I love dogs. I always did and I always will. I guess everyone has got their passion, and they are mine. For as long as I can remember I have begged my parents to get me a dog, where I could play with and take care of. Five years ago, my wish finally came true and I got my own furry best friend on paws. However, not in all countries they share the same opinion when it comes to animal rights. Unfortunately, some cultures don't view at dogs as a pet, let alone a friend, but rather as a working tool or even a nice dish. Of course you have to have respect for different cultures and their traditions and beliefs, as not everyone will be like you and that is OK. However, even in the countries that do torture dogs, many people feel bad and protest to change this. During my travels abroad, I have experienced several cases and I tried to help out my fellow friends as much as I could, as I believe that these animals shouldn't be tortured in no country.
Moving cats and walking dogs at Animal Rescue Center Vietnam
For this reason, during my time in Ho Chi Minh I visited an animal rescue center for one day in order to volunteer and educate myself about animals rights in Vietnam. I will never forget this experience, which has tought my a lot and I felt really lucky to be part of helping them, even if it was for one day. The animal rescue center I visited was called ARC and rescues both cats and dogs. It's run by a vet and therefore not only a shelter where they keep the rescued animals, but also a vetenary. As they just opened a new cat house, first I helped by moving the cats into their new homes, where they could acclamatise. After this, the vet took me and the others who were there to lunch, as we waited for his colleage to come with the dogs. During this lunch he told us a lot about his practice and the animal rights in his country. He explained that it is very difficult in Vietnam to strive for animal rights and as he loves all animals so much, he has devoted his whole life to rescuing them. However, sometimes he feels he is the only one and as long as there aren't restrictions or rules it is very difficult to change the situation.
During the dog walk later that day we were told that dogs and cats have a hard life surviving in Asian countries, including Vietnam. Especially in Hanoi it is custom to eat dogs. At first, although I couldn't think of eating a dog myself, this is part of culture and where dutchies can eat cows and chicken, you can't really get mad at this. However, the way they treat the dogs is a whole different story and goes beyond all boundaries. As they believe dog meat tastes better if dogs get beaten first, the dogs get dramatically tortured before they get killed in inhumane ways. An even worse story that was told, that I truly hoped wouldn't be true, is the fact that many dogs get stolen from their owners whereafter they get sold to restaurants, which in fact is a crime. I cannot imagine my dog being stolen from me in order to get money from it in an industry like this. However, unfortunately this is the cases in many Asian countries. Luckily, many people are against it and at the time people were petitioning in order to make stealing dogs an official crime. If the petition would be won, the government would introduce a new rule which would make people go to jail if they would steal dogs. Although this doesn't solve everything, it is definitely a step in the right direction.
Yery, the traumatised dog from the dog killing station in Spain
Another case closer to home took place when I lived in Spain for five months. Although Spain is a little more familiar to the Dutch culture, also here animal rights aren't fully developed. Therefore, many stray dogs end up in the infamous notorious dog killing stations. If someone doesn't pick it up within an amount of time, they cruelly kill the dogs by gassing them. Luckily, also here people strive to help these lovely animals and a lot of volunteers campaigning in order to save the dogs. However, they need a lot of help from other animal lovers. And that's where I stepped in ;). As I was living in Gandia Spain for five months, it was the perfect time to voluntarily adopt a rescue dog and give him a temporary home, before the organization could fine him a forever home in Germany. This felt awesome, as this way I could help a dog getting out of the killing station, and I missed the presence of having a dog around anyway. It sounded like a win-win! However, once me and my roommate picked up the dog, it seemed more difficult then it looked like in the first place. The poor dog was severely traumatased and was too scared to be alone, so it even followed you to the bathroom. The first few hours he didn't want to be touched, but as more time passed by he really opened up to me. Ater a few days, he even came up and laying next to me as I was working on my laptop. It feels so lovely once a dog who has been through hell still builds up the strength to show you he does trust you, as a human being he trusted before has done him so wrong before. The latter was unfortunately the reason why I couldn't keep Yery for the whole five months. As he was so afraid to be alone, he started crying once you left him. At night, he could sleep at my room, but after the weekend I had to go to University again and I couldn't go to University without him crying and howling. I realised I wasn't the right person to help the poor dog and the organization searched for another person who had experience with traumatised dogs and devoted his job to this, so he wouldn't have to be alone. I never heard of what happened to Yery, but until this day I still think of him and I truly hope he has found the loving home he deserves.
The next step: devoting my Master thesis to my passion
It may be no surprise, but a dog lover like me also keeps an eye of these animals whilst traveling. Coming from a country where there are pretty good rules and regulations when it comes to pets I immediately notice the amount of stray dogs and cats when I'm in Southern Europe. We might all notice the stray pets in Spain or Greece, but what many tourists don't know is that before peak season massive killings are carried out in order not to "bother" tourists and maintain the image of a nice holiday destination. However, stray dogs are still a problem in a country like Greece and during my travels here I always notice them and I immediately feel petty for them. I am not alone in this and previous research has shown that actually a lot of tourists are affected by the presence of stray animals at their holiday destination. Either they feel sorry for them, or they are afraid that they bring diseases like rabies. Research in Mexico even showed that tourists are less likely to travel to a country which deals with the problem of stray animals. This got me thinking about my own experiences in Greece and led me to an amazing and interesting thesis topic which suits me perfectly. Therefore, I will devote my next "dog experience abroad" by devoting my Master thesis to do research about the impact of stray dogs on the image of Greece as a holiday destination. Although this will only start in June once the field work is completed, I am looking forward to investigating this topic. If you want to know more, stay tuned for a little while...
