The police officer who arrested Ms. Jantima said he saw his work partly as a personal crusade of dog compassion.
“The more arrests we make, the more dogs we rescue,” said the arresting officer, Lt. Lamai Sakonpitak, an avowed dog lover who has four pet dogs at home. “I can’t stand seeing dogs killed to become food.”
Lieutenant Lamai’s partner also professes to love dogs but says the authorities cannot wipe out the dog meat trade overnight.
“You can’t just cut the tree down,” said Lt. Chaleaw Chaihung. “You need to cut one branch at a time.”
A half-hour drive from Baan Klang, in Tha Rae village, roadside vendors openly sell sinewy smoked dog meat, a kind of dog jerky, for about $7 a pound.