Responsible care,
gently taught.
PACS believes the fastest way to a healthier island animal population is education — not just intervention. When people understand what animals need, everything else becomes easier.
Teaching what lasts
PACS has always known that veterinary care alone cannot solve an island-wide animal welfare challenge. Treatment heals the individual animal. Education changes the conditions that created the problem. That is why education has been part of our work since the beginning — not as an afterthought, but as one of the five core causes we pursue every year.
We teach owners about year-round preventive care: heartworm prevention, tick treatment, the benefits of neutering, and the vaccination schedule that keeps diseases like parvovirus and distemper from spreading. Many of these conversations happen informally, during clinic visits — a question from an owner becomes a teaching moment, and a well-informed owner becomes an advocate in their community.
Celebrating Thai stray culture
Something worth saying clearly: we do not come to Koh Phangan to correct the way Thai people relate to animals. Many islanders share food and water with the strays around them — outside temples, on roadsides, near fishing piers. That warmth and that shared sense of responsibility for community animals is part of what makes life possible for those animals. It is not a problem to be solved. It is a foundation to build on.
Our education work starts from there. The goal is not to change the relationship between people and animals on Koh Phangan — it is to enrich it. A community that already cares can be the most powerful animal welfare force on the island, if it has the knowledge and tools to act effectively.
Who we work with
Our education work reaches several audiences:
- Local schools — introducing children to responsible animal care, building habits that last a lifetime.
- Tourist information centres — helping visitors understand how to interact safely and responsibly with the island’s stray animals.
- Partner organisations — sharing knowledge with other animal welfare groups working in the region.
- Pet owners — through clinic consultations and community outreach, providing guidance on preventive care, neutering, and vaccination.
Get involved
If you live on Koh Phangan and want to volunteer with our education work, we’d love to meet you. Our public relations and education volunteers help us reach more people, in more languages, with more consistency than we could manage alone.
Learn about volunteering in education and public relations.
Help us teach the whole island.
Education is the one cause that multiplies. Every owner who learns about heartworm prevention, every child who grows up knowing how to care for animals — that knowledge keeps working long after we've left the room.