Soi Dog Foundation

---

NB - I am having to publish without pics for the moment, cannot for the life of me transfer them from my phone and the blog has been sitting ready for weeks. Sorry!



So after nearly a years hiatus I am back to my blog. I considered doing it in Australia but didnt feel I had that much to write about - maybe if I have time I will do a backdated one but since i am now embarking on an 8 month trip thought now was a good time to start. The bluetooth keyboard i previously used has packed in so now using internet cafe, and hopefully will use my device to upload any pics.

In summery I was a bit fed up in Melbourne and was ready to move on. I had worked loads and saved my cash, most of my friends had left and the weather was getting cold, so I decided to leave before Gary and set off on my own adventure. I have always loved animals but since being away this became even more apparent due to the sense of loss of having my pets around and missing them back home - life without animals is just not the same. I done some research and stumbled upon Soi Dog Foundation and felt I had hit the jackpot. I knew I wanted to do some voluntary work with animals and this seemed perfect, they always need volunteers, it was in Thailand, they dont charge any fees and I got a really good feel for them on their website and facebook page.

In short, Soi Dog are committed to saving the lives of street dogs and cats on the island of Phuket, they undertake sterilisation programmes and they are major players in the horrific dog meat trade which unfortunately is still happening in small areas of northern thailand where street dogs, and pet dogs are captured and shoved in cages and attempted to smuggle over the Laos border destined for Vietnam or China. Soi dog have done a lot of work in terms of raising awareness and have so far rescued over 1500 dogs who were destined to be tortured before being killed. (apparently stressing them as much as possible makes the meat taste better). It makes me feel sick even thinking about it. These dogs are actually kept near Bangkok, with a small number who have been adopted already being housed in Phuket. Soi dog have now sterilised 80% of the Dogs and cats n Phuket island which is incredible. This amount prevents the animals from growing in numbers which will be difficult for the community to manage and therefore will result in less incidents of animal cruelty, but still allows there to be an animal population. This project has been such a success that they are undergoing planning for other areas of thailand to roll it out there which would be great.

The majority of dogs in phuket (or at least the area I was in) are semi wild. They run free and dont have a home, however they have their own turf and packs and equally had their own locals who would feed them at restaurants or bars where they were welcome and werent seen as pests. Every morning a nice man used to ride up the beach on his moped and feed the dogs - he told me around 100 a day! The dogs are super friendly and i was surprised by how looked after they were. Perhaps this is because the numbers are low so they werent scavenging. With this in mind, Soi dog aims to return all of the dogs they treat back to where they find them, if possible. They will be alerted to an issue and will bring them in to operate on them/look after them, and provided they can, will release them back where they found them. They only keep the ones that they feel have suffered t the extent it wouldnt be safe for them to return anymore. That may be because someone has abused them or is a danger to them or that the area isnt safe. At first the stories were quite hard to listen to. Dogs that have been shot, poisoned, ran over, beaten, starved, one dog has nearly lost his eye because A drunk man attacked him with a machete, another was used as target practice for air rifle shooting. The list goes on. Things that in the UK would be very rare and would be met with public outrage are relatively common.

On my first day we were collected by car from the hotel meting point and driven to Soi dog about 20 minutes away. After being given a tour of the premises i was paired with a german girl called Steffi Graff (!) and assigned our run - B2. Soi has 8 'normal' runs and seperate ones for OAPS, puppys, shy dogs, small dogs, dogs being treated, etc. We were given some instructions by Inga, a long term volunteer on how to handle the dogs, how to get them out of the run and so on. There were 20 dogs in the run and at first I didnt think I would ever be able to tell them apart, especially as there was a large number of brown ones. How wrong could I be, little did I know then how much I would get to know their wee personalities and fall in love with all of them. What surprised me was how much of a pecking order there was in the run and how things had to be done a certain way otherwise it would disrupt the balance. The dominant dogs get out first, then the middle, and at the end you ca try to get the shy/quiet ones out. All of the dogs want to command your attention but if you dont divide the love in a certain order then the shy dogs would get picked on.

In B2 I was surprised by how many shy dogs there were. Of the group, there were probably 4 dominant dogs, 7 or so medium and the rest shy. In fact, after nearly 1 month, there were 2 dogs that we didnt even get to touch even fleetingly. in addition to these 2, there were another 3 who it took 3 weeks to build up the trust to get to briefly pet their nose at the start of the day. I naively thought that we could walk all the dogs, but there were abut 4 who never got out once despite trying. However, bearing in mind that all of these dogs have suffered serious abuse and have had very traumatic lives I found it spectacular that so many of them had so much love to give and were so trusting of you instantly especially considering what theyve been through. Of the ones that were shy, I can also imagine that it may take a long time, if at all, for them to trust. The important thing is that these dogs have been saved and are in a much better position than they were before. Even if they live out their days there, they are fed, watered, cared for and have human interaction and the worst thing they have to worry about is staying out of a bully dogs way. I did see a few fights in the run which were horrible and I worried would result in serious injury as blood was shed. However, they lived to tell the tale and was forgotten about after a few days.

Our roles are volunteers is to care for and socialise the dogs in order to get them ready for adoption and of course to look after their basic needs such as excercise, as well as giving them some of the love that that they miss out on not having a home. It was a lot easier us having 2 people in the run, some people were on their own and it took them almost the whole day just to walk them. The dogs need to be taken out in quite a strict manner. You walk the alpha dogs first, then the other dominant, medium, down to shy. The pecking order basically. If you dont do this and took a shy dog before one of the dominant dogs the dog would likely be attacked when it came back by more than one dog so you really had to be careful. Sometimes the shy dogs even got a hard time when you took them out at the end of the day just because the other dogs want to assert their dominance.

It was lovely to take the dogs out and mostly they were completely different. At the end of the day they all just want to be loved and cared for, it is nice to ge them out of the run away from the other dogs and spend some one to one time with them. Some dogs want to be walked round loads, others arent bothered they like the quiet time and to sit and have a cuddle. I think because of the heat they arent too bothered about running etc though I did try to run with some of them and they were delighted. Being on the lead and with the dogs from other runs out you are restricted in what you can do.

The first day I started I was overwhelmed by how many dogs I thought looked the same and i couldnt distinguish, little did i know that I would fall in love with each of them and they would become really distinctive with their wee personalities. After nearly 1 month I became very attached to the dogs, came to really love them and was so sad when I left. I am in touch with the other volunteers though and find out how they are getting on. Some of them have already been adopted which is great, and I hope more of them find their forever homes. Sadly this is normally Europe or North america. They get some Thai adoptions but these are mainly puppies. The dogs that get adopted go all over the world with flight volunteers who happen to be flying the route the dog is going to. They just need their rabies certificate and they can go most places but Australia is difficult as they need to go to the UK first. For the states it is cheaper, for the UK its about 700 pounds though some have contributed costs towards them by sponsorship.

I will keep a keen eye on how they are getting on, I have a few I would consider myself once I am on my feet with accommodation etc. These dogs dont really have much hope for a life if it isnt for us taking them in. I truly had one of the best experiences of my life, I met so many great people from all walks of life who are so passionate about the animals, as am I, and I know it will be something I will continue to support. Who knows, maybe I may even be lucky enough to land myself with a job with the dogs trust with my previous charity work experience but with this new experience.. wouldnt that be great!

---