Shelter is one of those things that we take for granted until we don’t have it.
As mind-boggling as it might seem to some people, the streets of Thailand are packed with thousands of homeless dogs. However, a group of volunteers is trying to change this.
A project called Stand for Strays is aiming to fight the ever-growing canine population issue in Thailand.
A doctorate student named Ajarn Yossaphon Chanthongjeen noticed the dogs in Pak Kret, a suburb of Bangkok, had no shelter from the sweltering heat or driving rain. He worked with Stand for Strays to come up with a simple solution: Repurposing hard poster boards into basic shields from the elements.
These inexpensive billboards would have ended up in the trash, but now they’re being placed around cities with instructions on how passersby can help stray dogs use them for shelter. There are over 300 stray dogs in Pak Kret alone.
Ajarn started with just 20 shelters placed in different areas of the city. The dogs immediately found the shelters and put them to good use!
A newer design even has spots to hold food and water bowls. Volunteers and neighbors often feed the dogs, so this system makes it even easier. When Stand for Strays shared pictures of the dog shelters on their social media pages, the initiative really took off. Ajarn hopes the media attention will enable them to create more shelters for dogs in Thailand, not to mention other countries where strays are a problem.
While this solution may merely scratch the surface of the dog population issues, it’s a good start towards making the animals more comfortable!
We wish we could adopt every single one of these sweet dogs! It’s a comfort to know that Ajarn and Stand for Strays are actively working to educate the public about prevention and care of street dogs.