“There were a lot of people like me with tears rolling down their faces and feeling helpless about it,” she said.
Members of Watchdog Thailand recently met with senior military officers in the junta and urged them to pass an animal rights law, based on a bill written by the previous government, that would explicitly outlaw killing dogs for meat.
“They told us to make all the changes, write what we want and resubmit it,” Ms. Bhurita said.
Foreigners are playing an important role in trying to eradicate the dog meat trade. British celebrities like Ricky Gervais and Judi Dench were featured in a video posted on the Internet last month condemning it. Much of the financing for Watchdog and its parent organization, Soi Dog, comes from donations from the United States and Europe.