If you’ve never heard of the Soi Dog Foundation, prepare to be amazed. Several years ago I saw a documentary about this organisation and the great work they do, and I knew that if I were ever near them, I would have to visit.

Well, Jamie and I just had a trip to Phuket, Thailand and so we had a chance to visit Soi Dog’s Phuket facility and take the tour. If you’re ever in Phuket, this is a must see!

After the tour, we were allowed as much time as we liked to visit two of the dog areas and two cat areas.

I took the opportunity to go on Facebook live and explain what Soi Dog do and show around the pens. Check it out:

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/dogmatterstraining/videos/1749830128385284/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”1″]

A few facts about Soi Dog:

In Thailand, people don’t believe in euthanasia so it’s not an option for population control of homeless dogs and cats. So Soi Dog takes a holistic approach and have demonstrated the power of persistent action.

Each day, the Soi Dog team takes dogs and cats from the streets of Thailand, takes them to their shelter, sterilises, vaccinates and tattoos them, then return them to where they were found to continue on with life, minus breeding and rabies.

With this work, Soi Dog has been able to make Phuket the only rabies free province in Thailand. They have now sterilised and vaccinated 178.004 animals.

Soi Dog also works hard to fight the dog meat trade, rescuing countless dogs from the suffering. These stories really made me tear up on the tour.

At the time we visited, there were over 700 dogs in the shelter. Most of them are up for adoption and you can adopt a Soi Dog (or cat) from most places in the world. Some are not adoptable and they live out their days at Soi Dog, which is a pretty awesome life. Their shelter is one of the best I’ve seen, even compared to shelters in Australia.

How You Can Help

Soi Dog operates entirely on donations. Here’s some ways you can assist them with their work:

• Visit Soi Dog’s website to donate or purchase merchandise
• Sponser a Soi Dog
• Adopt a dog or cat from Soi Dog
• Follow Soi Dog on social media and help spread the word

I hope you enjoyed seeing a glimpse into this amazing foundation.

If you’re ever in Thailand, I highly recommend visiting Soi Dog and taking their tour.

Photo credit: http://offshegoes.com/animalvolunteer-projects/great-organizations/soi-dog-foundation/