Day 2 begins.... Soi Dog's truck arrives, along with over 150 cages to transport the dogs from the "Dog Island Bridge" by boat back to the main road, where awaiting trucks will take them to the WFFT Shelter in Cha Am. Everyone hops on 3 boats for the 20min boat ride into Puttaamonthon Buddhist Park. The dogs await our arrival & many of the friendliest ones seem to know what's happening. Several of them jump straight into the cages, excitedly awaiting their new adventure. Others are eager to be picked up by volunteers & carried to their cage.The Thai Army help to load the caged dogs onto the boats & the first few batches are quickly taken back to waiting trucks. We are then left with the very frightened dogs who will take some skill to catch. In the process several volunteers are bitten, as this can be dangerous work. Our dog catchers use their nets to capture the dogs, then careful handling is needed to manouvere them into cages.
Finally after approx 6 hours, "Dog Island" is cleared of dogs. It is very quiet & a strange feeling after spending time with over 150 dogs here, suddenly all are gone. The remaining dog food scattered on the ground is quickly found by passing birds who seem to enjoy the strange taste!
Dusk falls & the last of the volunteers leave the bridge. As they approach the main road the final cages are being removed from boats with the truck's huge crane. The dogs appear bemused by their high flying experience & almost seem to enjoy it. Most of the dogs are then let loose in the high sided trucks, only a few cages are left at the back to make a wall. At approximately 8.00pm the last truck leaves for the WFFT Shelter in Cha Am. All dogs should be safely there by 10pm. Colonel Bear from the Royal Thai Army offers Soi Dog Volunteers free transportin the back on the Royal Thai Army truck to Bangkok.
We have heard today that all dogs have arrived safely. 90% of them have health problems, but with the proper medical attention available there, we are confident the vast majority will be brought back to health.
Thank you to everyone involved in this exercise. It was a huge effort by all.