It's always tragic when this happens but unfortunately it is a bit of a tradition in Thailand that I have no idea how it got started. I can only guess - and I am happy to be corrected about this - that it is because monks are supposed to look after all creatures and the temples are funded by the communities they are in. Basically, if you drop dogs off there you are meant to contribute money to that temple forevermore. Given the heartlessness of anonymously dropping off dogs at a temple, I doubt that the back end of the deal will be honored.
This particular situation is especially bad because the temple in question is a very small temple in a rather poor part of Krabi. They barely have enough funds to keep the temple going, let alone take care of the 9 puppies and 2 mother dogs that were dropped off in the middle of the night.
We got word of this through the grapevine and immediately went out to offer our help.
The puppies are of course adorable and the mothers are very friendly as well. This is all fine and dandy but to anyone that has even one dog and knows how much work that is, imagine having 11 thrust upon you all at once.
The monks had a few cats her previously but no dogs and now the place seems like a relative zoo. We informed them that we cannot take the dogs away with us because we have no where to put them, but we will provide medical care and food for the dogs and asked that they please just assist us a bit by just feeding them once a day and letting us know if there are any problems. In the past, monks were not even supposed to have mobile phones but they all do now, so they promised to call us if there were issues.
We treated all of the dogs for parasites and have taken down notes to get all of the females sterilized as soon as possible. For the mums that is going to happen immediately but the pups are too young and that will have to wait a few months.
The monks are not expected to provide them with indoor shelter and this is fine as well as completely normal in a temple environment in Thailand. There are some areas where they can hide out of the rain and that will have to be good enough. It normally isn't necessary to provide bedding and while that might seem strange to anyone who has a "house dog" providing bedding for an outdoor dog simply invites more parasites in the form of mange, fleas, and ticks. Therefore, it is better to just provide them with a somewhat clean place to lie down out of the rain. Dogs don't really care about this sort of thing anyway unless they are made used to it by growing up in a house.
These dogs were clearly not raised for very long, because they don't really seem to fully understand the eating process as many of them adorably stood inside of the food trough while eating out of it.
We gave one of the mamas a big chunk of meaty bone as well which was very much appreciated. We have to gain her trust because she doesn't know it yet, but she is about to take a trip to the vet to get her baby-making parts cut out of her.
We are hopeful that this is just a one-off and this doesn't become a trend in the area for people to start thinking that this is a place to drop off dogs. We have already started making a sign for them in Thai that states that they cannot accept dog drop-offs as they are already over capacity. Often these signs are ignored by the particularly uncaring members of society, but it is better than nothing.
We do what we can, but it is disappointing to see this happen for sure. I can understand that a person wouldn't be capable of handling 11 dogs at once, but there is an easy solution! Sterilizing your animals!
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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