

Edited September 24, 2007 by Tony Clifton

[on-on]

I agree with the people above who think this smells a bit fishy. Registration and chipping and what not makes sense as part of a comprehensive plan, but it has that aroma of being driven less by common sense than by some ulterior agenda - definitely cart before the horse. If you want to begin to curb an overpopulation problem like this, it seems that you would start with animal control and sterilization, not by asking people who already care for pets to register them while the various uncared for pets will clearly fall through the cracks. I don't think it's a gaping hole in logic so much as it's some kind of money play, but who knows here in Amazing Thailand.

Also, I could not agree more to the various "good riddance" comment when it comes to the dogs. There's no upside to the state of soi dogs. Their daily existence is nothing short of abjectly pathetic and they themselves are a sizeable nuisance to transit and, depending on the time of day and the neighborhood, to daily activities like jogging or walking to the store. It's clear that their state is tolerable to the host culture in general, so as a guest here I have learned to tolerate them, but when I stop long enough to think about the topic I'm always amazed.

[John K]

A little extended logic here,

Less dogs = more cats.

More cats = less rats.

[fongvin]

Food for thought .............

Not too much of a problem up-country NE Region as strays are regularly rounded-up and despatched to Loation traders on the border where they are later eaten in Laos as a delicassy.

[ace]

Failure to complete the registration process means that such dog owners will face a maximum fine of 5,000 baht for violation when a complaint is lodged for their dogs attacking people, defecating, and otherwise creating annoyance in public places.

This sentence absolutely makes no sense; if you have registered your dog you will not be able to deny your ownership, so you can be fined conclusively; this would not be the case if you did not register the mutt and hence cannot be stuck with the responsibility for it.

Ah, Thai logic!

This only would be an improvement of the situation if all unregistered dogs would make the little drive to the sausage factory as they do with the oversupply of street dogs in Isaan (the results are quite yummy and utmost effective)...

Well spotted! Have you really eaten them? I'll eat most anything, but no carnivores, no cockroaches, though I'm partial to the grasshoppers.

My proposal - Bounty 50baht per dog's head - watch the problem dissapear.

[Scott]

As long as the gov't doesn't do anything about the thousands of stray dogs, there is little use in trying to get people to register their dogs. It's about responsibility and a lot of people don't want to take responsibility for their pet(s). Near where I live there are well over 100 dogs. People put food out for them--I guess it's making merit, but when someone is bitten, suddenly nobody owns the dog.

Now if I register my mutt and it bites someone I am responsible!! Doesn't make sense. By the way "my" dog was a stray dropped off where I live. I now take care of it, it goes to the vet and it isn't allowed to run free. I am not sure if it is really "mine" since I never got it, bought it, claimed it etc.

The other point is why not let the local vets register the dogs. Another senseless trip to another gov't office to wait in line and bring a bunch of paperwork--as a foreigner that should be interesting--I don't have household registration.

[bingobongo]

give me a break, country has more pressing political and economic concerns than to make sure fido is "legal"

better yet, why not put microchips in the bargirls? they are more of a threat to spread disease than fido

[TAWP]

I wonder how they will handle imported dogs with their own registration-papers...some have tattoos and some already have chips...

[tropo]

How will chipping dogs reduce the number of strays?

What they need to do is round up all of the street dogs and have them spayed-neutered. I can bet it's much cheaper and more effective to pay local vets to round up strays and sterilize them. There are enough vets here that could take care of the problem in their area. It will be expensive but the sooner they do it the less of a problem it will be in the future.

Are you serious? Round up the stray dogs, sterilize them and let them free again?

If they are going to go to the trouble of rounding them up, then it's better they just dispose of them.

They're a public nuisance and have no place on city streets.

Edited September 25, 2007 by tropo

[SweGuava]

It is estimated that capital is now home to over 823,000 dogs.

Daily News have the exact figures. According to a survey conducted by the statistics office (or whatever the official name is) there are 823,504 pet dogs in Bangkok divided on 389,097 owners.

I can add 5 to that, just born on my soi, so the unofficial number of dogs are now 823,509...

http://www.dailynews.co.th/web/html/popup_...&Template=1

[Garry]

We've had dogs stolen in our village, everyone (Thais) voicing the same opinion, they were taken by dog selling/butchering/eating gangs. So hopefully one day some of these people who eat them will be near a pet scanner and it goes off. 'Hey your name isn't Prashipchoke it's Fido 299856...!!!'

I'm trying to see the lighter side of this nasty business, so please excuse the black humor.

[Scott]

Yes, I think they have things backwards--it's not the 'owned' dogs that are a problem, it's by and large the unowned dogs that are a problem.

Until the unowned dog problem is solved, I have a little trouble seeing what the problem is with those who have owners.

I mean is there going to be a special police branch that search houses for dogs and then bust the owner? Could this be a military gov't by any chance?

[andy1308]

In principal it's a good idea to have dogs (and cats) chipped. However once the free 50,000 microchips has been exhausted can you really see the average owner taking fido to the vet and spending, at a guess, at least 500 baht to have him chipped? Pets are expensive as those of us who have them will know. Unless it's free or substantially subsidised then it's not going to happen on a large scale.

[jts-khorat]

jts-khorat, hope some of these yummy sausages contain a chunk of your shank!

toolonginexile, obviously it has been much to long...

I am assuming from your post that you are one of those hard-core vegetarians who have never in their life touched a piece of meat and actually eaten it, the same would be true for eggs and milk, because even there the animals have been imprisoned and processed in industrial circumstances. This makes you just an idiot and you should take care to eat your vitamins.

Not beign a vegetarian is worse, because that makes you an extremely narrow-minded, two-tongued bigot who should never have left his little puritanist home village in the West. Pattaya is definitely not the right place for you to live, too many upsetting things there to see that will never fit in your tiny world view (even though you seem to be obsessed with male sexual organs?).

But just for fun, if you mind asking, what else do you have to offer? A solution for 820,000 dogs in Bangkok alone.

Some of those dog transports in Isaan actually do offer a (very small) head premium for dogs; the solution is swift, efficient and follows market demand. Within a very short time, no street dog left, and no dog had to be poisoned amateurishly, it all follows the normal and generally accepted slaughtering rules as for all other animals in Thailand -- so I am sure 'Wuffy' did not suffer more than the next cow or chicken

To Garry who talks about his dog being stolen: I am sure you got a police report because breaking into your property is a serious offense in Thailand; if your dog was however out on the street unsupervised, he was not your dog but an ownerless street dog who was removed correctly.

[Tony Clifton]

There's no such thing as a dog without an owner around here.

One white soi dog has been chasing people, even causing one guy to flip his brand new motorcycle in front of my house, and for some reason they come by my house to complain, they won't dare come in the yard where MY BLACK DOG is tied up. One guy was even brandishing a bamboo spear once. By the way, the last time they injected unwanted soi dogs here, this dog was spared by the village headman because... she was carrying pups.

It's nobody's dog and no one cares about them until something happens, then someone has to pay.