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Matters of Conscience |
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Matters of Conscience |
The Starving Cats of ThailandOnce I received an email from someone who chastised me for bringing purebred Siamese back from Thailand. He thought I should have tried to rescue the starving strays of Thailand instead.
It must be nice to be so sure you know everything and can't be wrong.
Not being 18 years old or 25 or even 30 years old any more, I don't have nearly as much certainty as my young critic. I don't like to judge others at any time, but especially not when I know absolutely nothing about them.
Let's look at the facts first.
You can't fly to Thailand and just scoop up a bunch of cats and put them in your suitcase to go home. Thailand has laws about what you can and can't export. The United States has laws about what you can import and under what circumstances.
One of those laws is that the cat has to be healthy to leave Thailand (as well as to enter the U.S.). The cat has to be at least 12 weeks old and capable of easily surviving 24 hours of travel. It's a long, long distance from Thailand to the U.S.
You have to have an export permit issued by the government of Thailand, and that means the cat has to pass an exam by a government-employed veterinarian. I've generally found the Thai people to be capable and efficient, and usually they are honest and caring. The Thai vets in the "livestock office" don't miss much. And Thailand is a tropical country where a variety of diseases and parasites flourish. The Thai government vets certainly wouldn't miss a case of ringworm. They wouldn't fail to notice if a cat was skin and bones and sneezing up a storm. They would tend to notice if the cat had diarrhea or mange or was running a fever. They would get real excited if the cat was frothing at the mouth. Rabies is still very common in Thailand's street cats and dogs.
In short, you can't just up and drag cats and dogs out of Thailand to "save" them. You would have to rehabilitate and vaccinate them first. That would take a lot of time and money. You would have to be well funded by your own private rescue organization or you'd have to be independently wealthy if you wanted to make an extended stay in Thailand and rehabilitate cats and bring them back to the States.
Then there's another factor. Thailand does not belong to the U.S. I suppose that may be news to some folks, but I assure y'all that it's true. :-) They don't necessarily like "farangs" (that means foreigners from the West) visiting their temples (which is where most of the strays are) and then carting the animals away in large numbers. You have to have a relationship with them. You have to get permission. In Thailand, such things tend to take time. In that part of the world, you tend to need friends and relationships to do things.
Oh yes, and most of the "strays" on the streets aren't strays. They have owners. They may be starving and unneutered, but that's only by our standards. Remember that the average Thai family only makes the equivalent of about five to ten U.S. dollars per day. They don't usually neuter their pets, and they don't pamper them or keep them indoors. Nonetheless, if you take an animal that belongs to someone, you are guilty of theft. It's a heavily populated country. Someone is likely to see you and you may end up in jail. Deservedly so. It's their country, remember?
In short, you aren't likely to be able to take even one homeless cat out of Thailand on short notice, such as while on a brief vacation, let alone a large number of them.
And then there's another issue: should you rescue animals from other countries? Is that really the best way to help?
I would argue that, no, it's not. It costs a lot of money to rehabilitate and then ship a cat from Thailand to the U.S. And guess what, there are lots of cats in the U.S. that need homes. For the same money and time spent helping one cat in Thailand, you could help dozens of cats in the U.S.
I know because I have. I have worked with several rescue groups in the Los Angeles area, helping to rehabilitate and place cats. I can only do a few at a time, but over a period of years I have helped quite a few.
If you want to help animals in Thailand, you also have to remember something very important. The human beings in Thailand often need a lot of help, too. If you establish an organization in Thailand, you are going to have to deal with the developing world problems of Thailand at the same time.
In my opinion, the best way to help animals is to concentrate on your own back doorstep, but if you are intent on helping animals in other countries, you should support those who reside in the country and have the cultural knowledge and connections to establish effective organizations there. Beware of charlatans. There are many of those. Give money only to people you know a lot about. Also, make sure that, if you support a rescue organization in a developing country, that organization is focussed on prevention. If all they are doing is rehab for a few animals that are shipped at great expense to the U.S., they aren't doing much. But if they are helping the developing country to establish it's own local adoption network, it's own low-cost neutering services, and its own public education programs, those are things that will eventually make a dent in the problem.
The bottom line: it's worthwhile for breeders to travel to other countries to obtain unusual bloodlines to keep their breeds healthy. They can't easily get new blood any other way. But if rescuing homeless animals is your goal, it's usually better to concentrate on animals in your own country. The money and resources go a lot farther. You help a lot more cats that way.
Cris Bird
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Copyright © 1996-2007 by Dr. Cris Bird of Sarsenstone Cattery. You may not redistribute it in any form without the express written consent of the copyright holder.
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