How Over 1000 Dogs Per Month Are Now Having Their Lives Changed For The Better
Many more if you count the puppies that won't be born into suffering
The chances are you are reading this because of the uplifting dog content I share on a daily basis. Street dogs who have had a hard start in life but who can make comebacks.
The likes of McMuffin, King Whacker, Tina, Rodney or Jumbo to name but a few. Their stories give us all hope in life and make us feel good but in reality they are the tip of the iceberg. They are the dogs that help me figure out how to save many more at scale.
I’ll explain how by sharing what was achieved in the month of June…
24,000 Homemade Meals Served In The Last 30 Days
The feeding system works super smooth now and the following happens every single day…
800 street dogs fed
Fresh food cooked with rice, chicken, eggs, vegetables and coconut oil
Delivered free of charge to 12 volunteers and shelters around the island
It’s beautiful to think that 24,000 times each month a street dog has the feeling of nice tasty food in their belly that they didn’t have to scavenge for. Long term it improves their health and it means kind dog volunteers have more money for medicines and vet visits.
173 Dogs Sterilised In June
I’ve written often about the main tool in stopping the suffering being sterilising. Controlling the population and getting the numbers of new arrivals down. The problem is that is is expensive, logistically tricky and the dogs often don’t want to be caught.
The quickest way for me to do this is by funding 3 clinics who do this. They are on 3 different islands…
Rob’s Dogs in Koh Samui. PACS on Koh Phangan and the Animal Clinic on Koh Mak. In June alone I was able to provide funding for 173 dogs. If you consider that those dogs might be responsible for 10-20 puppies each that means there are 1000s of future puppies being stopped.
In an effort to try and showcase what that looks like you can see the actual sterilisations on the map here. You can see how small the islands are compared to the rest of Thailand but things are off and running. The monthly totals will continue to sharply increase from here (It costs about $30-50 per dog).
My dream is to see little blue dots on that map in every country in the world. Millions of them. Nothing makes a bigger difference. I also want to find ways to showcase the data and progress so as people can feel like real change is happening.
Seeing a video of Tina makes us feel warm and fuzzy but every blue dot on these maps is dozens of lives saved.
51st Forever Home
With so many dogs on the streets it would be impossible to find homes for even 10% of them. Having said that I’ve just hit 51 forever homes. These include…
Injured dogs like Penny who was abused and tortured
Puppies with little chance of survival on the streets re-homed around Thailand
Dogs like Whacker, Moritz, Rodney and Brad Pitt going to Europe an USA to join Hope, Lottie and Little Squeak who are already there.
Every single dog re-homed changes not only the life of the dog but the humans who invite them into the family as well. The best example of that is seeing Hope in England this summer.
60+ Serious Medical Treatments In June
Street dogs have an incredibly tough life. Because they don’t have owners they suffer from a range of issues. There are snakes, ticks and fleas, cars hitting them, fights, poisonings, human abuse and a whole range of other dangers.
Medicine and vet care is one of the biggest costs but it is vital and often life saving. Some examples in the last month include…
Angelina Jolie who has heart worms and a hole in her head but who is recovering
Tina who is having her life extended with vet care and a special diet
Chicken who arrived at death’s door but who is full of life 3 weeks later
Even more important are the countless dogs who got medicines and care on the streets. Simple tick and flea medicine, dogs being taken for vaccines and simple but life saving treatments.
Serious Momentum Now
The street dog problem around the world is so exceptionally large that it can seem completely daunting. The suffering I see in my own little corner of the island is brutal without thinking about the rest of the country or on other continents where I know the same thing is happening.
The key with any problem though I believe is breaking it into small manageable pieces. If I can find ways to improve on the techniques above and then scale them up really fast with momentum and backing then anything is possible.
The individual stories like King Whacker going to Scotland or McMuffin beating cancer and losing an eye are what we love the most. They show lives changing before our eyes.
The bigger change though is from the 100s of dogs I’ve never met. The 1000s that won’t be born into suffering now because of sterilising. The mums who won’t have to have endless puppies. The street dogs with food in their bellies and no horrible ticks in their ears. The diseases the dogs won’t get because of vaccines and simple medicines.
The month of June was good but this is 0.1% of what I need to do. I spend every waking hour thinking of ways to speed this all up to help more dogs.
As I always say this would literally be impossible to do without all the online support. Tackling this alone would be daunting and scary but I feel like there are people willing me on every step of the way. So thank you very much for that. Answering all comments and messages is impossible but I do see them and they mean the world to me.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend wherever you are in the world.
Big Love
Niall
P.S You can always support by either donating here or just subscribing to this newsletter.
Have a lovely weekend yourself, Niall! I love reading your updates - thank you for taking the time to share. You’re doing an incredible job and creating a wonderful legacy. Please give all the dogs an extra squish from all of us xxx
You should be so incredibly proud of what you have achieved, it’s amazing & you have many supporters backing you. Keep up your amazing work. We love watching you transform the dogs, you also have a wonderful weekend 🐾🐾