There are some areas of Krabi that are more inundated with stray dogs than others. Neua Klong is one of the worst affected areas because the animal population has been replicating unchecked for many years. We did not (and do not) have the resources to tackle this problem on our own but thanks to the agreement of another nearby similar operation that was actually our inspiration to start our on foundation in the first place, we were able to fund this event together.
Lanta Animal Welfare has been around for a long time and they have made tremendous improvements to the stray animal population on Koh Lanta Island, which is about 40 minutes to the East of Krabitown. Their "experiment" has served as a lesson for the rest of the country due to the fact that they are an island, which still doesn't have a bridge fully extending to the mainland. Therefore, this contained animal population is more able to be completely controlled. They have also shown through their tireless and continued efforts that getting the population completely under control definitely doesn't happen overnight.
Before Covid shut the country and most of the world down, they were the number one tourist attraction on the island as far as TripAdvisor was concerned and this resulted in huge amounts of volunteers, donations, and even global attention. It got to the point where they had to turn people away that were turning up to help and instead opened a restaurant called "Time for Lime" where all the proceeds went towards the Lanta Animal Welfare (LAW) non-profit organization.
They are considerably larger and better-established than we are and we look to them for guidance on a regular basis. It is because they decided to partner with us that our recent operation in Nua Klong was even possible, let alone a success.
The event did take quite a bit of planning as you can't just simply rock up and start collecting dogs off the street and spay them at random. We coordinated with local officials and residents to identify the areas with the greatest problems and then over a series of days captured the females. I don't think it is necessary to once again explain why sterilizing the females is more important than doing so to the males but that is the way it works for cash-strapped foundations such as ours all over the world. The added benefit of sterilizing the females is that it is quite common for internal problems to develop in female reproductive organs such as various forms of cancer, so removing these organs serves a double purpose.
I was unaware of this until I became involved with Krabi Animal Welfare but the sterilization procedure is actually an extremely simple one, and each operation can be completed in just a few minutes. The "tricky" part, according to the veterinarians is the anesthesiology because if you administer too much, the dog's heart can stop, too little, and the dog will feel pain during the operation.
With our team of volunteer vets who I cannot thank enough for their generous donation of time and ability, we were able to sterilize 89 dogs in just 3 days. This is more operations than we have performed in the past 3 months combined. It was truly wonderful to see the community come together in support of this and the local population also got a little education about why this is important and what they can do to help ease the suffering of the animals in the long run. Hopefully this happy attitude continues into the future and the locals will help us to feed the dogs and also to let us know if there are injuries or infections that need tending to.
The local population is primarily quite poor so we are not looking for financial help from them, we simply need them to help out when and how they can. A sad reality of Thailand and neighboring countries is that problematic stray animal populations are frequently baited and poisoned and this is a truly horrifying way to die as the rat poison that is normally used slowly solidifies the animals insides and they die a very slow and very painful death.
It was truly a joyous ocassion for everyone involved and it was wonderful to network a bit with some of the other veterinarians and their assistants who I have never met before. Some of them were also unaware of the existence of our charities so hopefully we can establish a long-standing bond with them as well as the local community of Neua Klong.
At the end of it all, a great many of the dogs were quite scared, as I am sure you would be too if you were put in a cage for 3 days, then made to go to sleep and wake up not understanding what happened. There were no incidents and none of the animals died during the procedures. By sterilizing just 90 animals we have prevented the suffering of potentially thousands of future animals and that is what we are here for, this is why we continue to fight.
This happy little lady stuck around even after her procedure... she was waiting for her friends...awwww
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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