Large sterilization drive with Lanta Animal Welfare this week
Years ago we were inspired by the success of Lanta Animal Welfare which is located on Koh Lanta (Lanta Island) near Krabi. We decided to mirror their charity model and start our own non-profit here in Krabi, which is only about 90 minutes away from Koh Lanta. It was a tough road at first and of course there have been many problems along the way including facing near destruction during Covid when our ability to bring in funds was almost completely cut off.
We stuck with it though and I am happy to say that we are doing as well as we ever have today and recently we participated in the annual sterilization drive with Lanta Animal Welfare to get as many dogs and cats in the Krabi area sterilized as possible.
Volunteer veterinarians and vet techs donate their time on this day to perform surgeries on dozens of animals and we are prepared to accept hundreds if need be. The good news thus far is that with all the years that we have been doing this, the demand for sterilizations has actually gone DOWN and this is a very good thing and shows that we are making progress in our eventual goal to curtail the out-of-control population growth that lead to suffering for all the dogs and cats of the Krabi region.
To those that don't know what is going on here, this scene could look like we are being cruel to these dogs but the reason why they are still in their kennels even though they are under the influence of sleepy drugs is because we cannot have dogs lying about in this field when there are so many other dogs around. Dogs that are partially under can behave erratically, and even friendly dogs can do things like snap at other creatures when they are only halfway aware of their surroundings. Just imagine that you just woke up with only partial control of your body. That would probably freak you out a bit, right? Well dogs feel the same way.
They are carefully monitored by dozens of people that are very familiar with this process and in the years that we have been doing this nothing bad has happened to any of them.
We don't like to put animals in cages but it would be absolute mayhem at these things if we didn't. Once a dog is in a kennel they calm down almost immediately. It is actually the cats that tend to be more problematic in this situation. This year we didn't have a great deal of cats at the event at all which isn't because we don't care about cats, it is just a lot more difficult to find them or perhaps there aren't very many that need help - which is what we are hoping is the case.
We are meticulous in our record-keeping at these events. The dogs will be sterilized, vaccinated, treated for any parasite infestations and in some cases treated for other things then returned to where they arrived from in just a few days. The real issue here is making sure that there is some sort of contact at the location that is going to keep an eye on them while they fully recover from the surgery. In most situations these animals have been pointed out to us by caring members of the communities they were found in and this isn't an issue. For the others we have teams of people that will go around and check on them for about a week following the procedure.
When you do the math from this 4-day joint venture the number of unwanted offspring that we have prevented is staggering. Each female is capable of producing up to 8 pups a year and within as little as 10 months each of those females are capable of the same thing and that is exactly what they will do if they are not treated. When the population explodes like this, suffering is just around the corner. Each year that passes we get closer to our goal of curbing the population to a manageable level where all dogs are taken care of and there is plenty to eat.
Our end-goal is that the rest of the country will see what we have accomplished and try to emulate it all over Thailand. Each year that passes we get a little bit closer to that goal.
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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