My Reason for Doing This

When I first came to retire in Thailand from my high tech laser business in Singapore, I had no thoughts about doing what I'm doing now.
I thought I was going to paint pictures and write books and RELAX!
Everything sort off just happened around me by circumstances beyond my imagination. I had lead a very sheltered life in luxury for a long time not having any opportunities to meet rural folks or see poverty with my own eyes.
I was so shocked when I walked the streets of Bangkok (1988/9) and came across so much human/animal abuse and insanitary conditions.
I had already moved my household consisting of 19 dogs, 12 cats, a duck and a rabbit up from Singapore which is a spotlessly clean city, so I tried to escape the culture shock by moving to Chiang Mai which was like a small town to me at that time. I had lived in big cities most of my life, so coming to Chiang Mai was a big adventure.
No sooner had I arrived in Chiang Mai when I was contacted by Dr.Kanchai from CM Zoo and asked to come to work there. The reason for this was that I had 10 years experience working as a volunteer with wild animals at Singapore Zoo and 2 years in Bangkok working with Dr.Pichoi Arjsongkoon/Chulalongkorn University on Khun Chamlong Srimuang's Street Dog Rescue project at Laksi.
The first 5 years in CM I was inside CM Zoo as a volunteer animal welfare officer and my work with the animals consumed me for 24hrs a day. I only had contact with zoo staff, animals and visitors to the zoo AND my neighbor in Baan Suan Nonsee Acharn Pimsouk who became a dear friend.
One day Pimsouk came to me with a monkey in a box. He was in a terrible condition with many wounds and broken bones. He had been beaten by a man who worked at Suan Dok Hospital while Pimsouk stood in a queue to fulfill a prescription. She saw a door open and the man came out with the monkey beating it with a stick until finally he broke it's bones. Pimsouk being a veterinarian's wife, ran to protect the monkey.
All the other people around ignored the incident. She asked the reason for the man's action. He said, he had bought the monkey at the market in the morning because he wanted to take it to his village in the evening to eat it. He had put it in this office while he went to work and when he came back, the monkey had wrecked the whole office. Now he was so mad. Pimsouk bought the monkey from him and brought it to me. I took him to the zoo where he was given anaesthesia and xrayed. He had 17 fractures, his lungs were pierced and he had a brain hemorhage. He was almost dead already so we decided to quietly put him to to sleep. I was outraged at such cruelty towards an innocent being. I cried all night.

The next afternoon Pimsouk called me; "Marianne, I have strange news - the man who beat the monkey had a motorcycle accident last night on the way back to his village. He is now back in Suan Dok Hospital in intensive care with 17 bone fractures!
Karma worked very fast in his case!"
Karma....hm! I was starting to learn something interesting about Thai culture,
something which I certainly wanted to have a deeper understanding of.
But more about this later,
now I must fulfill my karma by going to JJ market and keeping our One Voice campaign going. See you there! Memberships available nighly.