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Animal Welfare Group
Reports from Phuket
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 4:47 PM
There are still enormous people situations but animal problems are now surfacing -- no drinking water on the beaches because food stalls gone -- no food because restaurant kitchens are also gone -- tomorrow we'll start checking all the beaches if we can. The animal shelter is filling up with "dumpees". As days go on, we'll know more and will keep you updated.
Of course, funds are the most important because we'll have to take over feeding at the pound as the little food provided by local authorities has now stopped and may never resume -- that is jour biggest obstacle at the moment, besides manpower, of course. Not sure about farm animals yet but will get some info.
Following is my personal story of the past days -- and I now have to get ready for the wake of my dear friend Leone Cosens, an animal lover and one of our most dedicated volunteers, at her favorite temple.
We are safe but what devastation -- incredible. Leone in Rawai, a close friend and pillar in the dog help world in Phuket has been found dead -- I'm still in shock and don't know how we can go on helping the doggies without her in the Southern part of the island -- we'll have to find a way -- this hits close to the heart!
Through Sunday, picked up several stranded tourists, including a small baby and a little boy, who lost everything and were in bathing suits or underwear -- a total of 12 people slept at my house -- while shopping yesterday evening to buy food for everyone, I already saw groups of dogs along the roads -- we have our work cut out for us!
Thank God for our well-being and for being able to help others! One of 'my rescues' was a German guy staying at the bungalows where most of our vets/volunteers stay and we were able to get some of his stuff out of the water in what was left of his bungalow -- he had gone out for a run and saw it all evolve. He had rented a big bike in Patong which had disappeared. Later in the day, Steve went back with him and they managed to find the bike and fish it out with, guess what, the catch pole I keep in the back of my truck -- thank God for the dog work. Bungalows totally destroyed, though.
Took the grandfather of the Norwegian group staying at my house to the hospital today -- needed his blood pressure medication -- dropped Peter the German off in Patong to try to get his passport back from the bike shop; now the Norwegian group is staying in a very 5-star resort where I managed to get them rooms for a couple of nights.
Went back to their Kamala hotel to try to retrieve some passports, etc. -- what an incredible scene -- I have NEVER realized how powerful water can be and this was without strong winds -- awesome -- local people standing not knowing where to begin -- ALL beach restaurants gone -- people invested borrowed money, often, to make lots of money during the high season -- all gone!
We did go up to our new house with dogs and people in pickup trucks -- that's high on a hill -- just to be safe because everyone was talking about yet another wave coming -- fortunately did not happen. The water came to about 20 meters from my rental house -- the huge construction laborers' camp in between the beach and my neighborhood is gone -- people escaped, fortunately, but many dogs totally dazed -- didn't want to touch food! This all makes many other things so petty!
- Margot Park
(Margot is the manager of the Atigaro animal rescue project in Phuket, Thailand, a HSI sponsored program)
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