Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Chiang Mai Dog Days

Text : Martha Berner
Images : Apirak

Symbiosis in practice

At 79 years of age, Roshan Dhunjibhoy is a vibrant woman. She stands not more than 5’ 3’’ tall, but with a beaming smile and glowing eyes her presence is anything but small. Before moving to Chiang Mai, Roshan lived in Germany for 30 years where she worked as a documentary filmmaker for a public television station. Disappointed by the privatization of German television, the political journalist began working for the Foundation of the Green Party of Germany (The Heinrich Böll Foundation), and became Director for South Asia. With projects all over Asia, the work eventually brought her to Thailand, and to Chiang Mai. In 2001, with three dogs and one cat in tow, the native Indian made Thailand’s jewel of the north her new home.

TEight years later, the animal lover not only cares for seven dogs and one cat at her Chiang Mai home; she’s also the founder of Lanna Dog Rescue, a Thai organization dedicated to institutionalizing a sustainable, community-based system designed to care for and integrate Thailand’s stray dogs. In regard to this, Roshan comments, “The best NGO is the NGO that makes itself superfluous.”

Now seven years old, the NGO helps provide medical care, vaccinations, and sterilizations for abandoned, sick, and destitute dogs, and works with local animal hospitals, often paying the hospital fees of abandoned dogs brought in for care.

“We work largely with the local government. Our work is on many levels. One is, we sterilize with the local government vets almost 1,500 animals a year. We share a shelter with a wonderful American called Mr. Grant Waldman, who has a huge area of 10 rai and a lovely lake and our dogs are not kept in cages, they are just free. The third thing is what we are trying to institutionalize with two Or Bor Dors (Tambon Administration Organizations). We have a five-year project, a pilot project, which starts from counting the dogs, because you have to know the problem first, interviewing the people about what their problems with dogs are, and then sterilization and slowly going to the community taking over the care of stray dogs. And the greatest source of dogs is not the puppies, it’s people abandoning dogs. So it has to have a huge educational backup. It’s a human-created problem. And it’s a human-created solution in a way. I’ve been to many countries and I’ve never seen people look after the stray dogs so well as they do here.

“Now we have about 35 municipalities who are working with us. We have created two competitions [along with the government] and they’re very popular. One is a competition for the best rabies- prevention, because the government of Thailand wants to be rabies free by 2020. Last year only ten [municipalities] joined. This year 35 are joining, so it’s growing. We are also supported, technically, by two big international organizations; WSPA, World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the other one is the British RSPCA.”

But the NGO isn’t just looking out for a better future for Thailand’s dogs. Roshan has completed a certificate allowing her to train dogs which can be used for therapy. For some of Thailand’s elderly, tasks and exercises required to keep their bones and muscles healthy can become very dull and monotonous. However, such healing exercises can also be performed with trained dogs. By throwing balls with dogs and walking the animals, our older brothers and sisters can exercise their fingers, hands and legs in a fashion conducive to creating more joy and satisfaction. Later, dogs can also be integrated as companions to help battle the sense of loneliness that can sometimes increase, as we get older. “It’s a bit foreign to Thais, but people are beginning to realize that dogs have enormous healing power.”

Moving to Chiang Mai wasn’t much of a culture shock for Roshan. “I’m an Indian, so this culture is not strange for me. It’s very much based on Indian culture.” However, even this speaker of at least seven languages found theThai language to be more than she’d bargained for. “I find the language very difficult, I must say, more difficult than Chinese. Chinese I learned quite easily, but Thai is very difficult.”

When asked about some of her favorite parts of Chiang Mai, Roshan responds, “It’s a culture which is very humane and kind and I think the whole idea, that’s very high in Thai society, of borijak, of giving, does leave a kind of trace on the whole place. It is a culture which nourishes, which gives to others, and has a thought for others, institutionalized in the culture. And I think that’s wonderful. And I think we can learn a lot.”

And indeed, Roshan does love Chiang Mai. In fact, it is her perspective on what this means that really resonates. “I always think, if you come to live in a place, if you come to live in a society, you have to give back. This is my way of giving back. At the end of my days, if I can say that we have institutionalized and made a difference in laws and things, and bylaws in this city. I’ll be more than happy.”

As for foreigners arriving in Chiang Mai and perhaps making it their new home, Roshan has this sound advice. “The most important thing is, don’t only take. Give back. Every society, even in the West, has needy corners somewhere. I don’t believe that all foreigners are rich or anything like that. That’s a legend. The main thing is, give of your service and give of your time. It’s a way of saying thank you for all the advantages that this city gives us, its beauty and its wonderful food, the nice people. It’s a way of just saying thank you.”