Bangkok Farmers Market: You care about the salad, but why not about the dogs?

Despite the heat, the sellers and organisers of the Bangkok Farmers Market still meet regularly, mainly at the K-Village. It already became an institution, and it's growing. The market is actually a kind of expat sell and buy fair, with still some (Thai) farmers, but also a lot of stalls selling natural cosmetics (whatever that is), young Thai entrepreneurs with coffee shops and bakeries, and even a buffalo farm selling Thai made mozzarella.

It a must go for the urban expat scene, the vegans and the juicers. Actually, the products are not bad, and even reasonable priced. There is a butcher selling one of the best sausages I ever had, and a french guy offering finest baguette. I bought delicious shiitake mushrooms and organic basil for 10 Baht.

But there is also a mission. The Facebook page says:

Our mission is to connect non-gmo/organic/pesticide free producers with consumers directly and foster a vibrant community focused around Healthy Living. We support the communities in Bangkok by giving back through education, charitable works, and community programs to bring people together. Our primary goal is to help build strong foundations for communities and focus on life. Working towards sustainability for future generations and our home planet Earth.

Sounds nice. Only that's not really what they do. First of all, I do have doubts if everything what is called organic. You can basically call it organic, since there is no certification or label. But ok, people buy what they want, and if they think it's more healthy, so what. What strikes me is the way animals are treated there, and more important the message that comes with it.

They offered a pony ride for the kids. Cute, see these little horses, and you can even ride on them and they are soooo small. That is the message to kids. Animals are cute. There is zero education about animals and the way they should be handled. So you have the vegan guys next to a Pomeranian dog in a bag. This is wrong.

K-Village is a dog friendly place, what means you can actually take your dog around there, and they have designated dog toilet areas (although I would like to see the faces when I walk in with my pack of five street dogs). Of course, you can't bring them in a restaurant. What actually happened when I had a coffee at Gloria's: A german guy and his Asian girlfriend came in, she carrying a small dog. He told his friend it's the new baby, and despite my guess it would have to sit on the lap the next two hours, the dogs was set on the floor - where he immediately started to mark the new territory.

If the Bangkok Farmers Market really cares about healthy living and education, then it should not promote dogs or any other animals as toys. They once had some animal rescue organisation there with soi dogs, but this time they had a dog in a bag on display next to board games.

Seacon Pet Planet: The Safari or how wild animals are exploited in shopping malls

When I read an announcement about a Safari World at Seacon yesterday in the Bangkok Post, I was curious, so I just went there for the opening. The promotion area in the first floor was turned into a safari camp style arena, with a lot of huts and cages. First impression was actually quite good, well designed with explanations on every cage. But that was pretty much it.

First of all this is yet another event that makes money from the pet shops around selling mainly puppies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and pet supplies. So the whole event is business driven - of course, it is a shopping mall.

While I don't have much of a problem to see a snake in a cage or a turtle, I do see problems seeing a lion cub in a cage, next to a leopard cub. They are for public display, and of course fighting each other through the cages grid. I took picture when they had to use Betadin on the paw of the small leopard.

They also show a leopard baby, and for 100 baht you can hold it in your hand and give him milk.

Also on display are flamingos, deers, some birds and white-faced capuchin as far as I know. In total 35 species as the Bangkok Post mentioned.

So, what is wrong with it?

First of all, I don't think that a shopping mall is a natural habitat for lions and leopards. Not even for flamingos and deers. They were already stressed before the opening, and it went worst after the first hundreds of children and parents came in, passing at around a meter distance, seperated just by the small cage bars. For the lion and the leopard there was no place to hide and rest at all.

Second, a cub is not a toy and it's not a pet. It is a wild animal and needs protection, not exploitation. It is harming those animals to be used as a photo motive.

Also, the whole thing sends a totally wrong message to young (and old people). Animals are displayed as "cute" and cute sells pretty well these days in Thailand. In particular kids will not understand that this is a protected species. They will see it as a pet. No wonder so many wild animals are kept in private zoos and houses in Thailand. And from a generation that was educated this way, we can't expect much efforts in wild life protection or even understanding of it.



So, who brought the animals in? It is the Safari Park Open Zoo and Camp Conservation Centre in Kanchanaburi Of course, everyone can use the term "conservation" in Thailand. Reality is that this is a business that exploits animals. They advertise with "the only place in the world where you can touch and take a photo with giraffes" (They haven't been much outside Thailand, I guess), and if you read comments on Trip Advisor, it gest even worst. Right-Tourism mentioned: "Part of this advertisement was a leopard, it appeared to be drugged, it was extremely docile for an animal of this size – having seen big cats in safari parks in other countries, it was on a chain, there was no water available to the animal."

I wrote an email to Seacon Square expressing my disgust about the show, but honestly I don't expect any answer.

Dogs, dogs dogs - and a few cats at the Pet Expo in Bangkok

We are dog lovers, as you may have already seen reading this blog. So, when there was the Pet Expo at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center announced, we wanted to give it a shot. Although it was allowed to bring your dogs, we decided to just go by our own. A wise decision.

Pet dogs have become a fashion statement in Thailand (rot in hell, Paris Hilton). The smaller, the better. And even if they have four legs, owners don't really let them walk, They are carried on basket, hold in the humans arms, or, latest development, put in strollers. At least they don't share it with the new born baby (yet).
Our five dogs are street dogs, all rescued, and certainly not fitting the profile for the beauty contest. But they have character, and they are allowed to behave like dogs.

What worried me, was a booth with a Soi Dog foundation banner that was selling perfume for dogs. I really admire Soi Dog Foundation and we support them monthly, and I also understand the need of fundraising, but perfume for dogs????? It is stupid because dogs NEED to smell like a dog. It is the main communication channel with other dogs. A dogs fur usually doesn't small bad, except he was in the rain. Also, there is NO need to shower a dog every week if it's not dirty from outdoor activities (and even then, only water is just fine).

But it goes further: Countless offers of clothes for dogs, from T-Shirts to hats, shoes and - wigs! In all colours.

What I kinda liked was a company called HomePet Thailand. They are building dog houses. But it is not the average hut you already know. These are well designed villas, miniatures of the building we live in (see picture). They come with a price: a 1.24 square meter house costs 19.000 Baht.

In case you need some fancy bowls for your pets food, check out Coccola. They have well designed equipment, from wooden bowl holders to finest ceramic, blankest and dog beds.

A very smart move was to sell Condos there. Happy Condo is at Ladprao 101, and the reason they showed up at the Pet Expo was that they are dog friendly. They even have a dog park and a dog beauty salon.

Last but not least we found Pets Ville. They call themself a Community for Pet lovers, but it is a company. However, they will offer a promising range of services from October on. Dog Pool, Dog Hotel, Pet Shop. Grooming, Dog Cafem Pet Taxe and a Dog Park will be set up not far from the airport. Check the Facebook page for updates.

And then some more weird pets:

Meet Puna, our new dog

And then we were five. It all started with Sacool, a paralysed dog I saw at All about Dog when I went there for Yodas swimming therapy. Sacool was hit by a car and lives now at the Ekkamai Pet Hospital, Thonglor 55, Soi 23. I was told he doesn't have an owner, and that the clinic takes care of him. But that wan't the whole story. It turned out that a lovely woman named Khun Noy, who has 13 dogs at home, also sponsor some dogs at the Ekkamai Pet Hospital. This place is apparently known for taking care of handicapped dogs (they still call them crippled). Most of them were hit by a car and left somewhere. and they are all street dogs. Currently they have 20 dogs in care, some sponsored, some not.

After talking with Khun Noy, I got the impression that she doesn't really want to give up Sacool. That was totally fine for us, because we were just concerned about his well being. Know he has a sponsor and someone who regularly visits him was good enough. But no animal shelter in the world would let two foreigners leave empty handed, and so the staff showed us Puna. Her name given by the staff was Noo Dang, Small Rat, but we decided to rename her - to be in line with Pimmy, Pixie and Pipa.

Punas story, as told by the doctors is, that she was hit by a car during the red shirt protests at Ratchathewi, and left untreated. Someone finally brought her to the Pet Hospital, and she is there since. She is about 5-6 years old and a Thai mix. They neutered her and gave vaccines, but for some reason never made an x-ray of her leg. It is broken above the wrist, the paw is totally numb. Since there is no connection between the bones, the paw is flapping around and be dragged when she is walking.

The doctors put a cast around the leg to support it, but that doesn't improve her movement much. After we picked her up, we went straight to Thonglor Pets to at least get a second opinion. Their X-Ray was broken (new appointment for Wednesday), but after removing the cast we could see, that she has a big open wound under it. She also was licking her paw a lot, so it was also open and bleeding.

She gets antibiotics and cream now for the wounds, but will get X-ray on Wednesday. We really want to see if there is any way to get the bones together again. If not, we may have to consider to take the leg of. We saw already that with three legs she is walking fine (she had the broken leg in a sling).

What is quite important for us is that she gets along with our four other dogs. They are still adjusting each other, but very peacefully and respectful. Today they will have their first test being alone for four hours when I have Thai cla,, but I am not much concerned.