The Man That Rescues Dogs (TMTRD)

The Man That Rescues Dogs (TMTRD) began in 2011, when Swedish entrepreneur Michael J. Baines, who had moved to Thailand in 2002 and opened a restaurant in Bangsaen, started feeding, treating and taking injured street dogs to the vet after a sick dog turned up at his restaurant's back door. TMTRD became a non-profit in 2012 and is now an official foundation, recognised and supported by Saensuk municipality. Its sanctuary and office are inside the municipality's solid waste disposal centre in Bangphra, Sriracha district, about 90 minutes from Bangkok.

The sanctuary is home to more than 800 dogs. Every new arrival is vaccinated and sterilised and spends about a month in a separate quarantine section before joining the others. Its Care Unit, set up in 2016, looks after more than 110 sick, elderly, paralysed and special-needs dogs around the clock, with twice-daily walks, water therapy and physiotherapy, and many of its dogs use wheelchairs. Each day the team also feeds around 400 street dogs on a feeding route.

TMTRD's clinic, staffed by three vets, offers spay and neuter, vaccinations and dental care to local pet owners at greatly reduced prices, and the foundation works with the municipality to catch, sterilise and release unsterilised street dogs. It reports more than 4,300 spay and neuter operations and over 13,000 clinic cases so far, and plans to expand this work along with education visits to schools.

The foundation relies entirely on donations and sponsorships. You can donate through its website, sponsor a dog from about one US dollar a day, adopt, or volunteer through its weekly volunteer programme (which includes nearby accommodation). Visitors are welcome every day from 9am to 3pm.