Leeds man John Dalley awarded MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to animal welfare after devoting his life to helping stray animals through Soi Dog Foundation

John Dalley was named in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, published on Saturday, for his work co-founding southeast Asia's largest organisation helping stray animals.

Mr Dalley and his late wife, Gill, set up the Soi Dog charity from humble beginnings when they retired to Phuket, Thailand, in 2003.

The organisation now provides direct treatment to more animals than any organisation in the world.

In December, the foundation is forecast to see half a million animals sterilised and vaccinated across the country since its founding, with nearly 250,000 of those carried

out in the past two years alone

Soi Dog – “soi” being the Thai word for “street” – was founded by Mr and Mrs Dalley with fellow retiree Margot Homburg.

He said his only regret was that his wife, who died in 2017 aged 58, was not alive to share in the award.

Mrs Dalley received numerous awards during her lifetime, including being the first non-Asian by birth to be named Asian of the Year in the Channel News Asia annual awards.

The award comes at a particularly challenging time in Soi Dog’s history.

Like many non-profit organisations, the foundation has been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis.

Its shelter in Phuket has faced severe overcrowding this year, with abandoned animals arriving in droves.

The foundation has refused to close its doors to animals in need.

Construction of new dog enclosures and the purchase of additional land is ensuring that the work continues.

Soi Dog has faced challenges in the past including natural disasters and winning the war against the dog smugglers selling hundreds of thousands of Thai dogs to the meat markets of Vietnam every year.

Soi Dog continues to work with the Thai government to strengthen the country’s Animal Welfare Act, which the foundation helped to introduce in 2014.

In addition, a brand-new education centre is soon to open at the shelter, emphasising the importance the foundation places on educating the next generation.

The foundation plans to expand operations in Vietnam and Cambodia but Thailand will remain the focus until their goal of having no more unwanted dogs and cats and no more rabies has been achieved

Mr Dalley said he remains confident that, with the cooperation of local and national governments, these goals are entirely achievable.

Soi Dog Foundation’s mission is to improve the welfare of dogs and cats in Asia, to create a society without homeless animals and to ultimately end animal cruelty.

At the forefront of the foundation’s work is its CNVR (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) programme which aims to humanely manage the stray dog and cat populations.

Over 470,000 dogs and cats have been neutered and vaccinated across Thailand so far as part of the programme.

Thousands have also been medically treated and adopted to loving homes in Thailand and around the world.

To learn more, visit www.soidog.org