What A Puppy Is Not

Please Don't Hurt Them

I presently live and work in the third world: Thailand... A country for tourism, money (dollars), drugs, sex and babies.

No, it is not a paradise....
And surely not a paradise for pets. God Bless all the poor creatures who happen to have been born in this horrible place...

Maybe you think it is crazy to feel so much for pets when there is so much to do about people.
For me, it is been a revelation, I can do nothing for the people here. I have tried for years to get a job with the UNO, which -- I still believe -- has the power to turn things around. But my little self has no utility for people here, because they are difficult to like, they have so little affection and feelings in them and I can basically say that everything they believe in (money, power, violence, pride, and so many more) is wrong, totally wrong, according to my principles of life.
I do not claim to have the right answers, but I don't know how to live by unlawful or immoral rules, not these ones anyway!
Here are my stories :
My next door neighbors' dogs
My front door neighbors' dog
Girlie, the stray dog
Ben, good-bye angel!
One morning, in Malaysia
Pumpkin, the school cat
Yodi and Nemo
Chica
Here are some good morals
Don't be mistaken : a pup
Stray dogs campaigns
Respect your/any pet

PUPS & KIDS -
STOP KIDDING YOURSELF! A puppy is a lovely little, very little animal. Just like a toy, he sits where you put him, and makes funny little noises and cute little faces...
But, when you get a pup, you get a dog.
The first time I had a dog (Yanka), I put her in the kitchen and built up a blocking so she wouldn't go and get lost in the flat. She was trying her best to get out of there and was looking at me with the saddest eyes she could roll.
I looked at the little animal and it suddenly stroke me. If she was to live for 10 years, I was going to have to take care of her for all that time... Funny I had never thought of it this way before I had my very own pet.
And here is the truth, a pup is not a toy you can just set aside when the novelty wears out. His demands and his needs will last after the pup changes into a young dog, and an old dog....
Sometimes, you hear parents say :"I have to get a pup for my child". I think this is where the mistake starts. You should get the dog for yourself because your kid will have to be taught how to respect the animal. If you start by throwing the property of "the new toy" to his face without him "earning" this very special relationship, well, then there is no chance for respect to take place!
Besides, giving a child the entire responsibility over the animal is not respecting the dog. A pup needs to be taken care of, and needs an adult to pet him.
Don't you see everywhere around you how kids treat puppies, how many of them have a broken leg or a poor health from the lack of sleep because they have been given away to kids. They try, yes, but they are only kids! Did you forget it somewhere along the way?
It is exactly the same as if you gave away your newly born baby to the care of his 5 year old brother. How about that? Let him take the baby for a walk, down the stairs, out of the car.... This is what many parents (who think a pup can educate their offspring) are doing.
A pup is important for a child, and the child is important for a pup, we all know that. But what exactly is important is the love, the ever present affection they share, the availability of the pet makes him the kid's best companion when the parents are busy.
This is a real treasure.
But your family companion is demanding, and needs a lot of attention. When he is a pup, you need to train him, clean him, feed him. You need to be patient when he chews on your new shoes or bites of your hand-bag belt. He does not have the knowledge of an elder dog, and he will do absolutely anything that seems distracting. He will try to eat anything he sees that is small enough to enter his mouth and he will chew anything else.
On top of it, he will not tolerate to be treated with harshness. So, the training process will take a long time. Be ready!
But remember! If your reasons for getting a pup are not well grounded, you need to think about a few questions:
-Do I want a 15 year long relationship with a pet?
-Am I ready to give up a few night sleep for the first days?
-Will I be willing to sacrifice a few of my cherished belonging to this pet's education?
-The pup is cute, but when he grows up, will I still love him?
Question, question yourself, make the right choice. If you are not sure, it might be that you are not ready... yet.

WHY MASS KILLING OF STRAY DOGS DOESN'T WORK? First of all, it is practiced in a tremendously inhuman way, and the animals know it!
Then, when the killing campaign starts, it covers only a specific area. After a while, the dogs of the neighboring areas, attracted by the vital space, will come and settle down, increasing the stray population more and more because they have more and more space to multiply.
The result is the opposite of the expectation.
Mass killing is not efficient, because it neither stops the multiplication of the stray animals nor the proliferation of infestation.

THE BURDEN OF STRAY ANIMALS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Stray animals are a problem everywhere. But in developed countries, laws exist to solve the problem.
In developing countries, stray animals are abandoned unwanted animals or offspring from the neighborhood pets etc...
They are a burden because of diseases they carry and also because of their aggressiveness. Since they are very small, they have been used to being mistreated by the two-legged. So they tend not to be very friendly when you cross their territory.
Here are a few examples of what I see everyday:
-Dogs quietly sleeping by the road side, suddenly kicked by a guy on a moped.
-Kittens used as footballs
-Pups thrown in the river to see if they can swim. Eventually, people throw stones at them, to help out.
-Pups thrown in the bin truck (to surprise the bin men)
-Stones, sticks, saucepans being thrown at dogs, because they are barking.
-Dogs being slowly ran over by cars because they are in the way.
When a "crazy" psychopath dog is reported because he bit a kid for example, the authorities engage in a killing session : shoot all the animals in the area, smash their heads with bats, and if they are small, drown them or put them in a plastic bag and bang on the floor.
When you see this once, when you realize the happy excitement this distraction generates in your neighborhood, you start wondering who is a human, who is an animal... "It is not human" doesn't make any sense, anymore!
Wouldn't it be better to form vets? To educate people and children on how to care for pets? To sterilize the pets belonging to people, to gather all the strays and either sterilize them or put them to sleep in a decent manner. Then put together a regulation and make sure the law imposes vaccination, tagging of animals with the name and address of the owner etc.? Build shelters and refuges for animals etc...?

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