This is Halona, an absolute super model of a dog who was rescued from the horrific southeast Asian dog meat trade. Halona’s estimated birthday is February 2012 – she is a 3-year-old spayed female Thai mixed breed with a collie-shepherd look, weighing approximately 30 lbs.
When Halona was rescued, she was a baby still – just under six months old. A baby who had been shoved and manipulated into a ‘crush cage’, about to be illegally smuggled across Thailand’s border into Laos and then Vietnam where she would have been slowly tortured before being eaten – a customary practice, as adrenaline is thought to make dog meat more tasty. Luckily, she was saved in the nick of time – but she is now desperately craving a forever family to call her very own.The Thai Royal Police, suspicious of a large tarp-covered truck that was about to cross the northern border, discovered dozens of dogs huddling in terror and crushed into rusty wire cages like sardines. Halona was one of the even more unlucky dogs – since cages are stacked and tightly pushed together onto trucks, any limbs or tails sticking out between rusty bars can be injured. One of her rear legs was injured in this way, so she was limping and had cuts and abrasions, on top of everything else she had endured.
Halona and dozens of others in her shipment were rescued and sent to an overcrowded government livestock center – saved, BUT NOT SAFE. Unfortunately many dogs cannot survive at these facilities due to overcrowding, lack of food and clean water, lack of medical care, and deadly diseases and dog fights. Halona additionally needed medical care for her leg.A kind person saw Halona’s photo and saved her life. She was sponsored and transported to the Thai island of Koh Samui. Since that time – August 2012, almost 3 years – she has lived at Elfesworld dog sanctuary with nearly 700 other dogs, most of them fellow dog meat trade victims.
She was given top medical care for her leg, which quickly made a complete recovery. Today, she can run, jump up for loving pets from visitors, and play with coconuts and other fun tropical “toys”, as her photo slideshow (spanning from summer 2012 to present day) attests. She is safe and so happy to be there with dog mom Elfe, who loves all her “babies”.
But Halona is lonely, in her own way. Though she plays with doggie friends, she is often stressed because she never had toys and treats of her own and wants desperately to have these things. This courts trouble with larger, stronger dogs at times, and creates stressful situations for Halona since she is among so many other dogs. She desperately vies for attention from visitors to the sanctuary, clearly craving nothing more from life than a home and people to call her own.
Halona and dozens of others in her shipment were rescued and sent to an overcrowded government livestock center – saved, BUT NOT SAFE. Unfortunately many dogs cannot survive at these facilities due to overcrowding, lack of food and clean water, lack of medical care, and deadly diseases and dog fights. Halona additionally needed medical care for her leg.A kind person saw Halona’s photo and saved her life. She was sponsored and transported to the Thai island of Koh Samui. Since that time – August 2012, almost 3 years – she has lived at Elfesworld dog sanctuary with nearly 700 other dogs, most of them fellow dog meat trade victims.
She was given top medical care for her leg, which quickly made a complete recovery. Today, she can run, jump up for loving pets from visitors, and play with coconuts and other fun tropical “toys”, as her photo slideshow (spanning from summer 2012 to present day) attests. She is safe and so happy to be there with dog mom Elfe, who loves all her “babies”.
But Halona is lonely, in her own way. Though she plays with doggie friends, she is often stressed because she never had toys and treats of her own and wants desperately to have these things. This courts trouble with larger, stronger dogs at times, and creates stressful situations for Halona since she is among so many other dogs. She desperately vies for attention from visitors to the sanctuary, clearly craving nothing more from life than a home and people to call her own.
Halona is described as very affectionate, clever, and good-natured by her mom, Elfe, and by visitors to Elfesworld dog sanctuary. Dawn has visited Halona twice over the past year and has been smitten with her sweet nature on both occasions!
Halona has waited almost three long years for a loving family to adopt her. Her chance to fly to the USA and shine has finally come! The International Street Dog Foundation looks forward to welcoming Halona to Chicago with open arms in early May. We know the perfect family is out there just waiting for her to join them and make them complete, and we cannot wait to see her in a forever home, at long last.