A 5-year-old boy from Finland was hospitalised in a similar attack last February at a time when a number of dogs in Krabi tested positive for rabies. Both boys were lucky not have been more seriously injured by the dog packs.
The Governor of Krabi, Kitibodee Prawit, has ordered that large packs of stray dogs found in popular tourist hotspots be rounded up and dealt with following a dangerous attack on the son of an American tourist on Ao Siao beach last Saturday.
The provincial boss ordered officials to take action after the 7-year boy was surrounded and viciously attacked by up to a dozen dogs on Ao Siao beach last Saturday morning. It is already reported that seven out of the twelve dogs who attacked the boy have been captured.
Instructions have been given to use tranquiliser darts against the canines if required as they are known to be aggressive. The animals are thought to be hungry.
Governor briefed the media on the operation
‘I ordered the authorities to capture the dogs because we need to examine whether they were carrying a disease or not,’ he said. ‘Seven dogs have now been sent to the provincial office and the team is finding the rest.’
Boy’s screams on a paradise beach
Nolan Anderson was playing on the white sanded beach while his father went through an exercise routine when he suddenly found himself among the pack of soi or beach dogs who attacked him.
The boy’s screams alerted his father who rushed to drive the dogs off his son and extricate him from the snarling melee. It was a difficult task as the wild pack continued biting and gnawing at the young boy in the frenzied attack.
The man eventually got his boy free although, by then, he had suffered multiple bite and flesh wounds and some of the dogs followed their quarry.
Doctors concerned about a bite under Nolan’s arm
Nolan was taken to a local hospital where he received stitches for a number of bite wounds and lacerations. One bite in particularly concerned doctors and occurred as the boy put his hands up to cover his face to protect himself amid the terror. He was beaten deeply under the left arm.
Doctors at the hospital administered a tetanus injection well as an anti-rabies jab.
Manager of a local hotel aware of numerous attacks
The manager of the Pine Bungalow, a local boutique hotel in the area confirmed that the number of dogs on the beach in recent weeks had risen. 41-year-old Charoensak Temchai said that up 16 dogs had occupied the same portion of the beach.
The hotel manager said that there had been numerous reports this week of people being bitten by them.
Visited at a hospital by officials and well-wishers
Nolan was visited at the hospital this week by local officials and well-wishers and presented with gifts and snacks as he has been held under the medical supervision of doctors following the bite wounds.
The call by the governor to provincial officials and agencies comes as this is the second serious attack on the son of a foreign tourist in as many years.
5-year-old boy from Finland in a similar attack
Last year, 5-year-old Eemi Nikula from Finland also suffered serious bite wounds when he was also attacked on the beach in Krabi, this time in the evening by 5 or 6 dogs. One bite was centimetres under his Adam’s apple on the neck where he received two canine puncture wounds.
The attack happened last February.
Leaving the beach in the evening, the young boy went back to wash off the sand and was attacked
30-year-old Appo Nikula, the boy’s father, told media at that time that he was leaving the beach with his two sons at 6.30 pm when his younger son Eemi went back to wash off sand in the water. Alone, the boy was attacked by a pack of dogs.
Again the father came to the rescue of his son.
With the assistance of local people, the Finnish man and his boys escaped the beach as the dogs continued to attack the family as they retreated.
Like Nolan, the boy was taken and treated in hospital for a number of days with extensive bites.
Local dogs tested positive for rabies
It was also reported last February, the same month the Finnish boy was attacked, that two dogs in Krabi had tested positive for rabies which is a chronic problem among Thailand’s growing population of wild street or ‘soi’ dogs.
In recent years, children have died after being bitten by dogs and later contracting rabies.
A 14-year old schoolgirl died after being bitten by rabid dogs in Buriram in March 2018. In that year up to 20 people died in Thailand from similar attacks.
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