Dog Bites

[dozer]

A city wide cull would be difficult to organise, but within a neighbourhood and with the cooperation of like minded residents, both Farang and Thai it can be done.

[Big Boy]

And what do you think would fill the gap left by the culled dogs?

[dozer]

No idea what you are getting at, but then again you’re the lucky tourist who walked around town and did not see one single stray dog.

[Spitfire]

If you only did a certain neighbourhood then you'd have to do it once a freaking year as the endless hoards of wandering beasts would just fill the gap in no time at all. You'd have to do a whole city in short order, thus sending an uncompromising message to all the children in adults bodies that wild dogs will not be tolerated.

Perhaps late at night........



However, as said, that makes too much sense, it'll never happen. Perhaps putting a bounty on dogs heads of 20 baht each to be collected from police stations/designated places would work? The streets would be clear countrywide in short order.

[Khundon1975]

When we lived on Naebkehardt Rd, I liked to get up early before the rest of the household, have a coffee and sit in the garden to watch the sun on the water.
There were a pack of dogs including a damn great bull mastiff, an Alsatian and a snappy little terrier that always managed to get into our front garden and cause havoc. A catapult and some well chosen stones took care of them most days. The 2 largest dogs were owned by a mad lady up the street, so trying to get her to keep them under control was next to impossible, as most of the time she didn't know what day it was!

The back garden had steps going down to the beach and there were BIG packs of dogs that roamed there during low tide, and 15 or so would come up the steps and swim in the 2 fish ponds we had.
In the end we had to raise the sea wall and install stainless steel gates and railings to stop them coming in.

When I locked the front gates at night, I always carried a big boggle thracker (a bloody big stick) with me, just in case. A swift tap on the nose from that, let them know they were not on their own turf.

There was one stupid mongrel that used to chase our car and snap at the wheels, but he never managed to run under the wheels!

[Big Boy]

If you cull the current packs, you are simply inviting the next pack of strays to make the territory their own. There is obviously a food source there (the main reason they're there in the first place), so it won't take too long before that 'free food' is being consumed by the new pack. Cull that pack, and there'll be another pack waiting to move in.

I'm afraid your idea of a localised cull is ill thought through.

Yes, I may just be a tourist, but I know the difference between a stray and an owned dog that is out of control. I have seen plenty of strays in Hua Hin in the past, particularly in the Queens Park area. All that I'm saying is that I did not encounter a single stray during my recent stay - I was walking in the Bon Gai area mainly, but ventured several times into town and the Market Village..

[Homer]

... I've been bitten and come off my bike, ....

bike = bicycle or bike = motorcycle?

[lilmolfie]

I agree Big Boy.

Perhaps it would be easier to cull the ''owners'' instead? Most people around here keep dogs as a deterrent so the owners like them being aggressive. We got our 2 dogs (puppies) for the same reason but I've not trained them to be aggressive. One will bark if she hears the presence of strangers but that's about all she does and I ask nothing more of her.

Most of the strays are there because of humans anyway!

Dogs get dumped at the temples and the monks feed them hence why you'd normally see quite a few hanging about.

[Huahinian]

Observing the patients that I have seen in the emergency room of the Bangkok Hospital in Hua Hin
It is striking that there are a larger proportion of patients than usual with serious Dog bites.
Several have required extensive stitching, daily dressings, antibiotic and anti-rabies treatment.
Do others think that this is a problem??

Dr. Mike - it is a huge problem as several posters have said.

Would iy be possible for the hospital to officially voice their concern to the local authorities? It may fall on deaf ears but, on the other hand, it may provoke some action.

[charlesh]

It has been my experience that Thais (even so called middle class ones) when the dog OR cat no longer looks cute or suffers from some malady gets dumped in the bush or preferably at the local temple for someone else to look after - seems to mollify them (not the animals). They are also somewhat reluctant to spend < 1000 Bht for them to be fixed up too.

As was alluded to earlier - bulk eradication would leave a void which would be filled rather quickly.

The idea however of fixing up their owners does have some merit (pun intended).

[migrant]

Here in Southern California the humane societies are starting to tattoo a ID on the animals. My daughter "saved" a cat and adopted it from the society. It disappeared for a few days and we thought it got run over, but then received a call to please come pick it up otherwise there is a fee to return to the society.

[Homer]

Any eradication program would have to be both ongoing and at the grass roots level. It's residents culling strays near their property. When new strays move into the territory, repeat the cull. Repeat as often as necessary.

In the states we usually categorize dog bites into two types. The first is when somebody does something stupid like take food away from a dog, torment it, advance into a territory after a dog gives one all the warning signs that this is his turf, etc. The second is all other bites. I've had friends agonize over what to do when their dog does the second kind of biting. Many of them decide that once is one time too many and take the dog to the vet to be put down. I agree with them, so I'd also cull the owned dogs that bite.

But I'm a stranger in a strange land. Seems that culling dogs (stray or owned) would have way too high a likelihood of having strong negative reactions from some Thai neighbors.

[VincentD]

Years ago a friend of a friend bought a nice house on a new development. Most of these developments start from the inside and slowly build outward. He was one of the first there, so there weren't too many occupants (except for the workers building the place). The workers fed scraps to the dogs and pretty soon there were a lot of feral dogs roaming in packs.
One day he came back home and noticed practically no dogs around, just a lot of barking coming from a corner of the development.
On investigation, he saw a large truck with a lot of the dogs in cages.
On the side of the truck was stencilled "Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm".

I'm not making this up.

[kendo]

In Hua Hin are there any gated developments with a no dog rule, that could be a good marketing idea.

Kendo.

[PeteC]

Dr. Mike - it is a huge problem as several posters have said.
Would it be possible for the hospital to officially voice their concern to the local authorities? It may fall on deaf ears but, on the other hand, it may provoke some action.

I think that's a great idea. Bangkok Hospital Group has a lot of weight behind it, nation wide. A letter from a top hospital administrator not only to the Hua Hin Mayor but copied to the Provincial Governor as well, outlining the shocking number of dog bite victims coming in for treatment. It can only have positive results, and should be done quarterly indicating numbers are up, down or the same. Keep them focused on it so impossible for them to forget about it. Pete