Karin & Ally Roadshow

Today we managed to come into contact with several doggy people and meet many dogs whilst working through our route plan.(A document that I must tell you is a work of art which Karin spends endless hours into the night before planning)


However, today we were also making preparations for next weeks adoption fair by seeking produce to sell and checking on facilities at the venue. We have the green light for our second of these events. Saturday 23 June 2007, at Airport Plaza Chiang Mai, on the 2nd floor adjacent to Tokyo Optic and near Robinsons. But more of that later.


Our first doggy contact today was a lovely retired gentle man who should really be part of the Care for Dogs team ( we're working on that) who has great interest in dogs in his area, bringing medical problems to our attention and trying to help these poor creatures where ever they live.


He took us to a house in his neighbourhood, where we saw an American Pit Bull Terrier chained up and kept in this way 24x7. After talking to the residents there, it transpires the original owner moved to Australia and left the dog behind. They want the dog to be happy and feed him what they can but they are very keen to find the dog a better home, with people who know how to care for him.



He is not old, maybe about 2 and is very strong & healthy. He likes people & plays well but needs space to run around and people to love him.


We suggested getting a muzzle for him, to reduce the fear that local people had of the dog biting them and then at least getting him off the chain and giving him some freedom. In the meantime we will include him in our ever growing list of dogs needing adoption to good homes.


Next stop was to deliver back home a dog that had been away for sterilisation, warmly greeted by her friends and then it was off to Wat Nong Ba Kang, not far from the Railway station in Chiang Mai, where we were also returning a dog after sterilisation.


Ya came to us last year with a very severe case of TvT and after prolonged chemotherapy treatment, sterilisation, she has now regained good health and as it seems nobody has been showing her any interest in respect of adoption, we are returning her to her old home at the temple.


On arrival it was clear she had been missed. The monks and people in the area remembered her by name and her doggy friends welcomed her back too.


Whilst there, we gave all the dogs some food, gave as many mange & heartworm vaccinations as possible and left a bag of food for the monks to feed the dogs themselves. There are some serious cases for intensive mange therapy,so when we return the 3 we collected here last time, we will take more of these away to the shelter for regular administration of Ivomec.


We were now thinking of returning home as it was 9 pm already but received an emergency call from the security guards at the entrance to the US Consulate in the city. When we arrived , we found Uan, street dog laying in a a doorway, very wet from sweat, urine, vomit & saliva. She was barely breathing. The guards said she had been like this all day and did not know what to do & called us after someone suggested our name to them. They said they liked the dog and wanted to help her. There was a piece of bbq chicken in front of her nose.


We rushed her to the only animal facility available on a 24 hour basis in Chiang Mai and to our amazement & delight the on duty team today jumped into action with "ER" characteristics and tried to save her life. Sadly within minutes of arrival, she passed away. Maybe she waited for someone to help and then relaxed and slipped away.


The vet in charge, a very competent & friendly young guy said that this was definitely organic phosphate poisoning and unless dogs are helped early in their suffering, there is little they can do to stop the cruel death.


We took Uan back to the shelter and found a peaceful spot to bury him in an orchard nearby.


Uan is now another statistic of the growing numbers of poisonings occurring in & around Chiang Mai. It is a scary thought, when you have dogs of your own, that people that either have a grudge against others, don't like dogs or just want to be nasty, can cause such unnecessary loss of life. It is also scary that authorities are not interested in taking any reasonable actions to investigate, let alone prosecute in the interest of dogs. So far, Chiang Mai has not experienced mass poisonings that have occurred in locations such as Koh Samui and I hope it never will but there is no safety net for these poor creatures should such a campaign ever be implemented.