Written Bitingly by John Irvin                           No. 18                                                  August 1, 1998

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs!

It is the end of July, and we are well into the rainy season. Every year, each season, I have a hard time remembering what it is like in the other parts of the year, so this year I thought I would document it.

Right now, outside, it is absolutely beautiful. It is sunny, with nice little white puffy clouds, and the air is very clear. It would be hard to imagine that there is any air pollution on a day like this. It is not particularly humid, and there is a nice breeze, which feels especially nice to the skin after a shower, in the afternoon. At my house, I can look out at the trees, and just kind of get lost in the lazy beauty of it all. It’s sort of like a gentle summer day in North America, easy for reading a book or just lying around.

Three weeks ago, there was rain every day for about ten days. There was a spell at the beginning of July where we couldn’t see the sun for about four or five days. Everyone’s laundry stayed wet, and it was really depressing. Since then, we have been trading days like that with days of sunshine, although usually there are always some clouds and the threat of rain late in the afternoon. Even yesterday, which was beautiful like today, ended with a terrific rainstorm, accompanied by gusts of wind so strong they almost blew me off my motorbike. I could feel the wind picking up my wheels ever so slightly and moving them sideways across the pavement. I felt luck to make it to my destination without taking a spill.

I must admit that on the nice days like today, the weather is as nice as I have ever seen in Chiang Mai. Certainly the cool season has beautiful days, but this is also very nice. The hot season, from March to May, is just simply too onerous and sticky to be any fun, unless you live under water.

A lot of people overseas may wonder about dogs in Thailand, whether they are man’s best friend, or whether they are some other kind of breed, and whether they are well cared for. I’d have to say right off that many dogs are not well taken care of as a rule, and a lot of people don’t really take responsibility for their dogs, and just let them run loose. There are even some dogs that seem to have no owner at all, and who live by scavenging through garbage, eating whatever they can find.

In Bangkok, I see dogs lying on busy sidewalks, with people walking right over them, so still that I think they are dead. Sometimes these dogs have ugly looking sores on their bodies, or have large patches of hair missing. I don’t know if dog food is very big in Thailand; it’s possible that lots of people just feed their dogs leftovers and table scraps from their latest meal. It certainly looks to me like a dog’s life in Thailand is not a good life, in general.

One of the sort of pastoral things about Thailand is the slow pace of life, even right outside a major city like Chiang Mai. In the village near my house, there are always dogs lying in the middle of the road, as if it were their road, with no thought to the cars passing by so close to them. The road is their domain, and they’ll move out of the way only after a large vehicle makes it clear that it intends to pass through the dog’s "living room." It’s a wonder that a lot of dogs aren’t maimed, but I have never seen it happen.

Sometimes I see dogs being kept in wire cages. I don’t know why this seems inhumane, because we do keep other animals in cages. Nevertheless, I always wish I could let these dogs out. Their yelping and whining is enough to disrupt anyone’s thoughts, and sometimes I have to listen to this at home while I am trying to work.

We also have dogs that come into the classrooms at the university. Sometimes they make themselves right at home in front of the class, and it seems funny to me. The students don’t see anything unusual about it, they just ignore it. But I also remember hearing from a friend’s wife about the wild dogs that used to come into her classroom at her country school when she was a girl. All the students were very scared, and they would get on top of their desks while the teacher went after the dogs with a gun. No fooling around; these were wild dogs, and they were considered dangerous to the public.

I read in the Bangkok Post about a year ago that it was estimated that the dog population has doubled in Thailand in the last four years. If you think about it, that’s quite an astounding figure. Thais are not big on spaying or neutering their dogs, because they feel it is against nature. So, dogs run around and breed indiscriminately, and then we get even more dogs.

Worse, sometimes the dogs I meet are a little less like man’s best friend, and a little more like the dog who bites the postman. I’ve stopped jogging on the streets because of this; in America it would be no problem. I’ve also been chased several times on my motorbike by dogs who just decided I didn’t belong in their neighborhood. Again, nobody takes responsibility for this, nobody comes out of the house, like they would in the U.S. (usually), and calls the dogs off.

Okay, maybe the dogs who chase me, and other foreigners, are just looking for a taste of farang culture. I suppose that, if you’re a dog, there is nothing that looks as inviting as nice, long, sinewy, exposed human ankle. Still, I am not a dog (yet), and I must take the side of the humans in this issue. I don’t like being chased by dogs, especially dogs who don’t speak English.

Unfortunately, the Thais don’t seem to want to recognize that they have a problem with dogs, or maybe they don’t know what to do. It certainly isn’t the worst problem in Thailand, but it could be dealt with fairly easily, if they knew what to do. A farang I worked with told me a story once about the dogs that were barking every night outside his apartment building. One night, they were barking as usual, when he heard a gunshot from outside. He couldn’t see, but he heard another shot, then another, and so on, for several minutes. After that, he didn’t hear any more dogs barking at night in his neighborhood. It is sad when this becomes the only way to solve the problem.

The plight of dogs may improve in Thailand, but it will take a long time, just like everything else. Until then, be careful where you walk, and carry a stick or an umbrella, and be alert when riding a bike, walking or jogging. And if you have a dog, think about how lucky your dog is to have you to take care of it; everyday I see dogs that are not so lucky.
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Next Issue: A closer look at the Thai approach to business and service.

© Copyright 1998, John Irvin

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