Dog shelter needs money to cope withovercrowding

[PeteC]

From page 2 of today's Bangkok Post. Pete
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CHAIWAT SATYAEM

Prachuap Khiri Khan _ Hua Hin is struggling to find money to meet the needs of its overcrowded dog shelter at a local temple and ensure better care for the animals, Mayor Siripan Kamolpramote said yesterday.

His statement was in response to criticism from foreign animal welfare activists over what they saw as maltreatment of the dogs at the shelter at Wat Khao Itisukato temple.

He said the critics, who posted criticism on websites with photos of dogs with severe skin diseases, did not understand the problem.

Mr Siripan said shelter staff do their best to take care of the dogs in their care, adding that photos of the dogs posted on the website of the Canadian Voice for Animals might be of dogs recently dumped there by the public.

He admitted a money shortage was a major problem, but said the municipality was planning to raise funds to build more shelters to cope with the problem.

"I would like to ask people to donate money to buy food and medicines for the dogs. This stuff costs us a lot each year," he said.

The Hua Hin Dog Shelter was initiated by His Majesty the King, who frequently stays in Klaikangwon Palace in Hua Hin. The King himself adopted a stray female dog, "Khun Thong Daeng". His care for her is seen as providing a role model for the public.

Supervision of the shelter was later taken over by Hua Hin municipality which built a new home for up to 800 stray dogs at Wat Khao Itisukato temple. However, there are currently almost 2,000 stray dogs crowded into the shelter and people continue to ask municipal officials to take strays off Hua Hin's streets.

It will take a year for the municipality to build a new shelter, costing 29 million baht, said an adviser to the mayor, Pheraphong Isarabhakdi, adding construction will start at the end of next month.

The Canadian Voice for Animals president Earl H. Earle Bingley yesterday apologised for the allegations made by some supporters of the group.

In a letter sent to the Bangkok Post yesterday, Mr Bingley said he had talked with the Hua Hin dog shelter's Dawn Poole, who clarified the current situation at the shelter to him.

Mr Bingley admitted he had received misinformation and what he did had inadvertently insulted the citizens of Thailand.

He apologised to the King for anything insulting that had been done by the group's supporters.

The page about the Hua Hin dog shelter has been removed from the website.

[DawnHRD]

The dog shelter & HHDRC have nothing to do with each other (apart from we are in that compound). Mr Bingley did make that error in his letter of apology. The apology was mainly because HHDRC had asked him & his supporters to apologise to HM the King for implied & direct insults to His Majesty.

I was at that meeting yesterday, & although a lot of it was in Thai, from what I understood (and from what was said in English) money is not the problem. Management & care is the main problem up there. The photos of the dogs were not, to my knowledge, recently dumped dogs. Our (HHDRC's) main involvement has been because of the insults to His Majesty, which were unconscionable & we completely condemn. This does not, however, mean we think that there are no problems at the shelter, or that we think that ample care is provided. As for money - as far as I'm aware, their budget per dog is roughly the same as ours.