Recently this information was brought to my attention and it is interesting and a bit sad to see that the numbers are this high.
The stray dog problem in Thailand is really bad, but we and other organizations like ours are working many years already to try to attack the root of the problem and that is the fact that there are so many stray dogs to begin with. There are a lot of reasons why the stray dog population is so high here and a lot of it has to do with education or lack thereof, as to there being so many non-sterilized dogs running around with no homes. Dogs, by their very nature, are pre-programmed to replicate as often and as quickly as possible, without any concern to whether or not they can actually take care of their offspring.
I'll talk more about that another time but for now I want to focus on why changing driver habits in Thailand simply isn't going to happen.
The roads here are rather lawless. There are posted speed-limits and various other road rules but since they are not enforced at all, the people in Thailand tend to do whatever they want to. I know that I almost never so much as look at my speedometer when I am driving because even though I am not a "leadfoot" driver, I know that there are zero consequences for exceeding the speed limit.
This results in the roads being very dangerous for dogs and cats that are simply trying to cross the road for food, or to get home, or whatever reason they might have for doing so.
Dogs are pretty resilient, but they can't recover from being hit by a car going full speed and in these situations we are just kind of hopeful that they die immediately without pain. This isn't an evil way to look at it at all because dogs that get severely injured will likely slowly die from their injuries if nobody intervenes. I have been witness to dogs on the side of the road here that nobody is helping and that is the problem right there: It happens so often here in Thailand that people aren't even affected by it anymore. It is just part of a regular day. This is probably difficult for someone living in the West to understand, but that's just the way it is over here.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident as if you are a driver, there is probably a very good chance that you have had at least a close encounter with a dog or cat in the road.
I was once in the car with a woman who hit a cat while driving (it wasn't the woman's fault) but she just laughed it off until I demanded that she pull over so I could see if I could find the cat. I didn't find the cat.
This happens a LOT in Thailand and it is estimated that there are 100,000 hit and run cases involving dogs and cats every year in Thailand. The actual figure is likely considerably higher than this because this information is derived from the amount of people that report that it happened. Since it is so common in Thailand I would imagine that most of the incidents are not reported even though by doing so, you would not get into any trouble.
Many times when a dog or cat is struck by a vehicle, the people who do intervene are faced with large hospital bills that they cannot afford so the animal is simply put down. This sounds cruel I know, but we are dealing with a people that are quite poor compared to global standards so they don't really have any choice. They simply don't have the money.
Organizations like our own will step in to help dogs and cats in this situation, but since we are a charity that operates 100% off of voluntary donations, we have to pick and choose which cases we are going to take on. Sadly, we have at times played triage where we just didn't have the money or other resources to help and had to pass on it as well. I'm afraid there just isn't any more we can do without more funding.
our hope one day is that the Thai government will take notice of the steps we have made towards reducing the stray population in Krabi using ethical means and that we will receive some help from them. Perhaps instead of buying antiquated diesel submarines to fight against a non-existent enemy, they could divert some money to helping creatures less fortunate.
There have been many cases in the past where we would help a dog recover from an accident and when we go to drop them back off at their home territory, they at first are excited to be home, but then they almost always turn around to look at us, like they are a bit unsure what to do, and they are king of thanking us for our help. Hopefully, we will be able to help them more in the future. That is our only objective.
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.
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