Hot on the heels of Ben Fogle’s:  New lives in the Wild programme from Sri Lanka, when he visited the inspiring Dr Janey Lowe (Channel 5, 2 April 2024) comes World Stray Animals Day.

The day was founded by a group of over 100 Dutch organisations  which met at the Dutch National Stray Animals Conference back in 2010.  

If, like me, you wish to win the lottery in a very major way, and help every stray cat and dog I the world, we all know that such a win is extremely unlikely and in any case, with about 600 million stray cats and dogs in the world, even if you won the Euromillions when it was about £180 for the first prize, that wouldn’t go very far.

So what can we do on World Stray Animals Day to make a difference and help?

There are a number of organisations which are working to neuter strays and you can find them here. 

• Donate to help them with their work
• Volunteer – a number of them have volunteer opportunities for vets and veterinary nurses
• Sponsor a dog
• Spread the word
• Spread the Adopt, don’t shop, message, although I’m suspect most animal lovers are already doing this. 

Cats Protection once worked out that one female can be responsible for 5,000 offspring over a five year period, which just shows how not neutering can lead to a deluge of kittens. 

Ben Fogle's New Lives in the Wild is on tonight, Tuesday 23 January 2024 at 9pm on Channel 5.

And tonight, he heads off to Southeast Asia to lend a paw at a dog sanctuary on the island of Koh Samui.

Niall Harbison used to be a chef and social media guru, but now he lies on this island and has created a new life for himself, turning his life around to help his mental health by dedicating himeslf to helping the island's thousands of stray dogs.  His charity is called HappyDoggo, and it's mission is to fix the global street dog problem.

There are 10,000 stray dogs on the island and following Ben Fogle's programme will give us all  great insight into efforts to help them.  

Dogs that cannot make it on the street are given a second chance with a loving home in Thailand or abroad.

Sterilising is the most important thing to do to help street dogs, who also need food, water and veterinary care.  Since launching, Happy Doggo have  sterilized and vaccinated over 2,000 dogs.  They're on track to increase that number ten times.  And Niall's goal is to halve the number of street dogs in the world so this is a global effort. 

Ways to help:

• Donate
• Volunteer
• Subscribe to the newsletter
• Give a dog a home!
• Spread the word
  
  

Visit HappyDoggo.com here to find out more.

Subscribe to their newsletter here

Here's their YouTube channel

And there are a list of charities who neuter and spay here.

Let's help Niall achieve his goal!  Please do what you can to help.