How the death of a puppy in a Thai village exposed a clash between a husband’s suspicions, (he knows hill-tribe workers eat dog flesh), a wife’s grief, and the untouchable authority of the monks at the local wat.
What happened to Kitaloo.
Sunantaa rang to tell me that Kitaloo, her one year old puppy, had been killed in a road accident. He had escaped from their fenced garden. Unusually for a Thai, she was very tearful on the phone.
Some monks had said that a hill tribe family had accidentally ran him over and brought him to the temple for them to bury so that he could be born again. Sunantaa’s husband, Surachai, was not so sure.
He employs Burmese and hill tribe workers and knows they eat dog flesh. Despite not believing the monks, he was wise enough not to comment either to them or his wife. That would be a taboo in Thai culture.
His sister had said that she had seen the body in the temple. But when Surachai went to the temple, wat, a second time and asked to see the grave the monks explained that he could not take the dog home for reburial. If it was indeed Kitaloo, he wanted the dog to be buried in its own garden. But Surachai could not go against the monks.
Readers may like this fuller account of Hilltribes in Thailand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_tribe_(Thailand)
And for those readers interested in how I write and want to know more about me, this may be of interest.
https://understanding-thailand.com/about-matt-owens-rees/
Dogs on Thai Roads
There are many dogs on Thai roads in rural Thailand. Although most houses have dogs roaming in the garden, and are usually caged or chained at night, the major problem in Thailand is dogs on the road. .
One often sees a dog asleep in the middle of the road, cars sounding their horns or swerving to avoid. Some are wild or temple dogs. Thais are not allowed to euthanise their pets and sick or unwanted dogs are left at the temple for the monks to care for.
Thailand’s hot weather probably makes dogs lethargic and not want to move out of the way of approaching vehicles. They may be clever enough to realise drivers will do all they can not to hit them.
Motor cyclists have a similar view that cars will make way for them!!
Some nasty man hit my dog
I was surprised some weeks ago when I read on Suda’s Facebook page, just under a picture of her son’s pet.
“Some nasty man hit my dog”
Today she told me what had actually happened. Her husband had hit Lamyai for misbehaving. Whether it was appropriate or not is questionable. Shaking the dog immediately after the event and saying “no” in a firm voice would probably have been better.
But I now understood her comment on Facebook. She was blaming someone else and not criticising her husband.
It is the Thai way of taking out one’s frustrations and anger without involving the person you are really annoyed with. You may notice it a great deal in Thailand. It is called prachut in Thai.
The Thai is actually directing his venom against the person who has wronged him. He is letting him know what he really wants to tell him if culture allowed such openness face to face. One’s rage is projected at another person, animal or an inanimate object.
The person, animal, or object is being made the scapegoat in place of the real target for anger. It is a means of staying friends with someone by not directly chastising the person who is the real object of your displeasure.
Suda was blaming the “nasty man” but not her husband. The anthropological term is projected vilification.
Thais fear dogs
One of my neighbour’s, Geng, has designed and built an ornamental water-driven rice grinding machine. It will make an eye-catching water feature.
Traditionally, water pours into the cups of a wheel which makes it turn and power a hammer-like device which repeatedly grinds the rice. They aren’t used anymore and they needed a great amount of water to turn the huge wheel.
Geng came over to check where I wanted it positioned. He was petrified of one of my dogs, Nam Som.
She has a loud bark and is wary of those she does not know well but she is not dangerous and would not bite anyone. He should have ignored her instead of showing he was scared. Once an animal senses someone is afraid, it has the upper hand and Nam Som would not stop barking at him. Her instinct told her that he was afraid.
Apparently it’s called operant conditioning. Not many people know that! (Apologies for using a Michael Caine catchphrase).
My Local Vet
Yee is a very experienced vet and is popular with all her clients, most of whom of course are Thai. She has built up a successful small animal practice and she shows a genuine love for her clients’ pets.
Her charges are reasonable, she makes a healthy profit but it has not gone to her head. She drives a small car and often comes to the surgery on her motor bike. She is not at all “hi-so” with the usual airs and graces and a showing-off attitude.
As Talley was due to have a neutering operation, we took him to the surgery last night for a blood check, the results of which will be available later today. Hopefully there will be no problems and the operation can go ahead next week.
Yee normally got on well with Talley. I am sure no pet looks forward to a visit to a vet but Talley has always liked Yee, wagging his tail whenever he saw her. Last night was different. She tried to wrap a piece of linen around his jaws to keep them closed when she took the blood sample. It was a sensible precaution.
My dog does not bite and he has had injections before. However, Talley was having none of it. The vet had been too quick in trying to tie his jaws together. A few soothing words and a pat on the back first might have got him in a more cooperative mood.
The more she tried to use the cloth to keep his mouth closed, the more he resisted. I was surprised she had no muzzle. All vets, wherever in the world they practice, have situations like this. I imagine they rack their brains to find a solution or perhaps get a colleague to see if he can regain the animal’s confidence.
But Yee is Thai. She walked out of the consulting room without any explanation, returning a minute or so later. Took a look at Talley and then went out again. She was exhibiting the Thai trait of walking away from a problem which she did not know how to solve.
And she also did not want to lose face. I’ve seen it so often in Thailand though I will admit to not thinking it would have applied to Yee.
I went to the local market to buy a muzzle and held Talley myself while he had his blood sample taken. It took about two minutes. When paying the bill at reception, I made a point of making a fuss of Talley and, more importantly, getting Yee to do the same. Talley was wagging his tail and that made her feel better about the entire episode.
By playing this little game of praising and patting Talley for being a good boy I was ensuring that Yee was not losing face.
My Neighbour, Fon, has 5 Dogs
All my neighbours have dogs. Fon has five. Generally, Thais won’t neuter their pets. A government initiative, in collaboration with European veterinary surgeons, has not been as successful as was hoped.
UK vets get disillusioned with the slow spaying and castrating speed of local vets. They begin to get bored and lose interest in helping in a voluntary capacity in a cultural climate that does not believe in sterilisation. My UK vet spent 3 weeks here and was disappointed the government weren’t more supportive.
Why do Thais Keep Dogs
Thais keep dogs to deter burglars rather than have them as family pets. Often chained and encouraged to be fierce, the dogs scare most Thais.
Dogs are principally kept to guard property. Usually chained during the day or kept in cages, they are released at night to roam freely in the compound as a deterrent against the kamoey, the petty thieves that one finds in every community. There is no redress on the owner if a dog bites or injures a thief or indeed anyone else on your own property.
If you are attacked on the road it may be difficult to prove who the dogs’ owners are and more difficult still to get any compensation for hospital costs. Dogs running in packs may well be feral and rabid. They scrounge for food from neighbours and the monks at the temples.
Ordinary folk may shoo them away but the monks will feed them. You’ll see many dogs at the wats. They are discouraged from going inside temple buildings though they are free to go anywhere else in the temple precincts. Theoretically, Buddhists will not kill or harm any animal. That also explains the reluctance to sterilise.
Although most Thais won’t harm dogs, there is a minority that will kill the animal if it is misbehaving or no longer wanted. I recall hearing gun shots on one occasion and, looking down the soi, saw a man dragging away a dog by its hind legs. Where he took it I do not know and the next morning everyone denied a dog had been killed.
© Matt Owens Rees. May 2026.
