The Black Bucket And The Soi Dog

[Mumbo Jumbo]

Last Week I went with my Thai wife to see her parents, in a small village about 2 hours from Khroat, we were sitting out side the house one after noon when I heard a pick up comming down the Soi with a loud speaker shouting at full volume , not that unusual I thought, as the pick up came nearer the sound of howling dogs became loud, as the pick up came closer I could see it had a large cage built over the back , inside the cage there were may be 20 dogs, and stacked on top of the cage were row's of cheap black plastic buckets. I said to my wife what's going on here is it the local council removing the stray dogs from the soi..? No she said glancing at the pick up, its the " bucket " man.

What do you mean the " bucket " man.... ? Oh he comes to the village and you can give him your dog, and he gives you a free bucket !!!!. . Well it took a few seconds for it to sink in, just what she ment, Where do the dog's go to I asked...? The man takes them to Laos .

No one else even looked at the bucket man's pick up, as the wailing cargo trundled on down the Soi.

Mumbo.....

[Greer]

...Goodness...be very careful where you eat in Laos...

[cdnvic]

And before you leave your dog with someone while you go to the city for a few days.... make sure he has all the buckets he needs!

cv

[dog]

My poor dog,i loved that mutt ,now he's moo bing.

[Totster]

Old mangy dogs

[penzman]

I have 10 buckets worth of dogs.

[cobra]

... as the pick up came nearer the sound of  howling dogs  became loud, ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most beach or soi dogs I've encountered are almost mute,

lest they bring attention to themselves ...

[chownah]

From what I've heard most of the dogs get shipped throough Laos and end up in Vietnam. If you want to eat dog, Vietnam has many restaurants that specialize in dog and offer it quite openly. It's a bit expensive I've been told but never visited any of these establishments. Not all Vietnamese eat dog and most that I've talked to find the idea repugnant. They say its mostly men that eat it. The people in the south say its the people in the north who eat it and the people in the north say the people in the south eat it.

[Ken]

It's been awhile since I've seen such a truck in the villages up my way, north of Korat, but I've definitely seen them and got the same explanation. They're on the way to the butcher "up north". Yuk. And seemed sad too.

[Pudgimelon]

What do you mean the " bucket " man.... ? Oh he comes to the village and you can give him your dog, and he gives you a free bucket !!!!. . Well it took a few seconds for it to sink in, just what she ment, Where do the dog's go to I asked...? The man takes them to Laos .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This smells like "urban legend", you know, a friend of a friend of my cousin saw the bucket man coming for the soi dogs to take them to Laos for good eat'n....

Geesh, you people will believe anything, won't you.

Did it ever occur to you that someone might be pulling your leg (or the leg of the person who told you).

Do you honestly think that people in Laos/Vietnam are so hard up for food that they'd go to the expense of importing the dirtiest, mangiest soi dogs in Thailand?

Geesh, even if someone LIKED to eat dog, there's no way in ###### anyone would touch a soi dog, think about what THEY eat........

Here:

An article on dog eating in Vietnam from the BBC website:

As you can see, the Vietnamese get their dogs from from puppy farms or are collected from the countryside (in Vietnam!).

There is absolutely no reason for the Vietnamese to import dog. They have plenty of farms raising them there. Likewise, it makes absolutely no sense for someone to collect dirty, nasty soi dogs in Thailand (an expensive process when one adds the price of gasoline for transport to the cost of those buckets), when if there really was a demand for dog meat across the border, there are already plenty of puppy farms in Thailand that could convert from pet providers to easily supply that demand.

In all likelihood, if there really is a "bucket truck" (which I'll doubt until I see one with my own eyes), then whomever told you its purpose was probably just seeing what kind of fish-tale they could get a farang to swallow. Next time, post a picture of the bucket truck, complete with sad puppies and maybe I'll give it a second thought.

This is the internet people. Don't believe everything you read, or if you do, PM me, I've got some herbal viagra and Nigerian diamond mine shares to sell you.

Edited May 9, 2005 by Pudgimelon

[Farma]

Pudgimelon, I don't think it's an urban legend. These trucks have been collecting mangy dogs for decades. All the locals I have spoken with tell me they are destined for the laos food market.

Now, which dog is worth the most and the best tasting? Black or white?

Farma

Edited May 9, 2005 by Farma

[Ken]

Pudgi...Well, like I said I really have seen these trucks (as the OP described) in the past, going thru the villages and indeed, I got basically the same explanation, they are going "north" where dogs are eaten. Sorry 'bout that.

[Popeyethesailorman]

The following is from The Age, Australia, November 4, 2003.

Open quote -

I guess it depends on which articles you read.

Police save 800 dogs from dinner plates

Bangkok

More than 800 dogs destined to be smuggled to Vietnam where they would be butchered and eaten, have been rescued in a police raid on a farm in north-eastern Thailand, officials said yesterday.

Authorities acting on a tip-off found the dogs crammed into small metal cages on a farm in Nakhon Phanom province, department of livestock development official Apai Suthisung said.

"The dogs were caught all over north-eastern provinces and were to be traded in exchange for consumer products like plastic tubs," he told AFP.

Six people were arrested in the raid and charged with smuggling animals out of the country, which carries a maximum two-year jail term and a fine of 40,000 baht (about $A1,420).

Licensed dog breeders can sell the creatures, but smuggling them across Thai borders is illegal, Apai said.

The dogs, many of which appeared well-groomed and in healthy condition, were to be ferried across the Mekong river to Laos before their journey to Vietnam where they would be sold for 300 to 400 baht ($A10.60 to $A14.20) each.

Dog eating has come under fire in places like South Korea, but the practice has gone unchallenged in Vietnam.

The communist country has no animal welfare organisations and no laws to protect animals from cruelty, and the practice enjoys runaway popularity in the country's north including the capital Hanoi, where streets in some neighbourhoods are lined with dogmeat restaurants.

Apai said the hundreds of rescued dogs would be taken to their new home at a Thai livestock checkpoint in Nakhon Phanom, adding that the station was already soliciting contributions to help feed the animals.

- AFP

End of quote.

[Lourens]

Old mangy dogs

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is true. Follow the Totster's link and read about it on my blog HERE. I have personal experience and I'll try to get some pictures the next time the pick-up comes around. TIT. Get used to it

[Abandon]

I see I had mis-construed the tins of dog food in the supermarket ... I had thought it was food FOR the dogs.

[cdnvic]

I see I had mis-construed the tins of dog food in the supermarket ... I had thought it was food FOR the dogs.

I'm just picturing a couple dogs going to eat from their dish and another comes running in yelping "No, don't eat it..... soilent brown.... it's.. it's puppies!"

cv