spay project Archives - Hand to Paw Thailand

Why Our Spay/Neuter Program Matters

Troy Roberts — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 03:20:14 +0000

Given that sometimes, people reading these posts have not lived in Thailand, I thought it was worth describing what it’s like for a big majority of street dogs. Just to help explain

Because spay/neuter is still fairly new as an initiative in Thailand (it’s become popular only in the last decade or so; thanks to non-profit groups like Hand to Paw promoting the benefits and offering it free of charge), many dogs were and still are being birthed unwanted. There are an estimated 70,000 roaming dogs in Chiang Mai province (where we are). When they come into this world unwanted (sometimes a street dog has gone inside someone’s yard or under their house to birth their entire litter), people who didn’t choose to have them around are confronted with 6-8 new dogs in their area following just one birth. When any of the females go into heat, the pack fight at all hours of the day and night. The villagers may get annoyed and shoo the dogs away, shoot them with pellet guns so they don’t stick around asking for food, poison and kill the dogs because they’re seen as pests, take the dogs and abandon them in another area, etc.

Dogs who are born on the streets or end up dumped on the streets will walk great lengths to try and find food. Sometimes, kind villagers will leave leftover food outside for them to eat and the dog will walk to and from various food sources to survive. It is absolutely heartbreaking to me that so many street dogs get nothing more than a bit to eat and sometimes, a space out of the elements to stay safe from the sun and the rain. They all deserve so much more protection. But on the flip side, I think that Thailand is one of the kindest countries who openly lets street dogs live outside of 7/11 stores, on parking lots, in temples, and many of the dogs will survive by getting fed by kind and decent people. This is such a blessing.

A great deal of people in areas around us live slightly above the poverty line. Someone told me today that her daughter used to go to public school up the road from where they live in Chiang Mai. The mom befriended one of the teachers who told her that the public school required photos of the school children’s home and bed. She wrote: “some entire families are living in a hut in one room on a mattress that is worse than anything I’d give my dogs. The kids have not eaten when they get to school and the school meal is all they eat. The school provides a toothbrush tied to a string and that time at school might be the only time that they brush their teeth.” So when a family who is barely surviving themselves, offers a bowl of rice and bits of fish to the street dog suffering outside of its gate… I can’t help but be moved by their kindness. And I don’t criticize when they simply can’t afford to take the dog to the clinic when it gets hit by a car or cancer starts to spread. That’s when we step in.

With 70,000 dogs considered street/roaming dogs just in our province alone… we have to look at the bigger picture. Creating a shelter and taking the dogs in would realistically only work for a few hundred dogs until the shelter was overwhelmed and funds were drained. Instead, what we strive to do is to offer mass spay efforts, and to offer it free of charge and through mobile spay days. We have a team of 6 vets who, 3-4 weekends a month, will sterilize 40-60 animals a day, in various regions. In the last 8 years, we have surpassed 15,000 spays. We need to keep going though! Every litter that is born on the street is a series of catastrophes waiting to happen. Alternatively, each female dog we spay helps increase her own chances of survival plus ensures that hundreds more dogs aren’t born just to suffer.

We also offer temporary medical care to these street dogs. When people in the community flag up that a dog needs help, we come and assess and provide medications and treatment to the dog in its own environment or, for more severe cases, we take the dog to the clinic, returning the dog afterwards to the only place it knows as “home”. Treating dogs where they live allows for the dogs to be less stressed as they recover, and since we do much of the wound care ourselves, we save on costs!

Mass vaccinations of these street dogs (who often remain unprotected unless we intervene) is also a huge priority. With so many dogs getting into contact with other street dogs, one Distemper or Parvo case can wipe out a whole neighborhood of dogs. I get so stressed to know that it continues to happen, even today.

We are grateful to the kind people in Thailand who offer food and a bit of protection for the dogs. We then serve to double up the support by coming in and spaying, vaccinating, and offering help for medical emergencies.

If you want to help us make a difference, donations are the best way to show your support! You can reach us at paypal.me/forThailandanimals or WISE email address: HandtoPawThailand@gmail.com

We receive no government support for the work we do and all rescues and projects are funded through private donations. Veterinary care in Thailand is much cheaper than in other countries though, so we can stretch your donations and help many!

We are a registered Foundation in Thailand and also a 501c3 in the US follow our page and be part of our success stories!

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Chiang Mai Spay Day Preparations

htpadmin — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 06:37:52 +0000

☀️ This afternoon, we went all around Mae Tang, Chiang Mai, (north of where we are) getting ready for our spay day this Saturday in the area. We spoke to villagers about picking up their animals, looked at where to set traps Friday evening ahead of the event, and distributed food to villagers who are struggling financially, some because of the recent flooding ❤️‍🩹

🐾 In the process, we found a little sick puppy 💕 we’re off to the clinic to get her checked out! She’ll be up for adoption once she is recovered: momma is sweet and they are all small sized. The people who look after them are very poor and would love to see the dogs go to good homes 🙏

Can you can help with a donation towards our work?

Free Sterilisation Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/freesterilization

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Chiang Mai Spay Project – Hand to Paw Thailand Helping the Community

htpadmin — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 03:32:50 +0000

📣 Thanks to your recent donations, 139 animals were sterilized in our area today by our Hand to Paw team!! 133 cats and 6 feral dogs from the military camp ♥️
🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕
We saved the life of one momma cat who had been in labor for 3 days too ♥️
None of these animals will ever again contribute to the overpopulation of cats and dogs in Chiang Mai, Thailand 🇹🇭

We would love to get more funds raised for 1-2 more cat spay day events before the end of the year! Villagers always ask us to do more 🥰 we are keen to reach our goal of spaying 1000 cats just this year! If anyone can help with a donation towards this, please do 💕 we need to raise 150,000 baht ($4500 USD) to do an extra 300 spays to make this possible! Each cat spay costs us 500 baht ($15 USD) and every single one we do has a massive impact so let’s do a few more! 🐾

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Trapping Feral Street Dogs for our Chiang Mai Spay Project

htpadmin — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 03:26:05 +0000

Although our focus today is on cats (140 cats registered for our spay day!) Jules PsyinThai and I were out at 11pm last night setting traps for one group of feral “street” dogs nearby too ♥️ 6 dogs trapped!!! These guys are all on the side of the road, recently dumped as puppies.

Hopefully that will make a huge difference 🥰

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Another Successful Spay Day in Chiang Mai

htpadmin — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 02:45:43 +0000

⭐️ We are out making owners and animals happy and healthy!!

51 extra cats and dogs were sterilized by our team today!! 45 dogs and 6 cats who will never contribute to overpopulation ever again 💕
🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕

We’re always on the lookout for more donations to help us cover the costs of cat spays, medications and blowdarting 🙏 today, we blowdarted a super difficult dog to catch, we surgically repaired a big tear on the testicles of a dog, we treated two dogs for pyometra, and several dogs were treated for fleas and mange (including the dog in the photo!). Can help with a donation, thank you!

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Hand to Paw Spay Project – San Kamphaeng – 47 Spays

htpadmin — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 03:49:22 +0000

More and more spays today!! Registration is closed and we are at 47 animals for the day 💕 that means 107 animals were done by our team just this weekend!

47 animals today: 43 dogs and 4 cats who will never again contribute to overpopulation! 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈

A big thank you to all who support us to make this happen, including Soi Dog Foundation 🙏

A big thank you to Ryder Goldman, Ally Taylor, and Robert Franklin for helping set traps and collect cats and dogs with me today 🥰

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Hand to Paw Spay Project – Suthep – 60 Spays

htpadmin — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 03:36:23 +0000

🐾 Our team is super busy this weekend with two big spay events! We are in the Suthep area today and San Kampaeng tomorrow 🙏 each spay day is offered in a different part of the district in order to help make it easier for owners to bring their animals to us!
60 spays done today already and quite a few animals treated for mange or pyometra 🥳 50 cats and 10 dogs!!

🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕

As always, we are really struggling with funds for more cat spays! Whilst we have enough for another 100 in two weeks, we have no more afterwards and we are really keen on doing more since the need is tremendous! Each cat spay is 500 baht (about $15 USD) and we would love to do another 400 to reach our goal of 1000 cat spays a year! If you’d love to help, send me a PM 🥰

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Feral Dogs – Soi Dogs – Street Dogs

htpadmin — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 03:03:26 +0000

This photo shows the feral dogs in San Kamphaeng that we went and trapped at night and spayed the next day. One dog went to the clinic the following day since she was the last young female needing to be spayed on this road and was trapped after we finished our spay event ♥️

The dogs’ surgery happens on the side (called a flank spay instead of an abdominal spay- the vets shave the flank and remove the uterus and suture everything from the side) to avoid any complications if these dogs chew their sutures post-spay. We cannot put cones on roaming dogs as this would likely cause them to get road accidents. A lot of care needs to be taken to do the spay as safely as possible 💕

The locals are usually kind to the dogs and feed them. So our role is to come in and trap, vaccinate, neuter, and release. Together, we work well to improve the lives of animals and community members 🥰

No more unwanted babies in this neighbourhood!!

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This weeks spay total update – 104

htpadmin — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:00:04 +0000

⭐️ Yesterday was mega-busy and in a few areas where we trapped feral dogs, we had been unsuccessful in trapping the FINAL remaining female. In a group of 18 dogs, it is a strategic nightmare to try and catch just one remaining momma dog since all the dogs will enter the traps but we are limited in traps, and blowdarting near forested areas (which is usually where feral dogs reside) is incredibly difficult and expensive.

So when we returned the dogs after spay, we kept the sleepy dogs inside the traps overnight and re-set more traps in the area and we caught another 3 females in three different areas!! After keeping them overnight to make sure they hadn’t eaten before surgery, we brought them to the clinic this morning for spay 💕

3 more feral dogs (two in heat) who will never contribute to overpopulation again! ⭐️ yay! 104 spays this week (with possibly two more later this week)!

Though strategically and for the animals this is the best plan, clinic spays are pricier and doing three in a day is expensive 😳 total bill for today will be around 10,000 baht for the three ($300 USD). If anyone can help with a donation, send me a PM!

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Mae Jo Spay Day 75 Dogs

htpadmin — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 09:49:37 +0000

Here are a few snapshots of our spay day today!!! 75 doggies sterilized and quite a few treated for fleas too ♥️ all offered free of charge in order to make an impact on overpopulation. 75 more dogs won’t be out breeding after today 🐾

🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕 🐕

We offer mass spay events almost every weekend 🥰

If you want to be part of this amazing work, consider making a donation! We always gratefully accept donations for crates, medications, cat spays, flea/tick treatment, etc! These events are often the only time most of these dogs will ever see a doctor so it is so important for us to be able to provide extra love and care ♥️

A big thank you to Ally Taylor and Robert Franklin for helping with transportation today and to Jules PsyinThai for coming out with me at 10pm last night to set traps to catch dogs 💕

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