Kulthawat Phaosuwanna and his wife have been reunited with their three-year-old mixed-breed dog, Jao Du, after a theft case that dragged on for nine months, required a court ruling and still needed the intervention of Watchdog Thailand Foundation volunteers before the handover actually happened.
Jao Du disappeared from the family’s village on 17th August 2025. Kulthawat had taken the dog in as a stray, covering his food, vaccinations and veterinary care, and treating him as a member of the family. When witnesses reported seeing someone enter the village with an animal cage and leave with the dog, Kulthawat found the dog and filed a police report at Hang Dong Police Station on 20th August, and after attempts to negotiate the dog’s return failed, lodged a formal theft complaint on 25th August, backed by photographs, video footage and veterinary records.
The Chiang Mai Provincial Court ruled on 24th February 2026, ordering the return of the dog or a payment of 200,000 baht if the animal was found to be injured or dead. Even then, the family still could not retrieve him. A case-finalised certificate was issued on 20th April, and on 23rd April, Kulthawat and the foundation were still having to petition Region 5 Police, Chiang Mai Provincial Police, Hang Dong Station and the Chiang Mai Prosecutor’s Office to compel the handover.
A complicating factor throughout was that the dog — classed as living evidence — had at points been held not by a neutral authority but by a third party who also claimed ownership, saying that they had the dog first and merely came to fetch it back, leaving Kulthawat unable to verify the animal’s condition or welfare.
On 14th May, Jao Du was finally transferred to the Santisuk Foundation for Stray Dogs and Cats in San Pa Tong as a neutral holding point. When Kulthawat walked into the enclosure — home to more than 300 dogs — Jao Du immediately leapt at him.
Watchdog Thailand, which supported the family through the process, noted that the case raises a question the system has yet to answer cleanly: when a court has ruled and a case is closed, why should the victim still have to chase a living piece of evidence across multiple agencies to get it back? The foundation also called for clearer legal standards protecting those who genuinely care for stray animals, and preventing people who abandoned or neglected an animal from easily reclaiming ownership over those who took on real responsibility.
