This is the latest news from Soi Dog:
A Crisis Looming For Dogs Rescued From The Illegal Dog Meat Trade…
Last month over 1,000 dogs were rescued during arrests of dog meat traders. Had these dogs not been rescued they would have been transported to Vietnam and faced a slow and terrible end.
While it is wonderful that the lives of these dogs (such as those pictured here) have been saved a considerable challenge lies ahead and this will only be overcome with your help.
The recent interceptions of dogs destined for the dog meat trade has seen over 1,000 dogs saved in March alone. The shelter at Nakhon Phanom is now bursting at the seams.
After pressure from Soi Dog, the Department of Livestock Development agreed not to send 500 dogs to the Livestock center at Thong Pha Phum which itself is hopelessly overcrowded and is in effect a dumping ground far removed from public scrutiny.
300 dogs have recently been sent to the Khemmarat Livestock center, a much more suitable facility, however it is also already overcrowded.
The Department of Livestock have no budget to care for the dogs and have requested Soi Dog to help build additional shelters at Buriram in central Thailand. It is a matter of urgency that the first of these shelters be completed by the end of this month as otherwise additional arrests cannot occur, no dogs will be rescued and instead the dogs will suffer a horrifying fate on the dinner plates of Hanoi.
Buriram is an ideal location as it is situated well away from any houses and covers a vast area of woodland. Yesterday 738,815 Thai Baht (about 25,000 US dollars) was transferred for over 30 tons of food. Soi Dog will continue to do all that can be done to stop the trade and save the dogs but expenses are currently outstripping donations and that cannot continue for long.
Each of the 9 shelters will cost approximately 1 million Thai Baht (34,000 US dollars) to build. Soi Dog has authorized funding for the first of the shelters and is working with the Department of Livestock towards completing the shelter. Please do not stand by and allow the dog traders to win!
Your support is needed nowto help build the shelters so that more dogs can be saved. Your donation of $100/€75 will provide 4 square meters of shelter for rescued dogs, a generous donation of $200/€150 will provide 8 square meters.
Each shelter will be 1,500 square meters and 100% of alldonations received will go directly to this vital project.
I cannot emphasize too strongly that this is an emergency situation!Although natural disasters such as the 2011 Bangkok floods tend to grab people’s attention the situation here is far more grave. Owing to the recent interception of over 1,000 dogs the situation at the shelters has indeed reached crisis proportions.
The more funds raised the more shelters that can be built and more dogs can be saved from the fate of the dog meat trade. Your support is urgently needed today!
Best wishes,
John Dalley
