According to a representative of the dept. of Livestock, all dogs will be immediately spayed as a first step in solving the ongoing problem.
“Many people have been bitten and intimidated,” said Anusarrn Homkajorn, director of Chiang Mai’s Office of LIfestock.” There are two camps here which we must satisfy – those who are animal lovers and want to ensure we treat them well and people who do not like the fact that these dogs roam around and cause trouble. I have ordered this to be an urgent issue. This week we will go to inspect the area and study it to see what we are dealing with. We have also invited Chiang Mai University representatives and hope that they can work with us to help us to manage our stray dog population, as CMU has been hugely successful at managing theirs.”
“There is no point moving them away as new stray dogs will simply move into their territories,” he continued. “We need a long term solution which may take a few years.”
He went on to ask the local media to please a spread the word and ask people not to take on pets if they can’t care for them and end up leaving them to become a public nuisance.
“I have seen these dogs terrify people, sometimes ganging up on people so they can’t move for half an hour,” said 62 year old food vendor Prapasir Boonjum. “I personally love dogs and I feed them. But I admit that we must have a proper solution. I once saw someone drop off 14 dogs here, simply leaving a message in a box asking people to care for them.”
