Spay/Neuter
Thailand is home to millions of stray dogs and cats.
Soi Dog Foundation was set up to help improve the welfare of stray animals by addressing the main source of the problem – overpopulation. It is widely agreed that the only ethical and most effective way of managing a stray dog population is through a programme of mass spay/neuter, or CNVR (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return).
The CNVR programme began in Phuket in 2003 and was expanded in 2015, most notably to Bangkok, which is home to hundreds of thousands of stray dogs. The Bangkok project is part funded by Dogs Trust and over half-a-million animals have been neutered and vaccinated in Thailand's capital city to date.
Since 2003, the programme has grown from just a handful of volunteer vets carrying out four or five procedures a day to completing over 22,000 procedures every month covering locations the length and breadth of Thailand.
In 2023, the milestone of one million animals having passed through the programme was reached. In all, over 1.3 million stray dogs and cats have now been reached and the programme has become the largest mass spay/neuter and vaccination effort of its kind anywhere in the world.
In 2024, we welcomed the financial support of the Koh Samui-based charity, Happy Doggo, who now jointly fund our southern mobile programme.
The programme is currently active in more than one third of Thailand’s 76 provinces.
Frequent independent surveys of the stray dog population are carried out across Greater Bangkok. The results show a significant reduction in numbers—an average decline of 20%—in areas covered. Moreover, the welfare of the remaining dogs has dramatically improved, with far fewer dogs being underweight or emaciated. You can read the Impact Assessment of Free-Roaming Dog Population Management by CNVR in Greater Bangkok survey.
Vaccination
As important as neutering is to population control, so vaccination is to minimise the spread of potentially life-threatening diseases like rabies.
Vaccination of dogs plays a crucial role in establishing herd immunity against diseases within canine populations.
By vaccinating a minimum of 70% strays in an area you achieve herd immunity. It’s a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune. When the minimum of 70% of the population has been vaccinated, the spread of disease, including the rabies virus, can be effectively controlled, and the likelihood of an outbreak or sustained transmission of the virus decreases significantly.
Vaccinated dogs act as barriers, preventing the virus from spreading to susceptible individuals. This interruption of transmission limits the opportunities for rabies to pass from one dog to another and, consequently, to humans.
Soi Dog's CNVR work in Bangkok has contributed to a marked reduction in reported rabies cases in the city since 2015, and the goal of vaccination is to eliminate rabies in Thailand.