The History of Soi Dog Foundation

Oh my gosh, what an incredible opportunity. This foundation is the most kind hearted place I've ever visited. Let me rewind though to how it all began.

The history behind the Foundation

In 2003 a woman named Gill Dally came over to Thailand with her husband to retire, until they both noticed the epidemic of stray dogs and cats out here. They decided to spend the rest of their retired years serving these poor animals riddled with disease. They created their own mission statement which was the building block of Soi Dog. Their Mission Statement is "To improve the welfare of dogs and cats in Asia, resulting in better lives for both the animal and human communities, to end animals cruelty, and to ultimately create a society without homeless animals."

With the foundation only being open for a year, it took a toll for the worst. In 2004, Gill Dally lost both legs from, septicaemia which she contracted whilst rescuing a dog from a flooded buffalo field. Less than a week after Gill's release from hospital the Tsunami struck. From this they lost a major volunteer who was killed whilst giving aid to the tsunami victims.

Many expected the foundation to close after these tragedies but with the eyes of the world on the region from the Tsunami. 50 volunteer vets arrived over the following 3 months and Soi Dog worked around the clock operating clinics not only in Phuket but throughout the region. From the vast work they had been carrying out they received recognition and several awards from amongst others; the Humane Society International and the prestigious Elizabeth Lewitt award.

They then received some more help in order for them to really start growing as a charity. WSPA had organised a Tsunami appeal, and agreed to finance the foundation’s sterilisation program for the next 2 years, which resulted in Soi Dog being able to employ; 2 full time vets, full time dog catchers and nursing staff. From this they saw a rapid increase in the number of sterilisation's carried out, this was going to help kick start them as a charity.

After a few years they were able to buy a big plot of land in Mai Khao, Phuket where they built their very own sanctuary for dogs and cats. The sanctuary grew and grew, their main aim was obviously to help the animals but the couple really wanted to see Phuket get declared as a rabbis free province, and stop the dog meat trade.

Soi dog started to campaign, and raise a huge amount of awareness about the cruelty going on in the dog meat trade. They took their campaign online naming it the 'Trade of Shame' and were flooded with attention. With a strong petition in their hands they took it to the Thailand government to have it made illegal to buy, trade, sell or consume any dog meat. In 2014 they achieved this goal of theirs and the 'Trade of Shame' was made fully illegal. Unfortunately, they did not get much help from the local authorities of policing this law, so once again they took matters into their own hands. They patrolled boarders of Thailand which is where most of the trade went on. To this day some dog meat trade will continue, but it is very minimal with only a few dogs getting through the boarders in order to get sold as meat (usually going out of Thailand to get slaughtered).

In the same year as this amazing victory, Phuket was fully declared as rabbis free. As a foundation they were leaping from strength to strength. In the mean time during all of this they were receiving a good amount of volunteers but are always enthusiastic for more. Gill the founder of Soi Dog was thrilled to see the donations rising, they were in great need of better facilities at their home base in Mai Khao. As of January this year they were able to build a $2 million dog hospital, where they had all the equipment needed to test and nurse these dogs back to health. Daily they're still carrying out a large amount of sterilisation's, but now they do not have to travel in order to operate on the dogs or test their bloods. This is only going to help them grow and expand as a charity.

Unfortunately, a few months before we arrived. Gill has passed away, but I was blessed to hear that she got to see the new hospital open. 2016 saw a record number of 64,734 dogs and cats sterilised and Soi Dog Foundation has now sterilised over 150,000 animals since it was founded 14 years ago. May this year the Soi Dog team are now replicating what's been done in Phuket in neighbouring provinces.