In cooperation with the Koh Samui Municipality and local animal welfare organisations, the Soi Dog Foundation has set up a mobile sterilisation and vaccination clinic in Koh Samui. Together, as part of a project that is expected to operate until July 21, they plan to neuter and vaccinate 6,000 street animals on the island.
Currently, the clinic is based until March 3 at Wat Bo Phut and will resume from March 9-31. Between April 6-28 and May 4-26, it will then switch to Wat Si Thaweep. Finally, between June 1-23 and June 29-July 21, it will relocate to Wat Samret.
Until taking them to the mobile sterilisation and vaccine clinic, animal welfare officers will survey and pick up street dogs and cats from around the island.
Dog owners and street animal feeders are often welcome to the facility to carry their dogs and cats. Dogs must weigh a minimum of 3kg, and cats must weigh a minimum of 1kg. Owners and feeders are often asked to remove food for the animal's welfare from the dog or cat until midnight the night before their sterilization surgery. Both animals will get free treatment, but contributions are gratefully collected and will go directly to the work of Soi Dog to promote the health of street animals in Asia.
Between 2017 and 2018, Soi Dog previously held a mobile clinic on Koh Samui, neutering and vaccinating a total of 8,013 animals. However, the street dog and cat numbers there have risen dramatically following the epidemic of Covid-19, and the foundation is getting a rising array of complaints on the island about ill, wounded and neglected animals in desperate need of aid. Most had owners or feeders who missed their livelihood and ultimately fled the island in the wake of the pandemic.
Soi Dog met with Koh Samui Municipality and local animal welfare organizations in November last year to explore how each agency might better relate to supporting animals in distress and reducing street dog and cat colonies as a whole on a sustainable basis. Soi Dog clarified that the CNVR (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) plan would begin after the collaborative initiative concludes in July if the island is to manage these species on a long-term basis.
CNVR is in the very centre of the practices of Soi Dog and is proven to be the most humane and efficient method of handling the communities of street dogs and pet. The foundation also celebrated, more than any other agency in the country, half a million street animals neutered by its CNVR initiative since 2003.
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