People Making A Difference

[churchill]

Bangkok, Thailand - The "Seven Dwarfs" were left in a box beside a garbage bin last January. But that's when volunteers from Bangkok's Soi Cats and Dogs animal charity spotted them.

If they hadn't, the seven black-splotched white pups, subsequently named after the seven dwarfs in the children's tale, would at best have ended up at a Buddhist temple – the routine destination in Thailand for discarded pets – reduced to a life of neglect and a diet of scraps. Or the little mutts, if they survived, might have joined Bangkok's estimated 300,000 disease-ridden and malnourished soi (street) dogs, trying to survive underfoot on the crowded roads.

Instead, thanks to Sheridan Conisbee – the British-born founder of Soi Cats and Dogs (SCAD), a nonprofit group working to improve the lives of Bangkok's stray and feral animals – the pups Bashful, Happy, Dopey, and the rest have since found welcoming homes overseas.

They've followed on the tails of some 700 other dogs rescued by SCAD and placed for adoption worldwide, a third of them in the United States, through SCAD's "Ambassadors of Love" home-finding program.

"A dog in need is a friend in need, no matter where it is," Ms. Conisbee stresses. "If we can't get them adopted here, we'll look elsewhere."

With her dimply smile and mischievous wit, Conisbee appears at first glance to be out of place amid the makeshift pens serving as temporary homes to rehabilitated strays.

Yet before you know it, she's gleefully cavorting with the canine residents at SCAD's small, leafy headquarters with its animal playgrounds and veterinary clinic. She pays no heed as her protégés, tongues licking and tails wagging, proceed to plant paw prints all over her stylish outfit. She barks playfully back at them.

Conisbee and her dozen helpers are the only friends these dogs have ever known. "They're sentient beings, not vermin on the street," she insists. "They have no pedigrees, but they have excellent 'pet degrees.' "

Thailand's soi dogs can make for piteous sights. Often hairless or disfigured due to disease or untreated injuries, they skulk listlessly or sprawl like discarded rag dolls. Dogs rounded up by municipal agencies are often sold clandestinely to Laos and Vietnam in the dog-meat trade, animal rights advocates say.

"The general attitude is, 'Not my dog, not my problem,' " laments Edwin Wiek, director of the Wildlife Friends of Thailand. "As with domestic violence, everyone sees the problem, but no one does a thing about it."

But SCAD does.

Aided by "dog aunties," who agree to watch over their neighborhood's strays, the group's volunteers locate the neediest cases. They delouse, vaccinate, and nurture the animals back to health and then find adoptive owners.

Foreign sponsors underwrite SCAD's "Three Mutt-keteers" program (a publicity campaign headlined by four rehabilitated strays – the jaunty Ruffos, perky Pawthos, suave Tailamis, and catty C'Atagnan).

Before and after photos testify to astonishing recoveries. In one set, YoYo, a sickly, completely bald dog, metamorphoses into a poised Pomeranian look-alike with lush cream fur. In another, a skeletal, mangy specter turns, over a few months, into a regal affenpinscher doppelgänger posing beside Natalie Glebova, a young Canadian woman who was Miss Universe 2005 and is a keen supporter of SCAD.

"For years I walked past soi dogs, feeling sorry for them but thinking it wasn't my business," says Conisbee, a longtime Bangkok resident who now divides her time between Thailand and Singapore. Then one day in 2002, "There this flipping dog was in my path – no hair, boils, blisters all over, limping badly with swollen feet," she recalls. She called him Boy and tried to befriend the wretched creature.

"[He] bit me," she adds, laughing.

Returning with thick bite-proof gloves, she began tending to the hurting, scrawny animal. "He epitomized everything unfair and frightful about life as a stray," Conisbee says. "He was untouchable and unlovable with a litany of [health] problems, living on discarded bits."

After months of dedicated care, Boy bounced back. "He grew long, shaggy hair like an Afghan hound and had a definite wag in his walk," she recalls. To save him from a return to the streets, Conisbee searched for an adoptive owner. She found one in the United States. Boy was flown to Boston in September 2003 and welcomed by Jennifer Gaucher, a property consultant in Spencer, Mass., 50 miles west of Boston. More than five years later, Boy lives it up, occupying two dog beds alternately – when he's not out chasing squirrels. "They drive him crazy," Ms. Gaucher notes. Today, "He's extremely loving and trusting," she adds.

Soon, Conisbee started offering free medical, vaccination, and neutering services to Thai pet owners at a mobile clinic staffed by volunteer veterinarians. SCAD also promotes the long-term benefits of sterilization to control the ballooning population of strays.

SCAD educational campaigns in schools and neighborhoods introduce the group's cartoon characters – "Teacher Tub" and his assistant "Miss Meow" – to children to encourage responsible pet ownership. That includes caring for animals even after they lose the puppyish "cuteness" that Thais often look for in pets.

"Many people are very poor, so you can't expect them to buy [fancy dog food] for soi dogs," notes Annelize Booysen, the charity's general manager. "But communities can take ownership of animals on their streets."

"In a world apathetic about animal suffering, we must plow ahead and do the best we can," says Dr. Chinny Krishna, director of Blue Cross of India, a leading animal charity. "Sherry has shown what one committed person can do, and I salute her spirit."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0817/p07s01-lign.html

[barrybankruad]

Perhaps we could do with more people like her down here. The local farang population have treated and rescued a couple of mangy soi dogs, but there are so many of the poor creatures. So I'm afraid it's the dog van taking them to Laos and Vietnam to end up on the table. It's supposed to be illegal, but the authorities turn a blind eye, If they didn't the place would be overrun with rabid, mangy curs a definate health hazard. Cruel I know, but perhaps better in the long run for the dogs and the humans that don't look after them!

[mrtoad]

At least this person is making a difference, unlike the pious religious prat supposedly rescuing bar girls.

[Ulysses G.]

Take in an abandoned animal and they will make it up to you 1,000 times!

[PeaceBlondie]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

[Ulysses G.]

IMHO, in general, I think that they are more concerned about feeding animals than fixing them. The problem needs both.

[Datsun240Z]

Perhaps we could do with more people like her down here. The local farang population have treated and rescued a couple of mangy soi dogs, but there are so many of the poor creatures. So I'm afraid it's the dog van taking them to Laos and Vietnam to end up on the table. It's supposed to be illegal, but the authorities turn a blind eye, If they didn't the place would be overrun with rabid, mangy curs a definate health hazard. Cruel I know, but perhaps better in the long run for the dogs and the humans that don't look after them!

That's why they eay dogs in nam and some parts of asia

[ignoramus]

I spent about 2 seconds trying to figure out the thinking behind your comment vroom-vroom when I realised I'd already wasted 2 seconds of my valuable time. There was in fact zero thinking at all. Ta mate, you're on my list.

[elkangorito]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

I fully agree.

But of course, this means "no care".

[Patsycat]

Nice, touching story.

And don't forget there are other people who have Animal Rescue centres all over the Kingdom - Samui, Pattaya etc. who are also extremely dedicated to what they do. And also exist only on donations.

[mca]

I read this story and remember they used to have a section in the BKK Post with a charity offering rescued dogs and cats for adoption (maybe the same group) and sadly think about the tale of King Canute.

[doggie888888]

I don't know if it is true but someone told me that no vet in Thailand will put an animal out of its misery no matter how humane it may be to do so. If true, surely one of the main tasks for this admirable organisation is to lobby for a change in attitudes (and laws, if indeed there is a legal impediment to mercy killing of diseased strays). Is the anti-euthanasia attitude steeped in buddhist faith? Then I see inconsistencies in application because many Thais do eat meat. And also, they culled chickens to prevent spread of bird flu (i.e. not for food) didn't they?

I find the article completely (and conveniently) left out this issue, eventhough euthanasia must surely be part of any viable solution.

[mca]

My mother in laws Dalmatian had terminal cancer and the vet had no problem putting the dog to sleep.

[doggie888888]

My mother in laws Dalmatian had terminal cancer and the vet had no problem putting the dog to sleep.

Oh, I stand corrected then. Thanks.

[mca]

Sorry re reading my post it looks as if I'm correcting you in an arrogant way. My apologies.

[catmac]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

So we just go on ignoring the suffering we see every day? So easy, not my problem, look the other way! Should we really confine ourselves to more hedonistic pleasures?

[PeaceBlondie]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

So we just go on ignoring the suffering we see every day? So easy, not my problem, look the other way! Should we really confine ourselves to more hedonistic pleasures?

I usually believe we should almost always let Thais fix Thailand. However, I asked it as an honest question. I know of two farang who got overly involved in caring for neglected Thai animals. One reportedly went insane over it, and the other nearly so. Do what your heart tells you - save Thai animals; convert Thais to another belief system; reform Thai politics; end Thai corruption; fix Thai education, rescue enslaved Thai harlots; etc. Wear yourself to a frazzle if you must.

But it's not so much our farang 'mission' as it is the primary duty of Thais.

[Ulysses G.]

I don't know if it is true but someone told me that no vet in Thailand will put an animal out of its misery no matter how humane it may be to do so. If true, surely one of the main tasks for this admirable organisation is to lobby for a change in attitudes (and laws, if indeed there is a legal impediment to mercy killing of diseased strays). Is the anti-euthanasia attitude steeped in buddhist faith? Then I see inconsistencies in application because many Thais do eat meat. And also, they culled chickens to prevent spread of bird flu (i.e. not for food) didn't they?

I find the article completely (and conveniently) left out this issue, eventhough euthanasia must surely be part of any viable solution.

One of my favorite animals died recently and the last few days he seemed to suffer. I kept asking my Thai staff to ask the vet to give us some medicine to put him to sleep ourselves, but they told me that she would never do that.

I spend his last night on the floor beside him and he cried out every so often, but would stop when I talked to him, so I talked to him till the sun came up.

The next morning the girls took him to the vet for more intravenous liquids and he died. One of the girls mentioned that I wanted to put him to sleep and the doctor said that she was just about to suggest that. I wish that we had asked earlier, but now I know. Don't just assume that the vet will not help you, because they might.

[MrHammer]

I always thought it was weird to focus on helping animals but not the most intelligent of all animals.

[Harcourt]

"Placed for adoption worldwide".

Hmmm. What country would allow the import of mongrel adoptees? Who would pay to go to Thailand to adopt a mongrel, or who would adopt one without first visiting it? Who would pay for transport and quarantine for a mongrel?

Chinese or Vietnamese meat and fur traders?

I have no problem with that, but if it is the case, then say so.

[EndofDays]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

So we just go on ignoring the suffering we see every day? So easy, not my problem, look the other way! Should we really confine ourselves to more hedonistic pleasures?

We were at a 7-11 when in Nakhon Pathom when I came out the door and there was a little kitten mewoing, missing patches of hair and skinny as heck....I stared at him and watched as a girl basically shoved him out of the way with her foot. When my wife turns around, I have the kitten in hand and walking back to the car. She looks at me funny as I put it in the car and have her hold it. I told her, I can't just leave him there, it is against how I was brought up and how I was trained, I can't stand suffering in the innocent and the animals and I have seen too much of it in my life. Well now, the little SOB is fat, fixed, and brings in dead things to show what he has killed for everyone, his way of saying, I am doing my part. He also named...wait for it....Seven Eleven. He joins a pure breed golden labadour named Terra and an American cat named Se Tow. I think I wrote it wrong, grey tiger.

[EndofDays]

I always thought it was weird to focus on helping animals but not the most intelligent of all animals.

accoding to Douglas Adams...Gerbils.

[EndofDays]

"Placed for adoption worldwide".

Hmmm. What country would allow the import of mongrel adoptees? Who would pay to go to Thailand to adopt a mongrel, or who would adopt one without first visiting it? Who would pay for transport and quarantine for a mongrel?

Chinese or Vietnamese meat and fur traders?

I have no problem with that, but if it is the case, then say so.

The same country that adopts most of the children that get adopted from third world coutnries...no, not madonna, the U.S. We are a dog people.

[doggie888888]

Sorry re reading my post it looks as if I'm correcting you in an arrogant way. My apologies.

Not at all, I am just glad someone has corrected an obviously wrong impression I had. I am preparing for the day when I have to ask the vet to put my old dog down, hopefully they will comply as I would hate to see it suffer.

[astral]

Please make sure these animals are doctored so they do not contribute to the problem in the future.

[catmac]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

So we just go on ignoring the suffering we see every day? So easy, not my problem, look the other way! Should we really confine ourselves to more hedonistic pleasures?

I usually believe we should almost always let Thais fix Thailand. However, I asked it as an honest question. I know of two farang who got overly involved in caring for neglected Thai animals. One reportedly went insane over it, and the other nearly so. Do what your heart tells you - save Thai animals; convert Thais to another belief system; reform Thai politics; end Thai corruption; fix Thai education, rescue enslaved Thai harlots; etc. Wear yourself to a frazzle if you must.

But it's not so much our farang 'mission' as it is the primary duty of Thais.

As far as I can see, nobody is talking about "fixing Thailand". What we are talking about is being aware (not fixated) of animal suffering, and being prepared to do something about it when we see it, whether that be in Thailand or anywhere else.

Of course it should be the primary duty of Thais, it just so happens that in this case, as in so many others, Thais would appear to be incapable of fulfilling their duty.

[geriatrickid]

Why not leave the care to Thais?

So we just go on ignoring the suffering we see every day? So easy, not my problem, look the other way! Should we really confine ourselves to more hedonistic pleasures?

I usually believe we should almost always let Thais fix Thailand. However, I asked it as an honest question. I know of two farang who got overly involved in caring for neglected Thai animals. One reportedly went insane over it, and the other nearly so. Do what your heart tells you - save Thai animals; convert Thais to another belief system; reform Thai politics; end Thai corruption; fix Thai education, rescue enslaved Thai harlots; etc. Wear yourself to a frazzle if you must.

But it's not so much our farang 'mission' as it is the primary duty of Thais.

I know where you are coming from, but for some of us not showing compassion for the animals means that we have to shut down the compassion circuitry and turns some of us into cold unfeeling folks.

By helping they also set a good example and teach people to assume these responsibilities. I never would have learnt right from wrong unless someone showed me by example. Michael Vick ran a dog fighting ring for years all because he grew up in circumstances where he wasn't taught that it was wrong and because he was surrounded by people that either didn't care or encouraged the behaviour.

And as a small aside, whenever you have starving maltreated domestic animal populations you have a reservoir for infectious disease. Humans can become sick when consuming the animals, or ground water and soil contaminated from the dead and dying animals. When people lend a helping hand to these animals, they are also protecting the community health quality.