Soi Dog Foundation Asia

Born out of love for animals, Soi Dog is helping stray dogs and cats in the Phuket region of Thailand live healthy lives and find loving homes.  

The MISSION of Soi Dog Foundation is to improve the welfare of dogs and cats in Asia, resulting in better lives for both the animal and human communities, to create a society without homeless animals, and to ultimately end animal cruelty.

Why is it important

• Soi Dog Foundation (Soi Dog) was established in 2003 in Phuket, Thailand, to help street dogs and cats who had no one else to care for them. Over 70,000 strays roamed the island, with the numbers growing alarmingly due to a lack of spay and neuter programs to control the population. Soi Dog was created to provide a humane and sustainable solution to managing the stray population and to address their medical needs. Funding then, as it does now, came entirely from individuals who shared, and continue to share, the vision of its founders.

• Soi Dog campaigns for an improvement in animal welfare rights across Asia, and helps animals affected by natural disasters, such as the severe flooding in southern Thailand in 2017 and prior to that, the Bangkok floods of 2011 and the Asian tsunami of 2004. 

• Soi Dog Foundation is also actively fighting the Asian dog meat trade and thanks to overwhelming support, the trade has been almost completely wiped out in Thailand. They continue to campaign for an end to the trade in Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea and other Southeast Asian countries where it is still prevalent. 

How do they do it?

• The majority of Soi Dog’s work is focused on an holistic approach including Rescue, Sterilization, Vaccination, Medical Treatment, Shelter and Adoption. Community Outreach and Education Outreach are also integral parts of their programs. . 

• Soi Dog's teams of animal rescue officers, coordinated by a hospital office team, travel the island of Phuket and nearby province of Phang Nga to respond to animal emergencies and reports of stray dogs or cats requiring hospital treatment. The office team handles between 1,200 and 1,600 calls each month and many responses demand immediate assistance from animal rescue officers.

• Soi Dog Foundation’s facilities in Phuket include state-of-the-art dog and cat hospitals. The former being the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia dedicated to the treatment of stray animals. The goal for most rehabilitated dogs is for placement in Soi Dog’s Dog Adoption Program and shelter where they will await loving homes

• Soi Dog Foundation's Community Outreach program sees two teams travelling around the island to places where street dogs and cats congregate, typically temples and beaches, providing the basic medical care they need and teaching the carers and feeders of these community animals how to administer basic first aid to dogs and cats, and how to identify signs of sickness and injury.

• Soi Dog believes attitudes towards animals are formed at an early age, therefore they have devised an Education Outreach program for schoolchildren, starting at primary school age. The initial rollout of the program was in 2017 and the addition of the Soi Dog Humane Education Centre at the sanctuary in 2020 now allows for further development of the program. In addition Soi Dog trains vets from neighboring countries who can spend time learning from their own team of fully qualified vets. The varied and complex range of surgical and medical cases encountered in Thailand often provide more experience than most vets anywhere in the world can attain in a lifetime of practice.

•  Lastly, Soi Dog welcomes volunteers from all over the world to its sanctuary in Phuket, Thailand. Volunteers play a hugely important role in the socialization of the animals in their care, in preparation of them becoming adoptable.

How you can #TravelKindly: 

• Choose Soi Dog as your local charity when you book with Kind Traveler.

• Soi Dog is generally open to visitors from Mondays through Fridays for a tour of the shelter. Please find further details here.

• Soi Dog also has a volunteer program at their sanctuary in Phuket where anyone over the age of 18 years old can help socialize the dogs and cats.

• Soi Dog Foundation is always in need of donated medical supplies to help treat thousands of stray cats and dogs in Thailand, as well as more general items such as toys and dog leads. If you have items that you wish to donate, please email us with the specifics.

• Pick up some swag from the Soi Dog online store. Not only are you helping to raise much needed funds, you are also raising awareness of the foundation and helping homeless dogs and cats in Thailand.

• You may also sponsor a dog or cat upon return home, when you join the Sponsor Club you will receive regular updates throughout the year on your sponsor dog/cat.

• When in the Phuket area, report a sick or injured dog, click on this link.