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POISONING ON KOH SAMUI December 2006 Unfortunately I still hear a lot about the poisoning of animals on Koh Samui. Often it´s about neighbours fighting and, in the end, it’s the poor animals which suffer: chicken-killing dogs aren't at all popular. It’s difficult to do something about these one-off criminals. It’s different when it comes to the hotels. There are many dogs on the beaches of Koh Samui and, as a result, many of them congregate at hotels where the tourists feed them. The hotel managers are not always happy about this and go to awful lengths to control the animal population. I can understand trying to control the situation but I’m sure it’s not in the tourists' interest to poison the dogs. If dogs are killed, new ones will appear overnight; the poisoning process has no long term benefit. Who wants to have a dying dog on their terrace? That’s when the holiday joy disappears and, for animal lovers, the holiday is ruined. Unfortunately many managers still do not understand why tourists don't like dying dogs. Furthermore, leaving poison lying around is very dangerous for if there are children around. We all know that children pick up things and put these in their mouths. I can hardly imagine that it’s the security or gardening staff who feed the poisoned meat to the dogs. Many Thais are terrified of dogs. Furthermore, when a dog sees a hotel worker from afar (particularly the ones who have thrown stones at them or chased them away), I don’t think the dog will just go up and eat the poisoned meat out of the gardener's hands. So, the gardener (or security guard) will just throw the meat down and, when the dog comes along and eats it that is the end of that dog's life. But, what happens if the dog only sniffs the meat and ignores it, having been fed already by some of the tourists? What will happen if a child then finds the meat and eats it? You can get rat poison in every supermarket! I don't want to imply that a member of the gardening or security staff would spontaneously poison the dogs or cats but somebody must be instructing them to do so. Of course everybody else could have done this. Do you and your children want to spend your holiday in a hotel or bungalow resort where they poison dogs and cats? For sure not! Spephanie Utz from Germany made an entry in our guestbook last October and asked me for help. She had to make a terrible experience at the First Bungalow on Chaweng Noi Beach. A dog had to die in her arms after being poisoned. I asked you all to support us with our protest campaign. Thank you very much for your help! We were successful and the management of the First Bungalow has changed their attitude towards dogs and they will even start to feed them. Everyday we can now pick up old bread and they also allow us to leave our flyer on the hotel reception. The management assured me that there will be no more poisoning at the First Bungalow. Apparently they never had anything to do with it so it definitely won’t get any easier to prevent poisoning in the future. But who’s got interest in poisoning dogs at the First Bungalow and on the beach there time after time again?
This is BÄR also known as PLYMUH. He died in her arms. Not only Stephanie is grieving, Dominik from the Galerie La Fajette in Chaweng is missing him too. When Dominik got to know about the poisoning, he sent an e-mail to Stephanie:
From: Dome <plymuh@gmail.com> Dear Stephanie Utz, I am writing to you because I´ve heard about the poisoning at the First Bungalow. I live in Koh Samui and had a dog too. It was a stray dog and always came to me for food and then went back for his tour through Chaweng. I do know that he used to go swimming on the First Bungalow beach. 3 years ago I was there with him and showed him how to swim. Plymuh did not have any fur at that time and didn´t look too good. 3 months later his fur started to grow again. He used to keep going back to that beach and returned at night for a visit. 5 weeks ago he just didn´t come back again. I kindly ask you to have a look at the attached pictures and let me know if this dog was one of the poisoned dogs. I would be very thankful to hear from you. Kind regards Dome
Her reply was very sad for him. The poisoned dog at the First Bungalow actually was his beloved Plymuh
This is the letter Stephanie sent to the First Bungalow (info@firstbungalowsamui). So far she has not received a reply.
Ladies and Gentlemen! Germany, October 2006
This year I spent my holiday in your hotel, the „First Bungalow“. I left about two weeks ago, on September 19th. The resort itself was really nice. But I have to say, that I have experienced much better service on other places. Above all you should think about your breakfast manager... But that is not the most important problem I have with the “First Bungalow”. My problem (and also yours!) is, that you killed the dogs. I am sure you know what I am speaking about! If you do not, I will tell you: Everbody knows, that there are a lot of dogs on Ko Samui. If anybody feels disturbed by them, this person should not spend his holiday on that island. There were also many dogs on the beach of the “First Bunglow”. I want to emphasize the word “were”, because they are not there any longer. Three of your beach dogs and especially one of them stayed with me for one week. I called him “bear”. He was with me all day and all night, he even went with me by taxi when I drove to the centre of Chaweng. In the morning of September 18th “bear” had breakfast on my terrace. Then he went around the corner (I had room number 204) in front of the hotel. He came back 30 seconds later, so I am sure that he was not far away, he was on the ground of the “First Bungalow”. He came back and went in my room. I wish you had seen what happened then...Perhaps you could understand how I am feeling. He started shaking, vomitting, putting out his excrements. It was horrible! After nearly one hour of death throes he died in my room. It was terrible to see the fear in his eyes. I guess I do not have to tell you more details. Just imagine that situation and think about it! Do you feel anything??? Imagine the next situation: you go to breakfast and there is a dead dog lying on the way (in the resort of the “First Bungalow”). What a nice holiday. I want to mention, that it was also one of “my” dogs. He died lonely in the night or in the early morning. Like “bear” he died because of poison spread by the “First Bungalow”. Fortunately I left your place the next day, not to forget that I did not see the third dog anymore. And why? He was also killed by you. I think you could have solved your “dog problem” in another way. Why did you not ask for help at the “Dog Rescue Centre”? I was and I still am thinking a lot about your behaviour. (I have much time for this, because I do not sleep very well anymore. When I sleep, I have terrible dreams. When I wake up I think about the dogs. When I go to bed I think about the dogs. And so on.)
I also was thinking about Buddhism and reincarnation. I am sure, you all will be reborn as worms or dogs in the “First Bungalow”, time and again, always! You will be punished for what you did.
You can be confident that I will inform as many people as possible about this incident! (Newspapers, animal forums, animal magazines, travel agencies, etc.)
I expect an answer from the management.
Yours sincerely,
Stephanie Utz
This is another interesting letter from Mogens Hansen regarding this subject.
Hi
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