A look at the Tiger Cave Temple stray animals
I constantly refer to the Tiger Cave Temple complex in Krabi, Thailand because it is our greatest success story in the decade that we have been in operation.
It's one thing to tell people that sterilization and vaccination is important to stray animals but another entirely to have it be something that they can actually see in action.
The Tiger Cave Temple has always been a place where strays would be dropped off and often these populations in the past would quickly get out of control as all females that possibly could would have pups. Then there would become a food shortage and aggression and disease would thin the population to a manageable level. While this does work as nature tends to, it is not an ideal result.
Nature does have a way of sorting itself out and I once was told by a veterinarian and biologist that explain these sorts of things that this is the very purpose of parasites and other such nasties that tend to only appear when a population is larger than it should be. In nature situations like this wouldn't be so common because the competition for resources would make it necessary for packs to have as many offspring as possible for the preservation of the group as a whole. These days though, that is not what happens in urban environments like Krabi.
These days in places like the Tiger Cave Temple, there are some level of handouts and digging in the trash that goes on with the dogs and this will become and easy source of food. It isn't great food though and it comes at a price which is parasites and stomach worms, all of which can cause a great deal of suffering and eventual death for almost all but the strongest members of the pack.
With the simple introduction of basic health care and sterilization of the dogs and cats at Tiger Cave Temple, we have proven both to eye-witnesses such as the monks who live there and various concerned government officials, that by simply sterilizing all the females when they arrive, we eliminate a majority of the problems that come along with overpopulation of stray dogs and cats.
Nowadays, we very rarely have outbreaks of disease or even an outbreak of fleas for that matter, because since the population is known and controlled we can make sure that these dogs, who are still homeless for the most part, have a pretty fantastic quality of life.
Prior to us tracking and treating this situation at this and other temples, it was kind of just assumed that the problem wasn't getting bigger because the animals would just die out. That's a pretty callous way of looking at an issue that can be solved with just a little bit of intervention.
we hope that one day the success we have seen at Tiger Cave can be used as an example all around Thailand and that some sort of mass sterilization program can become the norm and maybe even sponsored and encouraged by the government. For the time being, we are just pleased that this one small part of Thailand has seen such a tremendous turnaround for the over 100 dogs that call it home.
We couldn't do it without our donors, volunteers, and of course the monks. So to all of you, thank you!
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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