There's an estimated 200 million stray dogs worldwide
Take this number as you will because it simply isn't possible for anyone to know how many there are. All you have to do is walk around basically anywhere in a country like Thailand to realize that the number of stray dogs is likely a very big number, perhaps even greater than the WHO's estimate of 200 million.
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in India
Some countries have more humane approaches than others when it comes to addressing this problem and how it is handled seems to be largely decided by how much the local population actually cares about them. In really busy cities such as Bangkok, for example. It is just part and parcel of living there. Everyone knows that there are gangs of near feral dogs that live in the alleyways and side roads, and that they should not be approached. I actually once made a mistake when I had just moved to this country when I tried to approach a group of them thinking they wanted to be pet. They did not and they reacted very aggressively to my presence. I thought it was best to just walk away.
You see, my perspective of how dogs will react to strangers was in my head because of how and where I grew up. In my home country there is animal control so there are almost zero stray and homeless dogs. If you do see a dog that isn't normally in your neighborhood there is a very good chance they are wearing a color that will help find the actual owner. If the situation can't be handled just by the generosity or good nature of the humans in the neighborhood, animal control services are brought in and from that point forward it becomes there job to find the owner, get a new owner, or sadly, to euthanize the animal in question.
We don't have any of these services in Thailand, and most of the world is the same way.
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Even though I love animals I can identify with how big of a problem it can be when street dogs replicate like mad and basically make a huge mess of the place even though they are only looking for food when they do things like tip over trash cans and rip apart bags of garbage.
In some places like Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and even Thailand, a regular culling of the stray animal population is the only "solution" that the government employs. This tragic event normally results in the killing of thousands of dogs all at the same time. In Thailand this will normally be carried out in the middle of the night and I have been told that humane tranquillizers are the weapon of choice.
Many of these countries have actually attempted the approach that we have with our organization here in Krabi, which is to pick the dogs up, sterilize them, then put them back if we can't find them a home or they don't have the temperament suitable to living with humans. This idea will eventually work if it is executed consistently for a long period of time, but neighborhoods and government aren't generally that patient. The problem with the culling method is that it isnt a long-term solution. Dogs and cats have a natural tendency to replicate to the point where an area can not possibly sustain any greater population and the weakest ones simply die out. This isn't a very empathetic way of looking at it, and it isn't a situation that I want to happen, but that is the simple reality of the stray dog population almost everywhere in the world.
Our method of preventing new births is a far more humane one, but also a significantly more expensive one than sending out the troops in the middle of the night once a month to execute anything in their path. It's quite remarkable to me that in a place like Bangkok that the dog population rebounds so quickly. Using the methods that they have now doesn't solve anything in the long-run, but I can't really even fault the government too much here. Their primary objective is to look out for PEOPLE and if the people are being terrorized by vicious street dogs, the problem will be solved.
Down here in the south the solution is a lot less humane since the government does almost nothing about the stray animal population and this results in human residents taking matters into their own hands using things like rat poison with some meat around it. This results in an extremely painful and time-consuming death for the animal and once the poison has entered the bloodstream, there normally isn't anything that can be done to reverse it.
I like to believe that our organization, and others like it around the world are making a difference and at least from my relatively sparsely populated part of Thailand, we have noticed a difference over the years. However, our approach is less noticeable for the humans here because it takes a lot of time. Our zero kill method isn't something that people will notice until a decade from now.
We know that we alone can not solve the stray animal population here in Krabi, but our main hope is that by reducing the number of stray dogs, that the people will complain less and perhaps have a bit more compassion towards the animals that do remain. Then perhaps the culling won't ever be necessary again.
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
เป็นผู้สนับสนุนรายเดือนหรือบริจาคครั้งเดียวได้ที่:
Pets are family.🐶🐈🐦
They certainly are to me. Thanks for reading!