This Year Has Proven Once Again Just How Important..

This year has proven once again just how important it is to care for animal welfare during a crisis. For Soi Dog’s #AnimalWelfareMonth, we wanted to shed light on the animal welfare crises that Thailand has seen in the past and how we, as an animal welfare organisation, have responded.

It wasn’t long after Soi Dog was founded that we faced a major crisis: the 2⃣0⃣0⃣4⃣ Asian tsunami. This was Soi Dog’s first natural disaster response, and it inaugurated our current-day Emergency Response Team. Learn more here: https://links.soidog.org/SoiDog-ERT

Fast-forward to 2⃣0⃣1⃣0⃣ when there was a severe outbreak of distemper on the island of Phuket where we are based. Soi Dog teams worked around the clock conducting mass vaccinations of dogs at temples and other locations, and it was this campaign that stopped the deadly disease from spreading further. Although we are still seeing isolated cases, it’s certainly nothing like the epidemic we experienced that year.

Soi Dog was also first to respond to the Bangkok floods in 2⃣0⃣1⃣1⃣, providing not only food to thousands of marooned animals but also establishing emergency shelters and evacuating them. This exercise was repeated when floods hit the south of Thailand in 2016/17 and in Ubon Ratchathani in 2⃣0⃣1⃣9⃣ which was the worst flooding Thailand had seen in almost two decades.

In April 2⃣0⃣1⃣8⃣, Soi Dog responded to an exaggerated rabies scare in northeast Thailand which had resulted in the impounding of over 3,000 dogs – both street dogs and surrendered or abandoned pets. These dogs were crammed together in a livestock centre which was simply too small to house them all and, tragically, over 2,000 died of disease before Soi Dog was made aware of the situation. Thankfully, we were able to save the remaining dogs and have since been transporting them in groups to our shelter in Phuket.

Most recently, of course, is the Covid-19 pandemic which has been by far the biggest test for Soi Dog since the tsunami. With international travel restrictions preventing adopted animals from flying to their new homes overseas but animals in need of life-saving treatment still arriving every day, the shelter was at severe risk of overcrowding. An emergency campaign was launched in March to raise the necessary funds to build additional enclosures to house the increasing number of dogs and, with no volunteers, a staff rotation system was put in place to ensure these dogs all received exercise and enriching time out of their enclosures. Outside of the shelter, we distributed over 11 tonnes of dog and cat food to stray animal feeders across Phuket ahead of an island-wide lockdown to ensure no animal went hungry.

With no government funding, we rely solely on the kindness of animal lovers like you in these times of need. Your support ensures we stand by our commitment to never turn our backs on a homeless animal, even in times of crisis.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SoiDogPageInEnglish/photos/a.137025..

Tweet

Soi Dog Foundation

Established in 2003 in Phuket, Thailand, Soi Dog is Southeast Asia's largest organisation helping stray animals. The Gill Dalley sanctuary in Phuket is home to over 1,600 animals. Soi Dog also has a treatment facility in Bangkok and responds to crisis situations throughout Thailand. The organisation is dedicated to implementing effective, sustainable solutions that reduce the suffering of dogs and cats in Asia, runs entirely on donations and works efficiently so all donations are used to help animals as effectively as possible.

The foundation is a registered not-for-profit organisation in Thailand, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France and Holland. It has a maximum 4-star rating with Charity Navigator, the largest and most-utilised independent non-profit evaluator in the United States, a platinum seal of transparency from Candid, the world’s largest source of non-profit information, a Top Rated award from Greatnonprofits and the Travelers’ Choice award from Tripadvisor.

More Articles   |   Website