An overview of the recent events at Wat Nong Pla Mon written by Sandy Clyburn, one of the founders of the Hand to Paw Outreach Program at Prem Center Mae Rim.

Several weeks ago a new initiative began at Prem dedicated to improving the lives of the sick, abandoned and homeless dogs that live in the neighbouring village temple.

Our initial mission was to ensure the care and well-being of the dogs at the local temple. This included food and clean water, regular vaccinations, spaying of all females in order to prevent the birth of further unwanted puppies, providing medical treatment as needed, and developing an ongoing observational process to maintain a benchmark of good health.

More than anything else we hoped to give these beautiful attention-starved animals as much love and affection as we could provide. Through activities developed at school, the dodge ball tournament organized by the grade 7 class being just one example, we hoped to raise funds to support our programme, thus making us a self-sustaining organization. More importantly however, we wanted to raise awareness, both at school and in the local community regarding the vulnerability of these animals who survive day by day on the whim and/or goodwill of their human friends.

To date, at least until this week, we had felt that our group had been successful in establishing a working relationship with the Temple monks, thanks to the support of our village friend, Lung Noi and Care for Dogs who has assisted us throughout with their expertise. Ongoing communication seemed to have developed with Hand to Paw receiving calls from the monk in charge of the dogs if there seemed to be a problem.

Thanks to their quick action and our ability to provide immediate response this relationship had developed and become much more productive than we had ever anticipated in a short time. When “Lucy’s” sutures ruptured following surgery a call was received immediately and we had her to the hospital and convalescing at Care for Dogs the same day. As our partners Care for Dogs will always be there to support Hand to Paw.

Two weeks ago we were ready to take the next step in our action plan; to involve the students and make them a viable part of our Hand to Paw team. It seemed without them our chances of success were slim. We needed their enthusiasm, dedication, ideas and manpower. We made our first visit to the temple. It was like “love at first sight”!

Each student carefully selected “their dog” Some of the dogs were given special names. The dogs would be carefully examined by the students during subsequent visits for any new injuries or changes to their present physical condition, e.g. ticks, fleas, bites, etc.

The students would record and keep a diary of their findings and even take pictures. All this information would provide an accurate log of the health of each animal.

It would also be submitted to the Prem sustainability and CAS links on the website.

It seemed we had been successful in establishing a project, a three – way partnership that could be sustainable and could benefit our four-legged friends of Wat Nong Pla Mon. We started planning for the new school year – visits, fund-raising, events, awareness raising. It was all so exciting!

THEN THE REALITY CHECK!

Later that day we were forced to reflect – had we been too quick to celebrate, feeling that we had already achieved much of our mission?

BECAUSE TRAGEDY STRUCK WITH A VENGEANCE WE JUST DIDN’T EXPECT OR COULDN’T ANTICIPATE!!!

…..and we all had to face the grim reality of what life is really like for each and every dog that lives in temples or is homeless and looking for a bit of kindness on the street.

Like many individuals we often have the false impression that if a dog lives at a temple they are relatively safe.

This week we have had to realize through the most heart-breaking of examples that this is simply not the case.

Every day these beautiful animals fight for their very lives, for out there are any number of ignorant, hateful human beings taking every opportunity to exact cruelty and abuse on these helpless, vulnerable creatures.

A CALL FOR HELP!

One of your dogs at the temple has been shot!!! The race to the temple. It is “Mama” dog. She had just been returned to the temple 5 days prior after recovering from spaying surgery and e-canis. She had been so happy to be reunited with her family. Care for Dogs dispatched their ambulance but it was too late for “Mama” dog. A local unknown person had shot her 3 times. She didn’t have a chance. While taking care of “Mama” Joy noticed that “skinny-girl” Star, what a beauty she is, was so badly injured that her shoulder and leg were broken having been beaten with a heavy object of some kind. It was a devastating day for all of us at the temple.

OUR MANDATE HAS BEEN EXPANDED

We have now added the fight to prevent abuse and cruelty of animals to our mission statement. When the students arrived at the temple on Thursday afternoon to visit with their friends two of them were gone. It was difficult having to explain to the students what had happened earlier in the day to Mama dog and Star. They were devastated. For them, as for us, it was a day of extreme sadness. However, it became a day of commitment to our helpless, needy friends at the temple. We will advocate in the village and beyond against cruelty and abuse. Next year at Prem there will be a strong, diligent contingent of students working to better the lives of their “four-legged” friends at the temple. We can only hope to put a stop to the needless suffering that occurs on a daily basis in all of our communities.

Sandy Clyburn

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