Thailand-based dog charity Soi Dog Foundation is starting a large street dog sterilization and vaccination project in the city.
The foundation announced that their seven-year project will cost THB550 million. It will entail outfitting several mobile surgical teams that will go out and sterilize the approximately 640,000 stray dogs that live in Bangkok.
Check out our documentary about the “dog condo” where over 1500 abandoned dogs live on the outskirts of the city:
Soi Dog is partnering with UK gog charity Dogs Trust Worldwide while the Department of Livestock Development will also give support. The program has already started in the Lat Krabang district, according to The Nation.
One of the reasons for the initiative is disease control. Soi Dog Foundation President John Dalley said that, “Despite years of removing dogs and other attempted means of control by the authorities, the canine population in Bangkok had continued to grow in line with the growing human population, and cases of rabies are still being found in the capital.”
He said, “All the world’s leading authorities on rabies control, including the World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural division of the United Nations are united in their view that the best approach to eliminating human rabies is to vaccinate a minimum of 70 percent of dogs, thereby establishing a herd immunity among the canine population. Random removal or culling of vaccinated dogs actually has a negative impact on controlling rabies.”
He noted that the Soi Dog sterilization project in Phuket has greatly reduced the number of street dogs.
“Reducing stray dogs in Bangkok is something that the authorities have tried to do for decades without success. It is time for a more strategic and sustainable approach, and the acceptance that the issue cannot be solved overnight. The speed at which the program expands throughout Bangkok will depend on funding and the cooperation of the local authorities and the local communities,” he added.
The program is happy to offer free sterilization and vaccination to owner’s dogs as well as street dogs in the communities where they set up.
Soi Dog will work in one area at a time, and then move on to the next district. The mobile teams will each be two veterinarians, nurses, and animal handlers to pick up dogs.
Dalley said, “The street dog problem is not a dog problem, it is a human behaviour problem. Owners who allow their dogs to roam unsterilized are irresponsible and have unknowingly created the stray dog problem we see today.”
“I sincerely hope that Bangkok’s citizens will support this program by offering suitable locations for the mobile surgical units to operate from, by bringing their dogs to the clinics for free sterilization and vaccinations, and by allowing treated stray dogs to remain in their communities,” Dalley said.
