They Tried To Kill Him With A Bullet To The Heart

Luckily it was a happy ending

Big Red is one of 80 street dogs I feed every single morning. He is a classic goofball of a dog. Lots of positive energy, a lovely kind demeanor and not a bad bone in his body.

Most of the dogs are delighted when my moped arrives as it means food but Big Red is one of those who values the human attention just as much as a full belly.

He really is a lovable big guy which is why I was so devastated when I found him shot 5 times yesterday…

An Area With Human Conflict

We made a video explaining the situation to add more context (You can watch it here). In short…

• An old man who owns Big Red has serious addiction issues.

• Floofer, Shadow and 6 newborn puppies also live here

• Some people in the area want the man out. Tensions have been running high

• Big Red wanders the area (causing no trouble at all)

• The man was warned his dogs would be shot. He did not take the warning

The points above don’t covey the anger in the area, the nuances, the poverty or the drugs and alcohol involved. What is easy to understand is that through no fault of his own, Big Red nearly lost his life.

A Very Lucky Boy

You can see from the X-Rays that Big Red has bullets lodged in his neck and near his heart (we’ve learnt from experience this is where they always aim). However against all the odds the news is fairly positive…

• The bullets around his facial area are not lodged

• They missed all his vital organs and his spine

• Our vet will be removing one bullet in an operation this week

• One of the bullets will stay inside Big Red. It is not life threatening and it would actually be riskier to take it out.

• Despite being shot about 5-6 times Big Red has no life threatening injuries and physically he will be ok

What has changed in the last couple of weeks is his mental state of mind. His carefree nature is suddenly gone and I often find him frozen to the spot like a rock and have to carry him. Being shot will do that I guess.

The Mental Strain On Our Team

In the last couple of weeks I’ve personally been threatened with a knife and seen dogs who have been abused and shot. Coconut died and we had to urgently move Thumper.

As our work in the community ramps it feels as if we are coming up against the cold hard reality of dog cruelty.

I’ve also been threatened with the police and immigration (it’s a common threat that people can use as I’m not a Thai resident). It’s fair to say that helping dogs is a stressful pastime.

While I’m not worried personally, I am worried about our team. I’m ultimately responsible for their safety and if someone is willing to shoot a dog it’s not that big of a stretch to turn a weapon on humans. We’ve started working in pairs and taking some small precautions. The dogs depend on us and I’m lucky to have fearless animal lovers with me.

We Have To Fight For The Dogs

In my early days helping the dogs I fed them and that in turn led to Alba’s kitchen cooking 1200 meals for dogs a day. Next up was learning about sterilizing the first 300 dogs in person at the vets. Seeing that made me come up with the idea of partnerships and funding the sterilizing of 7000 dogs a month.

I feel like this latest phase of working in the community is shaping another part of the mission. It would be easy to just start a spreadsheet with some numbers and hire more community people to fix this. To really understand the problem you need to live it. To see it up close. Thats why I like to be out there myself seeing situations like Big Red.

It might seem a bit hardcore but to have a knife pulled on you and to see dogs being shot really focuses your mind on fixing a problem. You have to understand the anger, see where people are living in extreme poverty and battling drug addiction. Only by fully understanding that can you truly find long term workable solutions for the dogs who live among them.

A Silver Lining

It would easy to give up when seeing dogs shot and having knives waved at you. I prefer to look at the positives. We have so many tools to fight back now…

• Thumper and Big Red were both treated by our new full time vet in Tina’s hospital. This happened hours after they got in trouble.

• We have community teams talking to locals in Thai. We learn the full stories and can protect and save more dogs

• Our animal care and re-homing teams swing into action to change their lives

More dogs are being saved and on a daily basis than ever before. We still need more tools (legal / policing) at our disposal and more resources to slow the abuse further but we are fighting back day by day.

I wish there weren’t people shooting defenseless dogs. I wish Big Red didn’t have to suffer the stinging pain of 5 bullets pinging him.

We can only deal with what is in front of us one dog at a time. He is safe and getting world class treatment now and safe at Happy Doggo land where he will stay until re-homed. Thumper is running through a rice field in rural Thailand as safe as can be. We have to focus on the wins.

We can’t ever let evil triumph over good. Every Big Red saved and every small building block put in place is a win. It’s not easy mentally for us but we are fighting hard.

Have a lovely week wherever you are in the world and please know that because of your support we can save dogs like these.

Big Love

Niall

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