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In an effort to transform the lives of Thailand’s stray animals, Soi Dog Foundation has launched a new mobile sterilisation team starting operations in the popular tourist hotspot of Koh Samui.
On prior visits to the island in 2017-18 and 2021, Soi Dog successfully neutered and vaccinated over 9,000 stray dogs. Now, just over 300 unneutered dogs remain, spread across seven sub-districts including Bo Phut and Mae Nam, which would be impossible to reach without their expert intervention.
Launched on Monday 2 September, Soi Dog’s fully equipped mobile clinic will operate across the island throughout the month, part funded by Niall Harbison’s charity Happy Doggo which is based in Koh Samui. This marks an exciting moment for both organisations, which aim to humanely reduce the overpopulation of stray animals, improve their overall quality of life, and prevent the spread of deadly diseases, including rabies.
Soi Dog’s highly successful CNVR (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) programme hit the headlines in 2023 when they became the first organisation in history to neuter and vaccinate one million animals. With the addition of their new clinic, they are now operating 19 mobile teams across Thailand, including Phuket, Chonburi and Bangkok.
“Soi Dog is so proud to carry out the CNVR programme to create huge change in southern Thailand. A high-intensity rotational CNVR programme is the sustainable solution to dog population management in the world today. Reducing dog densities has led to the elimination of rabies cases in dogs, improved animal welfare and created better relationships between dogs and humans,” said Soi Dog ‘s CNVR Director, Tuntikorn Rungpattana.
In addition to Soi Dog’s long-standing partnership with Dogs Trust, who fund 50% of their Bangkok programme, it was announced in January that Happy Doggo had joined forces with the Phuket charity by joint funding two of Soi Dog’s southern mobile clinics, and 50% of their entire southern mobile project from May.
Soi Dog has now neutered and vaccinated 157,994 animals in Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Phatthalung. Since January, a further 24,780 dogs have been reached across all three provinces.
From October, the team will shift their efforts toward Surat Thani, Thailand’s sixth-largest province, joining two other mobile clinics already operating in the area.
