Tharinee Wipuchanin has her hands full. Many eyes train their attention on her, many mouths are howling for attention and many tails are wagging. The phones are ringing off the hook but, instead of high-risk business deals or lowbrow community gossip, there are concerned animal lovers on the line. The calls are all about cats and dogs.
Ms Tharinee is on the other end of the hotline: She is one of those who answers the calls when Brunch readers decide to help our friends in need. She is the founder of Pic-A-Pet4Home, an animal shelter in Bangkok that is among those that have featured in Brunch for more than six years. Her home office in Ratchadaphisek Soi 36 has a 300m² yard which serves as a temporary home for about 100 strays.
Since establishing the shelter in 2004, Ms Tharinee’s devotion to the animals has meant a gradual retreat from her food-testing company.
“I stopped working in the office quite a while ago to start taking better care of my animal friends,” Ms Tharinee said. “I’m thankful for my colleagues because they love these animals too and understand what I’m doing. As time goes by, they have become more and more attached to these cats and dogs. Some of my office mates didn’t even like dogs before they worked here, but when they interact with them every day, especially with the dogs, they just gradually fall for the lovable nature of these animals.
“Really cats and dogs know how to impress us. There are times when I act tough to discipline them, but then they appear too adorably guilty.”
Pic-A-Pet4Home was started with the aim of helping to rehabilitate stray cats and dogs and then to find them new homes. Ms Tharinee has been helping strays in her area for more than a decade, and has recently expanded her rescue efforts across Thailand.
Cats and dogs at Pic-A-Pet4Home come from many places — streets, temples, clinics and the place that seems to be the most popular spot to abandon animals recently, the Or Tor Kor market in Chatuchak.
When asked why she began rescuing animals, she replied, “Well, I guess it’s for the same reason as other pet helpers. I adopted the first dog because I sympathised with him.
“After that, the second one and the third one came, and before I knew it saving homeless animals had become a part of my life. Then I just couldn’t watch them starving on the streets any more without doing anything to help.”
Even her first pet was a shabby street dog. Her father never allowed her to buy a dog, but she raised street dogs anyway. Any time she tried to bring a dog home she would get scolded — although this never stopped her from trying.
“Most of the dogs in my childhood were Thai breeds. I remembered I was even bitten by one of my dogs that had rabies. I guess you can say that I've been around dogs since I was young.”
Only after making a home of her own — and not needing her father’s approval — was she able to adopt strays.
Ms Tharinee then introduces her old mate, Duang, one of the first street dogs she brought home. Duang is now 17 years old and in poor health. He can’t do much except lie on the floor breathing wearily.
Ms Tharinee reveals just how tough Duang is, explaining that he has kidney disease and other health problems, including an abnormal bone growth on his back.
Despite gaining immense satisfaction from helping the animals, there is an intense workload that comes with running a sizeable shelter.
Ms Tharinee’s day starts early. “I usually start the day by cooking food for my cats and dogs and feeding them, while my assistant, Auntie Kaew, cleans up the urine and excrement from overnight. After that we provide medication for the sick ones, and dress the wounds of the injured.”
There is not much time to relax in the afternoons, either. Every day Ms Tharinee needs to take at least one or two of the animals to veterinary clinics for examinations, vaccinations or sterilisation.
The fact the shelter is in suburban Bangkok means it was almost inevitable there would be problems with neighbours, but Ms Tharinee has taken all reasonable steps to reduce nuisance sounds and smells.
“We used to have up to 140 dogs and cats here,” Ms Tharinee said.
“Such a crowd did create an undesirable smell and noise that would affect the surrounding neighbourhood. I laid a concrete slab, cleaned up after the animals more often and even had some of the dogs undergo debarking operations — all to prevent the annoying sound and smell. Still, the neighbours’ complaints reach me from time to time.”
For the sake of peace, Ms Tharinee separates cats from dogs completely. The front yard is occupied by more than 20 large, healthy dogs who run around wagging their tails cheerfully. The seriously ill and injured animals rest inside the building for special treatment or are under the care of vets at clinics.
As well as being hard work, it gets expensive. The not-for-profit shelter is run mostly on Ms Tharinee’s money, although she receives occasional donations from generous supporters.
“The shelter and rehabilitation process are a considerable financial burden. The cost of food is one thing. But more than anything else is the cost of veterinary care, especially medical treatment for dogs and cats that have poor health even before I adopted them.
"The clinics that I regularly take the pets to, however, generously give me discounts, and that helps relieve some of the financial burden,” Ms Tharinee explained.
Ms Tharinee claims most of the cats and dogs here are tame and always listen to their caretakers. She says one of the keys to maintaining order is always being in control — the leader of the pack — and never submissive.
“Dogs that have been here longer sometimes act as leaders. But I never feel as if any of them get particularly jealous of each other. The truth is, I’m not the type of person who spoils pets. I do, however, have my own way to ‘introduce’ newcomers to the dominant ones. What I usually do is put a new one in a cage first, and then let the others sniff around or bark at him as dogs instinctively do as they get to know new friends.
"After seeing that they can get along, I’ll release the newcomer to join the group. From what I’ve observed, I believe that if the owner spoils their pets or acts too submissively with them, there will be a lot of problems — from trivial aggressive behaviour to massive fights. So what I always keep in mind is that I have to be the one who controls them, and never let them control me.”
When asked about the dogs’ names, Ms Tharinee said, “There’s no particular reason behind them. Mostly I name them after what is popular at the time they are brought here, like the name of the popular characters in Thai dramas. If they are brought in in groups, I might use the names of fruit or flowers. Actually, there was a black puppy, an ex-member of our shelter, called Luk Yee [velvet tamarind], but her new owner changed her name to Berry,” she laughs.
“My favourite?” she pauses. “I don’t think I can pick a favourite. I guess the pets that I ‘favour’ are the ones that need a lot of looking after. Well, take Bella for example [pointing out a black chihuahua that has come to greet me]. Bella is probably one of the dogs that I feel most protective towards. When she was born, her mother didn’t hold her in the mouth and breast-feed her like other mother dogs do to their newborn puppies. Bella then stopped breathing for a while. Fortunately, one of my juniors found her just in time. I rushed to give her CPR, and it worked. She started breathing again.”
Even though Ms Tharinee deals daily with one of Bangkok’s most visible social problems, she still feels a rush of anger every time she come across abandoned animals. Often, they are dumped in paper boxes or plastic bags, or left to fend for themselves in an open field. This clearly frustrates Ms Tharinee.
“Those people thought they were competent enough to have pets but they were not. When it’s time to abandon them, those people always remain anonymous, secretly leaving their pets and just getting away with it as if nothing has happened. It’s frustrating to see the consequences of their boredom and plain irresponsibility," she said.
“After all, these animals need to be handed over for help and support from someone. I believe that if they were with me at Pic-A-Pet4Home, they would at least get the opportunity to have a better life, and the chance to be adopted by someone who loves them. I’m always blessed every time I hear from people who adopt pets from here telling me how their cats and dogs are now living happily, being loved by their family members, or joyfully rolling on comfortable cushions.”
Also disheartening for Ms Tharinee are the municipal dog shelters in Bangkok’s Prawet district and in the province of Uthai Thani to the north. Every three weeks, she takes pet food to Uthai Thani for the dogs in the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s dog shelter there.
“You know there is the 1555 hotline, which the BMA set up for people who feel they are not able to take care of their pets to call and ask for assistance — well, more precisely, to ask if the BMA could manage to ‘relieve’ them of their responsibility,” she says.
Indeed, the slogan is: “If you can no longer take care of them, just let us do it instead.” The municipal shelters also declare that their officers take very good care of the pets, provide a safe habitat with good hygiene and safe practices for the dogs’ well-being.
However, Ms Tharinee sees it differently. “The BMA’s officers say they would look after the animals in the shelter well. They say they have clean cages. But what I’ve seen is almost the complete opposite. It’s very crowded and dirty. The cage distribution is so poorly organised I wouldn’t want to imagine the illness that could spread there.
"It looked as if dogs and cats there are left to fate. It would be surprising if someone can find love and compassion there, I would say. When they clean up, they just splash water into the cage, not even bothering to remove the puppies first. As a result, the puppies were all shaking because of the cold water ... and excrement and pellet food just gets melted and mixed together. I’m not saying their pet policy is completely bad. I do see their good intentions. However, aside from telling people to take their unwanted pets to them, the authorities need to encourage pet owners to get their pets neutered as well.”
Ms Tharinee has one more message for anyone interested in having a pet.
“Raising a pet is not something that just comes and goes overnight. They will be with you for about 10 years or more. These pets are willing to love you unconditionally, but do you consider yourself to be well enough prepared for them? One thing that you have to keep in mind is that they don’t stay as cute puppies or kittens forever. As they’re growing up, their physical features change, they eat more and their faeces gets bigger.
"Attention and responsibility are really important, as well as financial support, because as I mentioned earlier, these dogs and cats do get sick and need to be taken to veterinarians once in a while. Most importantly, if you don’t wish to be burdened any more, you need to have them neutered; otherwise the street animal problems will just increase.”
As for Ms Tharinee’s own future, she sees a day when someone else will have to take over from her hard work. While she has the ability and strength to keep Pic-A-Pet4Home operating for now, she is starting to feel the strain.
“Now that I’m older, it is getting more and more exhausting, physically and mentally," she said.
"I get to rest a bit from time to time, but then one day I would come across pregnant or rutting dogs again. This cycle is never-ending, to be honest. But letting go of the feelings and compassion I have for these animals is not easy either. It has become my habit to gaze around the street every time I hit the road to look for dogs and pets in need of help. I just hope that what I’m doing will contribute to making this sad problem gradually disappear.”
LOVING HOMES FOR FORMER STRAYS
Siree Chaiseri
Where did you first hear about Pic-A-Pet4Home?
I’ve been friends with Tharinee for ages, long before I decided to adopt five Thai dogs from her. I am also aware that many of the pets under her care were published in Brunch. Tharinee and I got to know each other from charitable activities in which we participated in the past in order to help homeless dogs.
So you are actually familiar with homeless dogs even before adopting the dogs from Ms Tharinee’s shelter?
Yes. I’ve adopted a number of homeless dogs in the past; most of them were abandoned dogs at my workplace. Also, occasionally my acquaintances who were not in a convenient state to raise a pet would ask me to care of their pets.
What is your motivation to help these underprivileged animals even if some of them do not fit the ideal type of pets people would want to have?
Beautiful dogs usually have a high possibility to be adopted and live in comfortable accommodation, don’t they? So I want to give a chance to the underprivileged ones that have been living a tough life on the streets to receive love and caring as well. I personally think that all dogs, regardless of their breed, colour, or physical appearance, are lovable.
How are they now?
They all seem happy now that there is a large backyard for them to run freely. My family loves them, especially my niece, who likes to play with them whenever she visits me at my house.
Jo McGregor
Please tell us about how you get in contact with Pic-A-Pet4Home shelter.
I personally don’t go to pet shops. One of my friends who had adopted a cat from Tharinee’s shelter introduced her to me and sent me the cats’ pictures to see if I was interested in caring for them. Last January I went there and got to meet these two lovely cats in her shelter. It didn’t take too long for me to make a decision to adopt them.
What do you call them?
I call them Ava and Victoria.
Apparently, most cat owners prefer to raise their cats from kittens. Why did you decide to adopt grown-up ones?
I didn’t mind about those things at all. Despite their size and age, they are both gorgeous and good company and that’s enough for me. Eva is one year old, and Victoria is about nine months.
ML Prangtip Prompoj
What kind of pets did you adopt from the Pic-A-Pet4Home shelter?
I’ve adopted three cats, the three Duangs — Duangdao, Duangded, and Duangdee. Since they’re never afraid of the other dogs and cats in the house, I call them “the three bad asses”. Yet they are the best when it comes to flattering their owner [laughs].
Where did you get the information about Ms Tharinee and her shelter from?
I found out about Tharinee’s shelter from the Bangkok Post. Initially, I wanted to adopt a docile type of cat; however, after I meet the three Duangs, I studied the expression on their faces and it just clicked. I could see in their eyes that they desperately want to live with me. When all of the arrangements were done, Carrie [Ms Tharinee’s nickname] even booked a flight to Chiang Mai just to make sure that the cats reached their new home safely. I was really thankful that she did that. Recently, I sent her pictures of the three Duangs and shared their story with her. I guess she is happy to know that they are happy.
How do you describe your style of raising pets?
I’m not that much of a traveller myself. I prefer to stay home and be with my pets. One thing that I always keep in mind is that I need to devote my time and attention to them wholeheartedly, to give them love and compassion they deserve. What I find really amazing about Carrie is she is truly a generous person. She’s always willing to help every single dog and cat she comes across, and doesn’t mind even if they are sick or have filthy bodies at all. I guess that is the difference between Carrie and pet owners in general, including me. I couldn’t imagine myself dedicating my life doing such hard work like she does. What I’ve done for animals is nothing compared to her.
