Many groups contact Care for Dogs with the intention of helping dogs in some way or other, but few act on them.

The young people from Global Pact came through and did just that. While other groups in their organization focused their energies on other social issues, this group of 3 Thai and 3 American university students chose to help deal with the homeless dog problem.

After some discussion about where homeless dogs come from and the problem of over-population, we came to a consensus that we needed to nip the problem where it starts – with dog owners. So, we all decided the best way to do this was to hold a village workshop for dog owners. Educating the owners about basic and preventative care and dispelling the myths behind sterilization would insure that dogs with homes would not be abandoned, would not spread disease or mate with homeless dogs and create litters of unwanted puppies.

The young people set off to a local dog-loving temple to organize the village workshop.

The abbot got the word out and on Saturday morning, a group of Care for Dogs volunteers, along with the team from Global Impact and Dr. Tarn, met with about 15 locals an Wat Roi Jan, to discuss preventative health care, sterilizations and many other concerns that came up.

Topics included:
Sterilization: the benefits, what happens during a sterilization, the risks of birth control injections, necessary after-care, the cost and how to set up an appointment with Dr. Tarn along with the use of a 50%/50% voucher scheme.

The terrible and treatable disease of TvT and the local success stories such as Dao, a current temple resident and familiar face to all.

Basic and preventative medical care: vaccinations, tick and flea treatment (to prevent blood parasites), skin problems such as mange an allergies, deworming and heartworm prevention.

After a very informative presentation and a lively question and answer session, and especially after the very graphic visual aids provided by Dr, Tarn, many of the dog-loving villagers were motivated to take Care for Dogs’ offer of vaccinations, deworming tablets, and flea and tick treatment at cost. And appointments were planned for 5 sterilizations soon.

All in all, it was a very successful Saturday morning.

Thank you Global Pact and Dr. Tarn for sharing the knowledge and making a dog’s world a little better. We hope to be able to continue these village workshops in the future.

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