Bangkok’s fur children got some help finding their people families thanks to a group of aspiring veterinarians who’ve launched an online catalog of all the strays waiting to be loved.
Looking to do something about the overpopulation of strays nationwide, four Chulalongkorn University students developed an adoption platform for the kingdom’s few shelters to help home the animals.
“People have fewer human babies these days and more fur babies, so why don’t we take the chance to promote strays which never cease to exist on Thai streets?” said Nidchakan Jaiboon, one of four students who devised it for their senior project.
After a year of work, Nidchakan along with Kamonwan Sengsen, Pimpakan Siangruangsaeng and Pimrampa Kao-ian – all animals lovers – last month launched Rightbaan, which plays on how rai baan (homeless) sounds like a Thai-English hybrid for “Right Home.”
Load the site and find ready-to-adopt cats and dogs organized by size and age. Click a profile and find a short bio for each animal with their background and traits, along with information about their color, breed, sex, age and whether they’ve been sterilized or have any disabilities. From there, users interested in an animal are given contact information for their shelter and encouraged to call.
So far, animal shelters at Chulalongkorn University and Kasetsart University have joined the platform to list dogs and cats under their care for adoption as well as WVS Thailand and Soi Dog Foundation.
Most of the time, the shelters will want them to meet prospective adopters to make sure they’re a good match.
All animals are vaccinated before going home with their new caretakers. They said five cats from the university’s shelter have already found a new home since the launch. Pimpakan said that they seem to have no problem so far as their new human companions love to send in happy pics of their new babies afterward.
More likely to be an issue is that of maintaining the site and updating its listings once the students are out of the picture. Kamonwan said they would try to remain involved, and because the project was recognized by the university, it would be supported by Chula staff as well.
Nearing the end of their six years of vet school, the students said strays remain an intractable problem due to cultural resistance to killing animals and a lack of resources to care for them all. Many street animals live somewhere between unwanted stray and collective neighborhood pet.
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The team said they want to add other domestic animals to the platform in the future and along with functions like a search box and English support. Please don’t go to the students with stray animals – they do not have an adoption service.
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