CNVR (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Release) Program: Koh Samui

SAMUI CNVR PROJECT

(Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Release)

In September 2020 we launched  the Samui CNVR project – This was a partnership between RDF and our friends at DCRS – Dog and Cat Rescue Samui Foundation.

This was a really important project targeting the islands HARD to catch dogs.

This program was run by Bev who worked tirelessly over the 6 months to get as many dogs done as humanly possible.

Dog overpopulation creates human – dog relation issues, and often results in abuse such as poisonings which we are currently seeing all across the island.
We know that elimination programs are not the solution to population control and the only ethical and humane way to tackle overpopulation issues is through sterilization.

We used a variety of methods to catch these dogs, and it can take anywhere from hours to days to catch just one dog! Bearing in mind that just one unsterilized female dog can generate 67,000 puppies – its time very well spent.

First we survey the location where the dog is – to see if there are any areas we can trap the dog, we also ask if there are people living close who know the dog and can touch or feed the dog. If there is no possibility of this we look at different methods to catch the dog, we have a trapping cage, which isn’t often successful as street dogs are way too smart to just get in cage because there’s food in there.
The team will try using a noose pole or a net to catch the dog, we also try having sleepy stuff in the food, if none of these methods are applicable, as a last resort we will dart the dog.
This is a last resort because it is very expensive – the darts themselves are ฿700 ($32AUD) per dart, and while they can be reused, they often get bitten by dogs trying to pull them out or the dogs run away with the dart in them and we can’t find the dog again. Then we need to fill the dart with enough anesthetic to put the dog to sleep – this is also very expensive average cost is ฿200 ($9AUD) for a standard sized Thai dog. So just to dart a dog costs nearly ฿1000 ($45AUD) not counting the wages for the dart man or paying for the sterilizing.

We had a list of over 100 hard to catch dogs that we wanted to get done over the course of 6 months – the project has now wrapped up with the arrival of Soi Dog – we did 92 dogs over the course of the project  – which is just amazing given how hard to catch some of the dogs on our list  have been.

We spent  ฿98,160 ($4,138AUD). Getting all those 92 dogs done. The program prevented the birth of 48,106,000 unwanted dogs on Koh Samui.

We plan to continue this important work after Soi dog finished their island wide project  – as there will need to be maintenance program in place so that we don’t get another population explosion.

Pop Up Sterilization Events: Koh Samui

Rob’s Dogs ran a pop-up sterilization program on Koh Samui from June 2019 to January 2021, this project helped to stop overpopulation of unwanted street animals.

It was a very small grass roots movement that operated without overheads and relied on donations of time, money and supplies. They ran at least one community sterilization day every month, sterilizing 15 animals, focusing on females.

Sterilizing those 350+ animas made a huge impact within the community, as one un-sterilized female dog and her offspring can theoretically produce 67,000 puppies over 6 years and one female cat and her offspring can produce 370,000 kittens in 7 years.

This project helped to stop the cycle of unwanted litters. It also aided in halting the suffering of thousands of animals who are very often thrown away or left to starve.

In addition to preventing unwanted litters, this program provided very important health impacts to local communities as many cannot afford to sterilize their pets and street dogs/cats.

Check all the photos in our Facebook album