The Meatball Dilemma

How do you fix people?

It’s not very often I feel anger when I’m talking about fixing the street dog problem. It doesn’t feel like a helpful emotion given the scale and complexity of what has to be fixed. Anybody who follows along knows we do everything with as positive a slant as possible.

There are 3 cases this week that have really frustrated me and that form the crux of a much larger problem.

These 3 Dogs are suffering because of humans…

1. Momo + Coco

We rescued these 2 dogs from a tiny cage. They were living in their own poop and seriously neglected by their owners. Things were so bad they had heart worms, blood parasites and skin issues.

They stayed with us for weeks as we fixed their health. Earth and our community team went to huge effort to engage their owners. We even built them a large play area which cost $300 and tried to educate them on how to care for their dogs.

We were full of hope. How foolish we were…

After 2 months back with the owners things went seriously downhill…

• The dogs became more neglected

• The owners didn’t follow any of our treatments

• Little Momo started to become disabled in his back legs from parasites

• After a stressful negotiation we had Momo legally surrendered to us but infuriatingly they refused to give us Coco. We tried every avenue.

Although their humans let them down Momo (now called Mr. Stringer) is with my good friend Sybille trying to learn to walk again. He’s a young dog and all of this was avoidable with simple care.

2. Meatball

This beautiful dog came into us 3 weeks ago after some concerned neighbors alerted us. He was living in a small area in a private house with skin issues and dry eyes. Not the most serious case ever but one we thought we could make a difference on with eduction…

• Cleaned him up with medical baths

• Got him a course of medication (antibiotics, creams, eyedrops)

• Educated his owner on his medicines and quality of life

• Planned regular visits for more medical baths and ear cleaning

On our first visit back we found all the medicines untouched, his water not changed for a week and Meatball living in his own poop. Things were worse than before.

We swung into action and had Meatball legally surrendered to us and he is now getting full treatment.

3. Maria

We’ve fixed a lot of miraculous cases with local vets and hospitals. When it comes to the biggest comebacks Maria is probably up there with McMuffin and Shaq. I still don’t know how she survived…

• 15lbs of compacted poop was in her stomach

• The vets did a 5 hour procedure saving her life

• She was with us for months pre operation and recovery post operation

• We gave her owner a full treatment plan and medicines for her to have a happy life

She went home happy, healthy and her outlook fantastic.

This is Maria today. She has just been re-admitted to us. In this case the owner is very caring but she has herself been admitted to hospital. Maria didn’t get her medicines for over 2 weeks. The blockage is back. She hasn’t pooped in 16 days.

Unfortunately because of this and after X Rays at the vets it looks like Maria will have to repeat the operation. The cost will be $2000 and her life will again be at risk. Maria is in agony again and we are all gutted. She can hardly walk.

Who’s Fault Is This?

I know the first thing people will think or even say is… you should have kept the dogs in the first place. That ignores some key points…

• They are all owned dogs on private property

• In some cases we had to negotiate to even give them treatment

• There are cases where staff were threatened

• There are 1000s of street dogs who also need care. We cannot collect all abused owned dogs. Thats not the mission.

I can’t begin to explain the elation we feel when we fix a dog. The whole team were absolutely buzzing when Maria made it through her ordeal. Many of us often have sleepless nights ahead of their operations. The team will come and sit with dogs on their days off. Sybille is up at night trying every trick to get Mr. Stringer walking again. Some of the vets are trying to pull off medical miracles.

Despite all those kind humans the blame can only be laid in one place… humans. We try to give them their health and dignity back but we shouldn’t have to.

How Do We Fix This?

I’d be lying if I were to say there aren’t times where I think to myself “what on earth is the point if people are going to just continue treating dogs like this”. There are times when the anger starts to seep in. How could it not?

That’s when I remind myself…

• Don’t resort to anger as an emotion. That doesn’t help any dogs

• Continue mass sterilization to control populations

• Educate at as large a scale as possible

• Provide medical care for as many dogs in need as possible

• Create a worldwide movement of people helping

There will be comments here that this is a Thai issue. I disagree. If you look at puppy mills in my own country of Ireland or shelters full of pit bulls in America, this is a global issue. Humans need to be kinder to animals.

The hard part is thinking about the dogs we can’t help. Especially Coco. That rips my heart out daily. All I can do is try to get Maria fixed again and find her a new home. Sybille can hopefully work some magic on Mr Stringer.

As for Meatball. He is sitting at my feet in the biggest softest bed he’s ever been in. His paw reaches up to my leg every few minutes for his first ever belly rubs of his life. Luckily dogs live in the moment and he has already forgotten his past. His future is bright.

There are millions of animals (and humans) suffering out there daily. The hardest part is making peace with the fact you can’t help them all or even come close. The key is not getting angry and never giving up.

I won’t.

As always thanks so much for the ongoing support. It means the world to all the dogs we help.

Big Love

Niall

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