PHUKET: The shooting dead of beloved family dog Harley while she was walking with her master along a well-used trail in Baan Manik sent a wave of anger throughout the expat community this week. There is nothing that could motivate a humane person to shoot a playful dog in the face. The act was despicable, immoral and cowardly.
Happy and playful, Harley. Photo: Colin Mackay
Harley had just recently delivered a litter of nine pups and was enjoying a walk with her master, long-term Phuket expat Colin Mackay, and two friends when she was shot. The key suspect is a local farm worker, the only person in the vicinity where the shot was fired from and who quickly left the scene not to be heard of again.
The loss has devastated Colin Mackay’s family, especially his daughter. Colin is no stranger to Thai life and Phuket’s horrid history in the treatment of dogs. In the early 2000s it was common for dogs to be rounded up and shot, their bodies dumped in garbage trucks. This latest shooting harked back to those days, when dogs were treated with contempt and their lives considered trivial.
Back then, it was common for packs of strays to be seen in every village, every moo baan, across the island. Some of the packs were threatening, others dangerous, but most just hungry. At that time Thais generally had yet to take dogs into their hearts as friends and beloved companions. That has changed, very much so due to the example set by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his publicly expressed affection for his own dog, Tong Daeng.
Laws aimed at preventing cruelty to animals were finally introduced in 2014 under the Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act, yet it is painfully obvious that Thailand has a long way to go before its people can consider themselves as generally humane to dogs.
As John Dalley MBE of the Soi Dog Foundation pointed out, it is illegal for anybody other than an authorised vet to kill a dog or a cat except in a life threatening situation. Anybody found guilty of killing or cruelty to animals can be imprisoned for up to two years and fined up to B40,000. Yet dog poisonings continue in Phuket neighbourhoods without consequence, sometimes regardless if it is a neighbour’s dog.
Mr Dalley’s question as to whether Harley was shot for the perpetrator’s amusement or whether he planned to eat it was not a wayward comment or a distasteful claim. Dog meat is still eaten in Thailand, with Sakhon Nakhon still notorious for the practice, despite Thailand slowly taking steps to clamp down on the dog-meat trade.
Thalang Police have indicated that any investigation into the killing of Harley may be thwarted by the lack of a body produced as evidence, as Harley’s body was removed from the scene while Colin walked back to fetch his pickup. He returned to find only bloodstains on the ground where her body had lain.
The assertion is stupefying. They can at least bring the man in for questioning. Their superiors’ superiors, the Region 8 Police, have been bragging about the ability to intercept people wanted on arrest warrants at the Phuket Check Point for months. And if their brethren at Phuket City Police can track down a thief who upset a little girl for stealing a handful of plants, the Thalang Police have no excuses for their lack of effort.
If the issue is a matter of how important the person is in deciding whether to dedicate any serious effort to track down the killer, police might like to know that Colin Mackay is the author of the seminal book “A History of Phuket and the Surrounding Region”.
The book is now archived in the library of the esteemed Siam Society, established under Royal Patronage in 1904, and still under Royal Patronage. What most foreigners know about the history Phuket, what they’ve read on countless tourism websites, is because of his book. That is what Colin Mackay has given this island.
Source: The Phuket News