Thread: It's now illegal to abandon animals at temples

BANGKOK, 24th August 2018 (NNT)-People are being urged not to abandon their pets at temples or face legal charges under the Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act and the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act.

The Sangha Supreme Council of Thailand received a letter from the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TSPCA) asking it to prevent people from abandoning their animals at the monasteries.

The growing number of forsaken animals at temples has also prompted the TSPCA to promote better animal treatment and raise awareness of the legal consequences the pet owners could face for leaving their animals at the temple.

To solve this problem, the Sangha Supreme Council of Thailand has instructed all temples to ban animal abandonment and trade on their premises. Anyone caught trying to do so will receive a maximum fine of 40,000 baht and a jail term of up to four years.


National News Bureau Of Thailand | It's now illegal to abandon animals at temples

So the final solution it's a divorce then if only my "lawyer" wasn't baby sitting

You know who you are the Bell will ring

But if you abandon an animal outsied the temple and it wanders inside the grounds of its own free will ......



... will the monks feed them?

What are the police gonna do? May be they could put on covert op's to stake out temples.

Does that include Thai MILs?

the govt. needs to increase the funding to any organization that spays and neuters street dogs and cats.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

What are the police gonna do?

Nothing. It's not Thai law but a Sangha Coucil rule. I don't know where the imprisonment penalty comes from. Or does the Sangha Council have the power to make laws of the land that the justice system must follow? I doubt that very much. The SSC is doing what all Thai monks usually do: Make up the rules as they go and say BS to put fear into the masses.

So, the problem is just moved. Out of compounds where the dogs and cats do get fed, to the streets where they don't get fed and become road hazards and a danger to pedestrians. How very pious of you SSC and how very short-sighted of you TSPCA. Far better to have worked together to formulate a plan that would actually solve or alleviate the problem, such as wats still accepting the animals whereupon TSPCA does something such as what Ray suggested ^.
Regular sermons on the evil of animal cruelty would be a something positive monks could all do.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

It's not Thai law but a Sangha Coucil rule.

If it's not law then how come you can be fined and jailed?

Originally Posted by misskit

Anyone caught trying to do so will receive a maximum fine of 40,000 baht and a jail term of up to four years.

the only response you will get from these evil bastards who dump their pets IS NOT in the thai dictionary F.O.
at least they get fed at the temples.

Originally Posted by headhunter

at least they get fed at the temples.

I think unwanted dogs should be dumped/taken to a temple. The temple should have an holding area, where the dogs are placed, and then collected by municipal workers. Whatever they do with them after that has to be decided. Personally I'd euthanise them.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

If it's not law then how come you can be fined and jailed?

Please read my post and the OP again. I posit that you can not be jailed, and any fine would be voluntarily paid because (I suggest) that the SSC does not enact laws over the people and do not have prisons in which to legally incarcerate people, nor can the Justice Department's prisons hold prisoners who have not broken Thai law.
I'm saying fvck knows where they get the idea of imprisonment from and I suggested it's them (as per most religious leaders) manipulating the masses with fear of something mythical.

Originally Posted by misskit

To solve this problem, the Sangha Supreme Council of Thailand has instructed all temples to ban animal abandonment and trade on their premises. Anyone caught trying to do so will receive a maximum fine of 40,000 baht and a jail term of up to four years.

Or am I wrong? Can the SSC make laws that cover you and me and the man next door? I doubt it.
Or, is the law already established and this story is about the SSC urging temples to follow the law? Perhaps that's it.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I think unwanted dogs should be dumped/taken to a temple. The temple should have an holding area, where the dogs are placed, and then collected by municipal workers. Whatever they do with them after that has to be decided. Personally I'd euthanise them.

Agree with all your points.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I think unwanted dogs should be dumped/taken to a temple. The temple should have an holding area, where the dogs are placed, and then collected by municipal workers. Whatever they do with them after that has to be decided. Personally I'd euthanise them.

me being a dog lover of the highest order,i have to agree with you regading them being euthanised,90% of street dogs have no life,no love and most don't get any food.
these so called buddists can,rape,steel,murder and let a poor animal suffer an agonizing death,offsprings of the DEVIL.

I've adopted 3 dogs plus the pug we purchased.

There needs to be a decision made about what to do with the street dogs that are in a plague proportion on the Darkside of Pattaya.

These poor creatures are not only full of disease but cause many road accidents which are often fatal.

The numbers need to be reduced and if they are rounded up and put down I agree and I am a canine lover.

All domestic located animals deserve a home including an owner who takes care and is responsible for them.

Fully in agreement, but when all the street dogs are neutered and rounded up, expect the rat population to explode..

Originally Posted by kmart

Fully in agreement, but when all the street dogs are neutered and rounded up, expect the rat population to explode..

there are toooooooooo many rats , sorry i meant VETS that carry the parasite satang virus.they want rounded up aswell.

Originally Posted by kmart

when all the street dogs are neutered and rounded up, expect the rat population to explode..

Not at all. Thais eat rats and there's big business in exporting them to the likes of Vietnam.

I don't think Thai eat city rats, and in all my years down south have never seen rural folk eat rat.
Mind you I think it's the cats not the dogs that keep the rat population at bay and fear of a rat explosion is not a good enough reason to not deal with the dogs. Get rid of the dogs and see what happens. If the rat population booms, deal with it.

Once the skins off a rat a rat is a rat. Up here, come November, it is the start of the rat hunting season. Per Kilo they fetch more than pork. I've eaten it myself and posted a photo on 'What you eating for dinner today' thread. I'll try and find it.

Well it is good that they realize there is a problem. Dumping dogs at the temple is a stupid idea and too many Thai think it is Ok. If you dump a male dog at the temple the first day he fights and somebody has to leave. One day a temple dog the next day a street dog. I love dogs, but killing them is better than the slow painful death of living on the street. And teaching Thai to be responsible pet owners will never happen.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Once the skins off a rat a rat is a rat. Up here, come November, it is the start of the rat hunting season. Per Kilo they fetch more than pork. I've eaten it myself and posted a photo on 'What you eating for dinner today' thread. I'll try and find it.

Wow, that's expensive. Must be good meat. I'd like to try it.
As an ex-meat inspector I will mention though that, yes, once the skin's off it's all the same, except for the chances of city rats carrying diseases such as TB and lepto. As an aside, TB is not that bad in meat as the baccilus is killed at around 65C. I forget what it is for lepto.

Stray dogs are beneficial says vet.

Pattaya’s animal-control department says stray dogs actually are beneficial to local communities and that if people are upset over the number of soi dogs, they should look in the mirror.

City veterinarian Surapong Wongsuttawad said Aug. 19 that dog-catching teams, armed with tranquilizer guns, go out regularly to round up, sterilize and inoculate stray dogs. But, due to high demand, they don’t always respond to resident complaints immediately.

Dogs are taken to the city’s facility on Soi 4 in Plu[at]taluang, which currently houses about 1,300 animals.

But Surapong said that no matter how many dogs are caught, the number of strays does not decrease. New dogs quickly take the place of captured ones and pet owners are to blame.

http://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya-vet-stray-dogs-good-neighborhoods-219889

Regarding the discussion on Thai law and punishment...

Originally Posted by misskit

BANGKOK, 24th August 2018 (NNT)-People are being urged not to abandon their pets at temples or face legal charges under the Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act and the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act.
Anyone caught trying to do so will receive a maximum fine of 40,000 baht and a jail term of up to four years.

The two Thai laws mentioned in the OP are:
1. Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act 2557 (2014)
2. Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act 2535 (1992)

English translations are available online and the jail term and fine mentioned in the OP article can be found in them. However, I am yet to find any mention of those penalties being applied to the abandoning of an animal at a temple.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Once the skins off a rat a rat is a rat. Up here, come November, it is the start of the rat hunting season. Per Kilo they fetch more than pork. I've eaten it myself and posted a photo on 'What you eating for dinner today' thread. I'll try and find it.