FWD: Dogged round-up of city strays

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This article is from The Star Online

URL:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/9/14/focus/6274098 & sec=focus

 

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Sunday September 14, 2003

Dogged round-up of city strays

By M. Veera Pandiyan

 

THIS city ain't big enough for world leaders and stray dogs. Bangkok's infamous

soi (lane) dogs are being rounded up as work to spruce up the metropolitan area

for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit next month enters its

frenzied pace this week.

 

To impress the Apec leaders, delegates and some 3,000 foreign journalists

expected to cover Thailand's biggest-ever global event, the Bangkok Metropolitan

Authority (BMA) is also relocating vagrants who sleep on pavements besides

brightening up buildings with fresh coats of paint, clearing garbage dumps and

de-clogging canals.

 

But removing the estimated 120,000 stray dogs in the city poses the biggest

challenge. Since the beginning of the week, packs of dog catchers, armed with

nets attached to wooden poles, ropes and sacks, have been scouring the streets

to round up the mongrels, also known as “temple dogs.”

 

Pouncing on old or maimed flea bags as they snooze can be fairly easy work for

the catchers but running after the sprightly and street-wise dogs in the prime

of their lives can be demanding. When cornered, the quarry can put up an

intimidating display of growls and fangs.

 

“We have to work in groups to catch the dogs, otherwise we can be bitten. Who

knows, they might have rabies,” said a newly recruited dog catcher who only

wanted to be identified by his nickname of Yai.

 

Realising that it would be impossible to corral all the strays, the BMA is now

focusing its operation in just three districts – Phra Nakhon, Pompbrab Satrupai

and Samphanthawong – where most of the crucial Apec meetings will be held.

 

Once captured, the curs are kept in pens under the Phra Pakklao Bridge from

where they are taken for sterilisation, de-worming and vaccination at a pound in

the Prawet district. Their final home is supposed to be a shelter up-country in

Sa Kaew.

 

Most city folk support the round-up of strays, according to last week's poll by

the Rajabhat Institute Suan Dusit poll, but at least one animal rights activist

is barking mad.

 

Veerasak Sunthornchamorn says it is proper to move them but he wants the

animals brought back to their regular haunts after Apec.

 

“Forcing them to stay in an unfamiliar place would be torture,” he said, adding

that he was not confident the animals would be cared for well in Sa Kaew.

 

Ironically, the cause of the stray dog problem in the country is kindness.

Unlike in other places where unlicensed dogs are usually rounded up and put to

sleep, Buddhist Thais who revere all forms of life believe in the philosophy of

live and let live.

 

People tend to feed these “temple dogs” daily with leftover food, resulting in

the creatures breeding rapidly.

 

For some of the strays, it is worse than a dog's life. There have been several

cases in which such dogs were brutally abused and killed. To cite an example, a

47-year-old man was fined Bt1,000 in June for poisoning 48 stray dogs living

near a temple in Nonthaburi.

 

It was an act of revenge. The cart pusher who works in a wet market told police

that six stray dogs had not only snatched the barbecued chicken he had bought

for lunch but had bit him when he struggled to get the packet back.

 

In another case in July, vets removed a 20cm stick pierced into an eye of a

stray bitch that was believed to have been tortured by two men. The Foundation

of the Rescue of Stray Dogs took the animal to the vets for treatment. It has

now recovered.

 

To erase memories of such cruelty, one man from the southern town of Nakhon Si

Thammarat has initiated what has been touted as “the world's first stray dog

show” on Sept 28.

 

Healthy dogs from temples all over the country would be brought to the town for

the spectacle.

 

“The show will be part of the annual festival to mark the end of the Buddhist

Lent. I hope it will encourage people to care more about stray dogs,” said

organiser Sutham Chayankiart, head of the Loving Our Hometown of Nakhon Si

Thammarat Club.

 

Details of how the strays would be shown or who would judge them are still not

known.

 

Meanwhile, the more serious issue of security continues to dog the Thai

government despite the impressive array of measures taken to ensure the safety

of leaders scheduled to attend the summit.

 

Reassuring the world that everything will be all right is proving to be equally

tough. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra slammed an Asian Wall

Street Journal report that cast doubts over the security at Bangkok's Don Muang

International Airport.

 

The report quoted Bangkok-based aviation consultant Frank Skilbeck as saying he

was “horrified by the lack of precautions” at Asia's busiest airport.

 

Skilbeck claimed that “porous security” and a golf course within the airport's

grounds allowed easy access by vehicles to both the terminal and the tarmac

where planes are parked.

 

Thaksin responded by saying the analyst had no solid knowledge of the airport

and had “dreamed up his assessment from his imagination.”

 

However, it is learnt that security at Don Muang was further tightened after

the report and it is likely that golf games will be suspended before and during

the 10-day summit beginning on Oct 13.

 

Sophisticated equipment like laser fences, metal detectors, X-ray machines and

scanners have already been installed at the airport and various key places to

provide the most extensive security ever for the leaders and delegates.

 

Helicopters will patrol the skies while rooftops of high-rise buildings will be

manned to prevent surface-to-air attacks.

 

The country is also ready for worst-case scenarios with crisis control

arrangements that would include negotiators and commandos, in the event of any

kidnap or hostage incident.

 

On the ground, 11,000 police and military personnel will patrol the streets

within the radius of the places where the meetings are to be held.

 

There will be police dogs in action too, including a few very lucky mutts –

former strays that were rounded up and trained earlier this year.

 

 

<li> M. Veera Pandiyan is Editor, Asia News Portal, based in Bangkok (e-mail:

<a href= " veera " >veera</a>)

 

<p>

 

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