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Chiang Mai neglecting stray dog problem: centre

By The Nation

The Chiang Mai Animal Welfare Centre yesterday urged provincial Governor ML Panadda Diskul to improve facilities for housing and feeding stray and abandoned dogs kept at provincial compounds.

"These dogs are in poor health. Also, we have received reports that illegal dog traffickers are taking strays from provincial compounds during weekends," said the centre's director, Sanya Sukrasorn.

The centre was investigating the reports, Sanya said.

"We are told that men are taking between 10 and 20 dogs from the compounds each time," he said.

Although kindhearted people and officials have tried to feed the abandoned dogs, many of the animals have become ill and died, he said.

The centre demanded the Chiang Mai government provide funds and officials or volunteers to care for the stray dogs.

"As a longterm measure, a proper shelter should be provided," Sanya said.

If the provincial government ignored the problem, the growing population of abandoned dogs in Chiang Mai would hurt tourism, he said.

-- The Nation 2011-09-13

[kalbo123]

Good to see nobody of theTV members cares as it's a non issue, burgers and fish and chips that's what's it all about!

[transam]

Good to see nobody of the TV members cares as it's a non issue, burgers and fish and chips that's what's it all about!

, what's there to say ?

[Lizard2010]

It is a pity as dogs should be looked after.

Look what happened to all the dogs that were rescued.

[Thighlander]

I was ready to buy a condo in CHiang Rai last year, and that was the determining factor--poor animal control. I don't "drink and drive," however, I do like to "drink and walk"..........maybe it will take a rabies outbreak like Bali's. The hideous sidewalk scene is bad enough, but the dogs......I'd rather see people chowing on them.

[Beetlejuice]

The problem is that Thailand is not an animal loving nation. Not only pertaining to dogs, but they seem to have no respect for any animals.

I have seen dogs in agony lying on the road after being struck by a vehicle and I think to myself, I hope that dog gets hit by another vehicle and dies a quick death to put it out of it`s suffering.

In my neck of the woods, dogs have puppies. No one wants to take any responsibility for them and they end up dead in a field or a soi somewhere from lack of care and neglect. These are just a couple of examples but the list is endless.

The solution is that the Government has to create new animal welfare laws and enforce them. But I can’t ever see this happening, not in my lifetime. So sadly there is very little we can do about it.

[KayCee]

I suppose maybe I'm an optimist, but I compare to where we've lived for the last decade, and compared to those countries in South Asia and Africa, the street animal condition is so much better here. I don't see a lot of deliberate cruelty (yet - I'm new I confess) of the extreme kind - in Nepal we had school boys hurling bricks at street puppies we were caring for in our compound and a friend lost their cat to being dipped in kerosene and set on fire - also by children. The hurling rocks at them, deliberate attempts to run them over with cars out of superstition or just plain meanness, the enormous, staggering number of malnourished, sick, maimed dogs you'd see in a half km radius was enough to break an animal lover's heart. There was one shelter type place in Nepal, woefully under-funded and not able to do much. None at all in Ethiopia. Mass poisoning of street dogs in both places almost resulted in the death of our own dog thanks to (we think) contaminated meat being dropped into our compound by a bird of prey. That was the solution there, since there was no sterilization or vaccination program.

As for pets, no decent veterinary services, despite a few (hard to find) kind vets who tried their best, but no x-rays at all available, no feline leukemia tests, no real blood work at all, unless your vet had a deal with a human lab to help them after hours, and still not very accurate. Medicines were for sheep or chickens, not for dogs and cats, leading sometimes to some complications. Vaccines with an assured cold chain not always easy to come by, leading to rabies in dogs people thought they'd had reliably vaccinated. We'll not mention the charlatans that went door to door selling vaccines at cut prices that if you were lucky was only water and not something dangerous.

The Thais I know love their animals, and feel sorry for other things they see suffering, but I have a feeling like many other things, there are issues of education and plain income involved. When you don't have the funds to take good care of your children, you have a harder time justifying spending money on an animal. I'm an animal lover and hate that those choices have to be made, but I also never have to worry where my kids' next meal or medicines are coming from. As for things like the pig trucks piled high that make me sick - one only has to drive on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the US to see the same for chickens. Food animal treatment is appalling in way too many places, not because people want to be cruel but because they just don't want to know, and companies want to make as much profit as they can.

Anyway, we're breathing a sigh of relief to have found a more animal friendly place. It's not perfect of course, but it seems to us that as the income levels of countries rise, people are more able to do things like demand good vet care for their pets, or support programs that help with street animals. And I guess that gives me hope that things will continue to improve here. We can try to encourage that to happen at the macro level, or just help the ones we can help one by one, but I don't think we should believe it's hopeless or not going to change.

Edited September 14, 2011 by KayCee

[mikey88]

I don't buy the "it's terrible but there's nothing we can do" argument. To me that's learnt helplessness. There are always ways of influencing the community in a positive way if one chooses to look for them. There are letters that can be written..conversations that can be had...money that can be spent....the item, whatever it is..can be pushed and people power when organised is a tremendous force.

[CMSteve]

Less than a month ago a few people were arrested trying to take a truckload(~2000) dogs to Vietnam. It was a big news story and I'm sure most if not all have heard of it. It was big enough to get over 20,000,000B in donations. Long story short, most of the dogs have died or are dying from lack of food and medical care.

The simple fact here is, there is too much corruption. The article above talks about the same issues. The dogs at the animal welfare centers are dead and dying, or being sold out the back door to traffickers. The facilities are there, the vets are available, the food can be purchased, but unfortunately the pockets have to be lined first.

The best things we can do is leave the government centers out of it. Some of the local charities like Care for Dogs runs a simular program. Having a dog neutered or cat spayed is actually very cheap, and it only really necessary to be done on the females. Talk to Care for dogs, or the like or just take one of the local females to a vet and drop a couple hundred baht before she has another litter. It'll make a big difference.

Edited September 15, 2011 by CMSteve

[MrBrad]

Another side to this situation is the puppy-mill business...an iffy enterprise with the well-being of the product line often being the last thing the businessman is concerned about. One doesn't have to dig too deep to find them in Chiang Mai.

[OneZero]

Some of the local charities like Care for Dogs runs a simular program. Having a dog neutered or cat spayed is actually very cheap, and it only really necessary to be done on the females. Talk to Care for dogs, or the like or just take one of the local females to a vet and drop a couple hundred baht before she has another litter. It'll make a big difference.

Good advice, worth repeating, for those that would like to help.

[Mapguy]

I understand the view of "dog lovers." I myself have owned them,love to have pets and grow very attached to them. The question to me is why do people love pets? I will not try to answer that question for everyone, but I suggest that the most responsible action for pet owners is to neuter both pets and stray animals unless you are a responsible serious breeder. If Thailand (or any country) is to have an effective law that is actually carried out, it would be to capture and neuter stray animals. But in places like Thailand there are a lot moreserious things to worry about.

Neutering pets, over time, does help to alleviate the problem of stray animals, and it is kind. The main problem is logistical and financial, or simply it's not considered a problem. Except, perhaps, among the extremists who worry about dogs having a happy sex life!! For them, offer neutered pets your leg!!

[macdaddy]

they just need to be put down. its cruel but no one wants these dogs, they are a bother and their lives are shit. I love my dogs but for their own good these things need to be injected and then thrown in the back of a truck.