Pet Dog Stabbing in Thailand Highlights Confused Attitude

Last month an angry German expat in the seaside town of Pattaya in Thailand stabbed a Golden Retriever to death. The frenzied attack apparently occurred as a consequence of the aggressive Retriever being allowed by its indifferent owners to wander freely and become a regular nuisance in the neighborhood including repeated attacks on the German’s pet Rottweiler as he took it for walks. Understandably, the story has stirred emotions with animal rights campaigners now protesting outside the German’s house (more details here).

There are plenty of discussions elsewhere about the incident and what led up to it but the relevant point I wish to make here is how confused people are between pet dogs and street dogs. The report linked to above includes the advice that foreigners just have to get used to the local tradition of people allowing their dogs to roam freely, but the Thai tradition is actually not to own dogs at all. The idea of keeping pet dogs is a largely imported, modern concept with the more traditional relationship being “village dogs” that wander around communities receiving some food and care from the human residents but not actually being owned. This makes a vital difference in the way dogs behave. As I have discussed before, dogs socialised to people (i.e. pets) are generally much more aggressive than dogs that are familiar with people but not actually socialised to them (e.g. village dogs) but seeing street dogs wandering around makes pet owners think it’s okay to allow their pet dogs to do the same. It’s not, it’s irresponsible and dangerous.

Of course, this is no way excuses the German man’s actions but Thai society needs to understand that there were reasons that led to his violent outburst and that pet dogs need to be kept under control even though street dogs are wandering around freely. They are not the same animal.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)