28 starving dogs eat dead owner’s leg in Bangkok house

BANGKOK – Twenty-eight dogs found locked up in a Bangkok house without food for days after their owner died apparently of comorbidities were rescued by a foundation and officials on July 27. 

Police said the dogs apparently survived by eating the left leg of the owner, Mr Attapol Charoenpithak, 62, whose body was found at noon on July 27 inside his bedroom on the second floor of the house in Bangkok’s Khlong Sam Wa district.

Mr Attapol’s neighbour, Mr Sompong Phasuksri, 53, alerted police to check the house after he noticed that Mr Attapol’s car was parked in front of his house for about a week.

Mr Sompong told police that Mr Attapol normally drove his car to a local market every day. He said he rang the bell of Mr Attapol’s house but there was no response although the lights were on.

When police went inside with officials from the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, they found the house was littered with garbage and dog poop.

Mr Attapol was known to have comorbidities, including diabetes and hypertension. His body was sent to the Police General Hospital for an autopsy.

Police then called fashion model Chonlada Mekratree’s The Voice Foundation to rescue the dogs. The owner had reportedly earlier agreed to hand over all the dogs to the foundation after his death.

Ms Supawadee Srithassanakarn, an official of the foundation, led a team of veterinarians to rescue the dogs. They found 28 chihuahua and shih tzu dogs. Two of them were very weak because of malnutrition.

Ms Suapwadee said Mr Attapol had agreed to hand over the dogs to the care of the foundation following public complaints.

In 2017, Mr Attapol was seen driving his pickup around with many of his dogs inside cages at the back of the vehicle in scorching heat, Ms Supawadee said.

Since then, she said, the foundation had been monitoring Mr Attapol, fearing for the dogs’ safety. In 2021, a veterinarian who cared for Mr Attapol’s dogs alerted the foundation that the dogs had gradually died every week.

In that year, she said Mr Attapol had 46 dogs and the foundation entered his house and took 20 of them to be sterilised.

Mr Attapol was upset and filed a complaint with the police, accusing the foundation of trespassing his house and demanding the return of his 20 dogs.

The foundation agreed to return the 20 sterilised dogs to Mr Attapol, who agreed to hand over all of his dogs to the foundation after his death.

The foundation said if anyone would like to adopt any of the rescued dogs, they could contact the foundation. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK