A Positive Message From The World Of Dogs

I think we all need it right now

The world feels very heavy right now, dark even. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling that as I scroll my little black depression device while having my morning coffee.

Even in messages and chats with friends I get a sense of unease, tension and rising anger about a variety of issues.

I wanted to give everybody some hope through the lens which I see the world ; Through my interactions trying to save street dogs…

Things I Witness

Trying to help street dog is an incredibly hard thing to do. I can’t even begin to explain some of the things I have to see. Recently they include…

• Dogs being poisoned en masse

• Dogs being shot

• Seeing a dog beaten to death in India

• Dogs being abandoned dying from road accidents / diseases and cruelty

• Dogs being slaughtered in a detention centre

What links all of these cases is human involvement and they are the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I share. One major reason I choose to help street dogs is because they are a species that humans domesticated and who then became loyal to us. Dogs are very bad at caring for themselves and need our help but like so many things in this world, many humans discard them, abuse them and move on.

If you think the world is tough for us right now then you should see what it is like for street dogs! But there is hope…

People Also Give Me Phenomenal Hope

It would be easy to cast all humans as bad. Thats just not what I see. I could pick from 100s of examples I see on a daily basis but three recent stories pop into my mind that are dog related (and in the pics below)…

• Trooper is a young dog who had 48 hours to live after eating rope and plastic.

• Britney was abused by humans and padlocked with her puppies. She was broken

• Maximus was also chained up, close to death and supposedly “vicious”.

Humans put them in those positions but it was also humans who saved them and gave them hope…

• Trooper had his life saved by a series of operations that were funded by the community. He made it because Jam drove with him for 14 hours to Bangkok keeping him alive en route. He has had about 30 kind humans involved in saving his life to date.

• After 3 years of rebuilding her life with us, Britney found her hero in Sam. He flew to Thailand to adopt her and he is training her and giving her the happy life she never knew she could have.

• Maximus got wonderful treatment from our large team and is a gentle giant. He is adored in his forever home with a Thai family.

There is so much bad in the world but it is more than balanced out by all the good. Look at the smiles in those photos. I see that in messages, real life and around dogs every single day X100 despite all the stress and bad situations I often find dogs in.

Fixing Big Problems Needs Hope

To me It feels like the world lacks any sense of hope and optimism at the moment.

When dealing with dogs it would be easy for me to become bitter and lose all hope. To respond to dog abusers with outrage and to scream at those who are indifferent to the problem. That feels to me how much of the world is behaving right now on a whole range of issues. It doesn’t really get you anywhere constructive.

There always has to be dialogue, education and differences of opinions. Maybe I am stupidly naive comparing everything to dogs but to see the suffering they face and the odds they battle against yet they still constantly bounce back with optimism fills me with hope.

Take little Chance for example who was stabbed in the stomach 4 months ago but look at her now.

We Can All Learn A Lot From Dogs

I always think we can learn a lot from dogs. Kindness, loyalty and compassion to name but a few of their best traits.

More importantly they often bring out the very best in all of us humans. If you’ve ever been to a dog park you’ll know what I mean. You’ll often find yourself talking to all sorts of people you might normally never say a word to. The race, age, sex or status of the other person often fades away as you stand there gushing over dogs with big silly grins on your face.

Dogs bring us together in the most wonderful and meaningful ways and that is true online also. I believe one of the biggest reasons we have so much division, hate and animosity in the world is because of social media algorithms. People disagreeing is good for business for the platforms. Social media feels so toxic to me at times that were it not for the dogs I would delete it fully.

In fact one of the most surprising parts of this mission is the impact the positive dog content has had on humans. I see what we share as injecting a little positivity into the online world to keep everybody sane. I know from many messages I get that the dogs offer a little ray of light in many people’s day among all the gloom.

Since I started this mission we have funded the sterilizing of over 100,000 dogs, fed over 1 million meals to street dogs and saved 100s of lives. Those things are tangible and real but the longer it goes on the more I realize what I am actually trying to do is change human behavior at scale.

To do that means to offer a vision and a mission of hope. Not one coming from a place of anger and frustration no matter how much I feel those emotions myself from tough situations.

In tough times when I think it is impossible I’ll look at dogs like King Whacker, Buster, Phoenix & Faith, Billy, Rusty or Candy. All dogs who were at rock bottom. To see them now shows that with hope anything in life is possible.

I know these might just be some words about street dogs in Thailand but I think we all need to grab onto as much positivity right now. Things will always get better in life and as the dogs show there is always Hope.

Take care of yourselves and spread a little positivity in whatever way you can to dogs but also to fellow humans. The world needs it right now.

Big Love

Niall

P.S You can support the mission by just subscribing to this newsletter or donating to Happy Doggo here.