The shelter is not big enough and the budget is too small to keep the facility up to decent standard, Surajit Witchuwan, Chief of Phuket Livestock, told The Phuket News.
“The dog shelter is not big enough for Phuket, which still has more than 2,000 dogs roaming the streets,” Mr Surajit said.
The four-rai shelter is currently home to little more than 460 strays.
Mr Surajit pointed out that after many years of waiting, his office still has not received the promised budget for the shelter to be expanded.
“This is up to the Phuket Governor to deal with, and it has been a long time. I have no idea when this will be done,” he said, noting that the situation has not changed after a long succession of Governors in Phuket.
“Honestly, I want to help solve the problem of stray street dogs in public areas as much as we can. I would guess that for the appropriate shelters and all the medical and other expenses that need to be covered that we need a budget of about B15mn.
“But we don’t have much money. Now we have B1.3mn and that is just for improving the shelters we do have,” he added.
Speaking at the Big Cleaning Day event at the shelter, located in the Bang Kanoon forest in Thalang on Wednesday (Aug 23), Phuket Vice Governor Siwaporn Chuasawad pointed out that Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong has voiced his concern about the island’s strays.
“He wants to help stay dogs so they have better lives, with a better shelter. Their living conditions need to be improved,” V/Gov Siwaporn said.
“Phuket Governor Norraphat has provided a Phuket Provincial budget of B1.3mn to be spent on all areas of the dog shelters. Next, he wants to lead people to make merit by giving food to these dogs and support dog adoptions so they can have new homes in the future.
“This makes for a better life for the stay dogs of Phuket in the future,” she added.
Phuket Livestock Chief Surajit pointed out that V/Gov Siwaporn herself donated B300,000 to help the shelter.
“We are very impressed with that the Phuket Governor and V/Gov Siwaporn has seen what needs to be done here,” Mr Surajit said.
“The money contributed is very much needed, he added.
“Many thanks to the kindness of volunteers who help by bringing strays to the shelter. We have only two elders to look after all the dogs here, and about five to six international volunteers help out.
“Also, many thanks to the Soi Dog Foundation who help and support us, especially with medical treatment for the dogs. They are our good friends,” Mr Surajit added.
However, Soi Dog Foundation co-founder John Dalley in May this year repeated his call that incarcerating strays in shelters will do little to solve the stray-dog problem in Phuket.
“As anybody who has lived here for 10 years or more can see; the number of stray dogs on the island has drastically reduced, and in addition, benefited from being rabies-free,” he said. (See story here.)
“This is due entirely to a large-scale program which has seen over 80% of the island’s dogs sterilised and vaccinated,” Mr Dalley noted.
“All leading world authorities including the World Health Organisation, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation and Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, all agree that this is the most effective way to successfully eliminate rabies and reduce stray dog populations, particularly in countries such as Thailand with large uncontrolled populations of strays.
“The reality is that removing sterilised and vaccinated dogs from the environment, and taking them to dog pounds, actually has a negative effect as it reduces herd immunity to rabies and opens up territories inhabited by sterilised dogs to ones that are unsterilised. It is also economically unviable, but nevertheless, this is what currently happens on Phuket,” Mr Dalley said.