Rain or shine, the dogs have to eat!
I come to you today with more photos and stories of food and snack deliveries to the Tiger Cave Temple, which is one of the major areas that we are focused on attempting - and mostly succeeding - at looking after the rather large stray dog population that calls this massive temple complex home. We have managed to control the population via our sterilization program and now we are focused on making sure that the existing dog populations stays healthy and well-fed.
The Tiger Cave Temple is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Krabi and the rainy season doesn't keep the visitors from arriving in droves daily. It is quite common to see loads of people wearing those cheap 7-11 purchased plastic ponchos, but I think that most people don't attempt the 1300 step climb to the top of the mountain because it is a rather dangerous climb when the stairs are dry. When wet, it could be injury city for those that attempt it.
We arrive to drop off huge bags of food to give to the monks that live here and they distribute it to the dogs on a regular basis. Since there are more than 100 dogs living here, this requires a great amount of food. Normally, the monks will mix the food with rice because a lot of rice is donated to the temple, much more than the monks and nuns need for themselves. Rice is also a lot cheaper than dog food, so this system works.
While we are there we also check on the health of the pack or at least the ones that come out to greet us.
This pup was a bit shy at first, but that isn't something a delicious chewy snack cant fix. We became best friends just a few moments later.
It was also nice to see that most of the dogs were looking very healthy and well-fed, which is a very big difference from the state of things when we first took on this project a few years back.
We hang around for a bit to feed the dogs and pet them. The hope being that they start to see us as friends and for the most part all of the dogs here see us as their pals. As I have mentioned in the past many of the dogs seem to know the sound of our truck and come running out to greet us when they arrive. Dogs are pretty amazing creatures since as far as my ears can tell our truck sounds just like any other one does.
After an hour or so of visiting, we talked to the monks that we stay in touch with to confirm that there are no new additions to the pack or any illnesses or injuries that they are aware of. Since they live here and maintain the entire grounds, they are pretty aware of all that goes on here. It was nice to hear from them that the pack of dogs are doing better than ever.
It is nice to see that our efforts here have not been for nothing and at least up to this point, it is looking like this could end up being a huge success. Hopefully it is noticed by other temples or maybe even the government, that sterilization of strays is the only sustainable way forward!
if you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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