Faces of the Flood
It hasn’t been in the news nearly enough, but there is a major disaster happening in Thailand right now. 20 of Thailand’s 77 provinces have been hit by floods since July, affecting 1/5 of the country’s population.
In a county whose resources are already stretched thin, imagine the impact of this sort of natural disaster on the street dog population. In Bangkok alone, there are an estimated 60-70,000 stray dogs, and they are suffering greatly. Local organizations such as Soi Dog and Wildlife Friends Foundation are beyond overwhelmed trying to rescue and treat these injured and starving pets. My friends at World Vets are, as always, some of the first on the ground, and they asked for my help getting the word out about this situation. From World Vets VP Kyle Baird:
Most of the dogs are territorial so the flooding has displaced them causing them to congregate on higher ground wherever they can find it. One of these places is being called “dog island” by the locals and it is now home toat least 150 dogs who bark and howl when volunteers come by to drop off food. (It’s) crazy.
To make matters worse there is now a shortage of dog food because all of the local food manufacturers are under water and have stopped production. The current rescue operation is going through 2000 lbs per day. Veterinary medical supplies are also much needed and inventories are very low.
World Vets has had people on the ground since last Thursday – two veterinarians and one first responder. They are treating the over 1000 rescued dogs that have been taken to Wildlife Friends Foundation in Thailand. The rescue groups in Thailand have asked us to send more veterinarians in December. This is not going to be going away any time soon.We have already sent $20K in medical supplies and plan to send more with our next team.
If people want to get involved the probably best thing they can do is make a donation to World Vets. Now that we are there we can see which organizations are doing the work and we are passing donations and supplies on to them. One of the really tough issues is getting food and supplies where they need to be. For this reason we are sending all product donations with the volunteers.
How To Help:
I will personally donate $0.50 to World Vets for every share on Facebook, up to $100- let’s get these animals the exposure they deserve!
