Billy, Valentina And Their Role In Saving Millions Of Street Dogs

Figuring this stuff out isn't easy

The hard thing about this mission to save street dogs is that there is no set blueprint. Despite many talented people and organisations trying, the simple fact is there are still 500 million street dogs around the world suffering today.

The problem is so extensive and widespread that it can feel daunting. Where should we start? Often it is with individual dogs like Billy and Valentina but the reality is that saving them will do nothing to address the global problem. So why even bother?

One of the biggest issues I’ve identified is that people start “collecting” dogs. Shelters fill up, not enough forever homes can be found and there is a focus on quick patch ups instead of tackling the core problems… over population and education.

Billy and Valentina are a great lens through which to see the bigger mission…

2 Dogs With No Hope

This week we came across 2 dogs who desperately needed help. They were both at death’s door…

Billy

• Slashed and left to die as he was nearly blind

• Staggering around with poor balance and PTSD

• Needed MRI scans and extensive hospital treatment and tests

• Has heart worm that will take 6-12 months to treat

Valentina

• Extremely emaciated

• Blood tests revealed anemia and blood parasites

• Fungal infection in ears

• Lost 90% of her fur because of mange

There is absolutely no doubt that within a couple of days or even hours these dogs would have died. They are far from the only ones in the area but I decided to help them as we had some space and they were incredibly vulnerable.

While their rescues took place really big change is also happening and both parts of the mission are connected…

The Real Difference At Scale You Rarely See

While most people who follow love the individual dog stories it is the huge efforts happening in the background that are going to change the 500 million number.

Every single month we are ramping up Happy Doggo to provide funding and support for organisations around South East Asia. This includes…

• 2000 dogs per months are being sterilised

• 6 different locations in Thailand and Indonesia

• We are working hard to add more locations and partners in coming months

• We’ll sterilise a minimum of 30,000 dogs this year stopping at least X10 that amount of new puppies being born into a life of misery and suffering. Yes that is 300,000 new puppies that won’t suffer just from our efforts in 2024.

• Provide food for 800 street dogs in Koh Samui every single day.

If you just scan those numbers without pausing to think how vast they are it can be easy to miss the difference that is being made. Operations for a hundred dogs every single day!

Crazy big already and only going to speed up.

So Why Not Ignore Billy And Valentina And Focus Purely On The Bigger Picture Instead?

Saving the 2 sick older dogs is massively draining on resources. At a very top level…

• Medical bills / Transport and general care will top $3000 at the very least

• 50-100 man hours going into their care / admin / follow ups

• Absolutely no certainty of a positive outcome for either dog

• At least 10-15 hours of my own time personally

With so much difference being made doing bigger picture sterilising programmes the logical thing to do in terms of making the mission a success would be to not help individual dogs. But that would be wrong and here is why…

Connecting The Dots

Seeing Valentina and Billy up close helps with the following…

1. Understanding the problems myself. I think it helps to see the suffering, neglect, abuse and pain the street dogs suffer, You don’t see that from behind a computer screen. I always want to be close to the suffering so I never forget it.

2. Education. A huge part of what I have to do is bring people on this mission with me. The bigger picture stuff can be boring to some, but everybody understands and can relate to the suffering of 2 sick dogs.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that collecting lots of sick dogs would bring the mission to a halt. I could collect 250 dogs tomorrow locally that need urgent help and put them in a shelter but that wouldn’t fix anything.

There is a balance to be struck between helping a few and helping millions.

Maybe The Real Reason For Saving Individual Dogs…

I was sent these photos of Buster by his new owner this morning. After spending years on a short chain and with declining health we managed to get him free and fix his health issues (although he did lose an ear).

Today he woke up with his new owner on his first ever hiking trip. They enjoyed the views of a national park together and he is the happiest boy ever.

The huge numbers of operations we fund, the spreadsheets, the admin, the late nights looking at a computer screen and everything else that goes with this mission is made worth it by the individual dog rescues.

Saving Buster and changing his life for the better won’t fix everything but it makes the soul feel good and helps raise the spirits for the harder parts of what we are trying to do. I punched the air when I saw that photo this morning. You need that feeling in life.

Theres no easy way to tackle the mission of saving street dogs around the world. I’ve made so many mistakes already and will continue to do so. I often lose focus and get distracted by individual old dogs or puppies. I know that is wrong and I should be more disciplined in order to make change happen faster at scale.

It also happens to be an incredibly hard thing mentally. I sometimes think it’s nearly a selfish act helping the individual dogs. I need the dopamine hit of seeing a happy dog saved to offset all the bad stuff I experience and the less exciting parts. Holding a recovered dog is real, tangible and very nice.

I got into helping dogs because thats what I love doing. My selfish dream world would involve helping 20-30 dogs on a daily basis and not going beyond that. That would make me and those individual dogs very happy indeed but it wouldn’t save street dogs around the world at scale.

What makes it all worth it is seeing Valentina feeling and looking so much better just 48 hours after her arrival in this photo. Looking at the life coming back into those eyes is what drives me on and it is worth the odd detour from the huge global mission.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday wherever you are in the world today.

Big Love

Niall

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