Just how much does it cost to care for a dog in Thailand?
We don't really do a sponsorship of individual dogs here and with good reason: It is extremely complicated to dedicate a certain amount of money to a particular dog and the times that we had tried to do it the only way it would work is if we bypassed care and food to other animals in lieu of the other once, sometimes right in front of them... and that's not very nice now, is it?
I think that even if a place does offer you the chance to sponsor a particular dog that the money you donate simply goes into a pool to provide to all the dogs and that is what we do here at Krabi Animal Welfare. Thankfully, at the moment we are doing fine as far as budget is concerned but there have been times in the past where things got pretty dire, especially during the lockdowns.
But to get back to the point: How much does it cost to care for a dog in Thailand? It may surprise you how little it actually is.
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Medical care, especially when you are partnered with a larger veterinarian clinic like we are, is remarkably cheap in Thailand. The average annual vaccination cost varies by size of dog but generally speaking this is 3-12 dollars for the year. For the sake of easy math let's just say it is $6 a year or 50 cents a month. Feeding a dog is also varied depending on the size of the animal but we do a neat mix of rice with dog kibble and this cuts the cost down dramatically. Is there healthier ways of feeding a dog? Absolutely. But if you want to feed a large amount of stray and homeless animals you have to do what needs to be done to stretch the supply.
Just like anywhere else in the world, Thailand has a wide variety of dog foods available and some of them claim to be more nutritious and better for your dog. I don't know if any of that is true or not but the designer brands are something we never even consider. We buy whatever is cheapest for the most part and we get a deep discount from a local distributor here. These enormous bags of food end up costing us a little over $1 per kilogram. Let's say that an average dog is capable of eating one of these bags of food per month, which considering the medium size nature of the strays here in Thailand is probably not too far off the mark. Now consider that we mix the dog food with rice and I am going to estimate that it costs about $15 a month to feed an average sized dog.
Of course there are going to be some days where they get special treat bowls and of course treats but for the sake of this example we will not include that. We are talking bare minimum cost per month here.
There are other things that could come along such as parasites and considering how big of a problem this is here in Thailand I am just going to assume that this is necessary to treat the dog for twice a year, which in most cases, especially for outdoor dogs, is necessary. The cost per treatment of broad-spectrum parasite control is about $6 per dose so $12 a year.
So adding everything up the annual vaccination is 50 cents per month, the parasite treatment is $1 per month and the feeding is around $15 a month. Therefore using very basic math and a lot of assumptions, it costs around $16.50 a month to care for a stray dog in Thailand.
I think that for a lot of people in the west this price seems crazy and impossible but different parts of the world have different economies. To me, I think that most people can afford to put out a $20 bill per month especially when they get some change back at the end. Or you could just spend the extra $3.50 on treats which here, that would get you enough to give many of them every day depending on the brand you get.
Of course there are a lot of variable here and since we are a non-profit organization we do get some breaks by concerned members of the animal community here such as the food distributor and the veterinarians that do most of their work for us at cost.
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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