Below is a translation of a post on the German language version of Care for Dogs website, announcing that the German Association of Dog Assemblies (Vdh) allowed us to present information regarding Care for Dogs work in Thailand, at an International Pedigree Exhibition.

Idea
Care for Dogs is an animal welfare organisation concentrating its efforts in and around Chiang Mai, Thailand and is completely based on donations. Funds are sought in Thailand but is not very sucessful and certainly not enough to finance all our activities. Therefor CfD looks for support from organisations and generous individuals and dog lovers from other parts of the global village.

I live in the quarter of that village called Germany, house Offenburg and in my house there is an annual pedigree exhibition. So the idea came up using this event as a platform to promote Care for Dogs under the slogan “animale welfare while on holidays” and using a flyer of information as a tool to transport the message.

Implementation

So Karin (Chiang Mai, Thailand), Eva (Fürth, Bavaria/Germany) and I (Offenburg Baden/Germany) developed a text, chose some pictures and gave it all to the wizards of design at Sabersaturn (Chiang Mai) …, who created the PDF-Design used as source to order the print at an internet company named Flyerpilot.

After only a few days I received the flyers free to the door. What a wonder of modern communication.

In our part of the global village the local police constable is very strict about rules, so there was still the questions about where and how we place the flyers and who gives us the permission. After a few calls to the town office, Offenburg fair organisation and the hosting VdH (the German association of dog assemblies) it became clear, the flyers could be placed at the information desk of the VdH at the entrance of the main exhibition hall.

Host

The VdH… takes its responsibility as a host regarding the visitors of its exhibitions very serious and looks closely at who wants to use these events as a presentation platform and it’s not enough just to say the magic words “animal welfare” and assume they will accept your ideas.

In a conversion with Mr Reidenbach while visiting the fair I learned more about his organisation and the event itself and the criteria they use when deciding if or if not they allow an animal welfare organisation to participate in any form at their events.

The Internationale Rassehundeausstellung in Offenburg (international pedigree exhibition Offenburg) is a combination of beauty and sport contests for dogs, road show and sales fair around dog products designed for a broad spectrum of visitors and not just members of the associated organisations. It lasts for a complete weekend and last year it had about 16,000 visitors, a number which this year will probably be exceeded.

The aims of the hosting association the VdH are not restricted on promoting the ideas of pure breed dogs or the interests of breeders, as shown in its name “Verband für das deutsche Hundewesen” (Associaton for German dog business) and in its slogan “for the dogs”, in fact the people of this organisation feel responsibity for the welfare of dogs of any kind.

The event itself shows special contest for mixed breed dogs and contests in dog sports for example agility which are open to dogs of any kind.

some impressions:

Criteria

When it comes to animal welfare the association learned lessons of the past and does a stricter and closer check of organisations who ask for support.

List of criteria:

• Donations must be safe and it has to be sure they are used solely for welfare of the animals
• The program of the organisation must target the source of the problems
• There should be local solutions for local problems
• Especially regarding animal welfare abroad, the organisation is critical about organised cross country adoptions (for example to Germany) and don’t support such programs.

  Reason: Although such a measure helps in individual cases, it’s only a short term solution and the energy and resources for doing that (expensive) export of some dogs are better used to help the whole population in the local area.

  Another problem is seen in the export of diseases formerly not known in northern countries like for example the issue of the sandfly and Canine Leishmaniasis imported from Spain.

With the content of our flyer, personal conversations and the information about Care for Dogs on the internet and on our web site, we convinced Mr Reidenbach and his organisation that we are a welfare organisation worthy of support.

Big points we got out of our sterilisation and vaccination programs as well as from our work in the field of education in close contact with schools and all that beside the work on emergency cases and as a local adoption agency.

Thanks

Once again thank you Mr Reidenbach and your organisation the VdH, that we were allowed to show our flyers at your information desk. (It must be said the only organisation on animal welfare abroad !)

We’re proud having passed your test.

Special thanks to David Williams of Sabersaturn for designing the flyer layout.

Care for Dogs hopes that all visitors who take one of our flyers take a little time about “animal welfare while in holidays” and may be some will find us in Chiang Mai, Thaialnd.

Call

There are still a lot of flyers (German language) left and we plan to make further use of them at other places like vet clinics, Thai restaurants or shops or wherever else we find an appropriate place especially in the German speaking countries or German speaking communities in Thailand.

If you as a reader know such a place and would like to take some of our flyers to put them there don’t be shy use our comment option or send us an email, and we will try to provide you with some for distribution.

We would be happy to find more people to promote our ideas of animal welfare and hope you would like to be one of them.