I see an appalling number of stray dogs, many of which are visibly living with rabies or some debilitating injury. Most shrink away from people in a manner that leaves no doubt as to whether or not they’ve been abused at some point in their lives. They’re hungry, mistreated and suffering. Even more heartbreaking is the high number of unwanted puppies being born regularly because neutering is not widely practiced. Our former landlords own an adult female dog (or at least “own” her in the sense that they feed her and allow her to hang around the apartment complex.) Just after we first arrived in Thailand, this dog gave birth to 4 chubby, adorable little puppies. We played with them, fed them, and basically did everything we could to care for them short of adopting them (and believe me, we talked about this too, but it would have been completely incompatible with our wandering ways). Our landlords treated the animals pretty well by the standards around here, which is not saying much. They fed the puppies, but took no precautions with regards to their health or safety because, in essence, they were a burden. Every one of the puppies died eventually. The most infuriating part is that they were all perfectly healthy, but they died because no one was looking out for them consistently. Did anyone besides myself even bat an eye at this? Nope. It seems like a part of life in Thailand. Pets and strays alike have litters, and most of the offspring don’t survive. So much unnecessary death pains me in ways that I can’t even begin to express.
There are a few street elephants that I regularly see being led around the town. This is an illegal, yet unfortunately common practice is Thailand: owners typically parade these elephants around and solicit people to feed them in exchange for a fee. While I don’t have first-hand experience of what kind of conditions these elephants live in when they’re not working, I can hardly imagine that living in an urban environment, and spending countless hours a day trudging down city streets, is an ideal life for these intelligent animals.