Getting a jump start on a new temple in Krabi

The problem that we face as far as helping dog populations at temples is concerned is that normally by the time the over-population situation gets pointed out to us, it is normally a very big problem involving hundreds of dogs in a really bad state. Ideally, groups like ours would need to get involved at sterilizing and vaccinating the dogs that live at temples before their population grows to such a size that this task becomes something that takes years to get ahead of. The longer you wait, the more difficult the problem becomes.

Recently a smaller temple that I am a little embarrassed to say I didn't even know existed, was pointed out to us near Krabi. We were told that just like all other temples in Thailand, they had a stray dog population but at the moment that population was still really low. Just a mere 9 dogs.

But like I have said to you many times in the past, 9 can quickly become 18, which can quickly become 100. Dogs in temples live a life of relative safety with good access to food and therefore will replicate as quickly as they are capable of doing so. 9 is a very manageable number for the monks that work here but since in a year's time this could become 50 (which is not manageable by anyone) it was important for us to step in.

The monks were happy to let us help as we politely made our introductions

All of the dogs had clearly been closely handled by the monks and it was nearly no trouble at all rounding them all up. We briefly transported them to a clinic where all of them were sterilized and vaccinated and then returned to the temple in the same day. It was kind of cute how worried the monks were about their babies because I don't think they were very clear on what we were doing even though we brought an interpreter with us to make sure that they understand that we are not stealing the dogs... we are just helping them.

I want anyone that sees these pictures to understand that we crate the dogs for transport not because they are dangerous but because a dog that has never been in a truck can be very unpredictable and frightened. They could become very confused and afraid and lash out at us.. this is true of any friendly dog even the one that you might have at your house right now. Any dog that is put under stress can become dangerous not just to any human handling it, but to itself. The last thing we want to have happen is for one of these dogs to jump out of the back of our truck while we are moving down the highway.

This was a very simple process and it was done in just a couple of hours. The sterilization process of a dog is exceptionally easy and it takes only about 15 minutes per dog to complete. After a couple hours of recovery and checking on the part of the veterinarians, we were ready to make the return journey to the temple where all of the dogs jumped back down and rejoined their home like nothing had ever happened.

Advances in stitching technology has improved this process a great deal because I am sure you have seen the dogs wearing cones on their head to protect stitches but with sterilization techniques being the way they are today, this is almost never necessary anymore. It also is not necessary to return to dogs to the clinic for stitch/staple removal because they now dissolve once their job is done. I don't know how or why this works but I am glad it does.

So now we have a relationship with the dogs and the monks at Wat Koh Kram and they have our phone number and us, theirs. We will be monitoring the situation and hopefully these 9 dogs can remain at 9 and also remain healthy and happy. I certainly hope so!

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If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

_{Krabi Animal Welfare is a charity run entirely by volunteers and are a registered non-profit organization in Thailand and the U.K.. We aim to relieve the pain and suffering of dogs and cats within Krabi Province.}

เป็นผู้สนับสนุนรายเดือนหรือบริจาคครั้งเดียวได้ที่:

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

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