Brit pop star Will Young joins Phuket’s Soi Dog fight against dogmeat trade

British pop star Will Young is lending his support to end Thailand’s illegal dog meat trade.
Photo: Algy O’Connell

The canine crusaders at the Soi Dog Foundation have succeeded again in attracting some star power to their mission of bettering the condition of dogs in Thailand by recruiting British musician Will Young.

They published this release yesterday:

British musician Will Young has announced his patronage of the Phuket-based dog and cat welfare charity Soi Dog Foundation, which is leading the fight to end Thailand’s illegal dog meat trade.

Young said he first became aware of Soi Dog’s work after a visit to their shelter in Phuket during a holiday in 2014.

“I am thrilled and honoured to be a new patron of Soi Dog Foundation. The plight of dogs caught in the dog meat trade is heartbreaking. As a proud nation of animal lovers, I hope that people will get behind this incredible charity to rescue animals and give them a chance of happiness,” he said in a press release issued yesterday.

At its height in 2011, around 500,000 dogs a year were illegally smuggled from Thailand to Vietnam, where their fate was torture and death prior to being served up in the restaurants of Hanoi as a delicacy.

Gill Dalley, co-founder and Global Ambassador of Soi Dog, added: “Every aspect of this trade inflicts such incredible cruelty and pain on the animals. From the sourcing of street dogs to the transportation in tightly packed cages for hundreds of miles without food or water, to the torture the dogs are subjected to prior to death, in the misguided belief that adrenaline improves the texture and flavour of the meat.

“Many dogs are boiled and skinned alive. Will can help us bring this trade to the attention of more people right around the world, and with greater support, we can shut it down for good much quicker. We really appreciate Will becoming a patron, and we look forward to working with him in the future”.

Soi Dog has been working in co-operation with the Royal Thai Police, the Royal Thai Army and the Royal Thai Navy to intercept trucks taking dogs from Northeast Thailand on the long trip through Laos to Vietnam, and to shelter the animals and have them adopted.

Recently, Soi Dog together with three other charities in the Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA) also launched a campaign in Vietnam to call on the government there to outlaw the consumption of dog meat.