I was drinking myself to death until I met the incredible stray dogs of Thailand, what they taught me saved my life
CRUISING through Koh Samui’s forest on a two-wheeler, Tina’s coat and red neckerchief flutter in the wind and you could swear she was smiling.
The rescued golden retriever is sitting on Niall Harbison’s lap — a former high-flyer who now spends his days saving thousands of street dogs in Thailand.
And while he is freeing them from a grim and dangerous life as a stray, he says they, in turn, have helped him fight his inner demons.
“I don’t know if it’s me saving them or them saving me,” Niall told The Sun.
The Northern Irishman is on a mission: He wants to reverse the number of pups living out their days in misery.
But he has his work cut out, with more than eight million dogs roaming the south-east Asian country.
It is rare that a dog brought up on the streets will live past the age of three, experts have claimed, while pet dogs here can live from ten to 13.
In Thailand strays can be subjected to extreme cruelty from locals.
Niall said: “It is a brutal life for street dogs here.
“One dog was attacked with a pick-axe and had its head split open, while another was shot dead with a nail gun.
“Poisoning is also very common.
“I’ve even seen a smashed glass bottle that’s been disguised in food.
“The cruelty can be insane.”
Tina was lucky enough to meet her blue-eyed saviour in the nick of time after a concerned backpacker raised the alarm.
Niall was sent a grim picture that showed the innocent pooch with hairless patches shackled to a rusted, razor-sharp chain, sitting in her own faeces.
‘I saw myself in her – she was broken’
In utter shock, the 43-year-old zoomed over on his moped and negotiated with the locals to set her free.
Niall said: “I saw myself in her — her soul and her body were broken.
“But there was still a sparkle there.
“She was like, ‘I’ve got a chance here’, and I’d felt the exact same way when I was in hospital.”
Niall hit rock bottom around three years ago, after trying to “drink himself to death”.
Despite a successful career in media and launching an online food business, which he sold for almost £2million, Niall battled inner demons.
He was an alcoholic and also suffered from severe depression and anxiety.
Niall said: “When I got to Thailand I had no supervision and basically went off the cliff.
“It had slowly been building up . . . there were days where I would walk down the street and burst into uncontrollable tears.
“That would lead to a 24-hour bingeing session of alcohol.”
Niall said his mental health battle stemmed back to his teenage years.
Born in County Tyrone, his family fled during the Troubles and relocated to Belgium.
However, Niall’s mother would later walk out of the family home when her son was just 13.
In his new memoir, Hope: How Street Dogs Taught Me The Meaning Of Life, Niall recalls how the poignant moment was pivotal in crushing his “idyllic childhood”.
From there he would unknowingly struggle with abandonment issues and relationship breakdowns.
Eventually, after almost 30 years of pent-up emotion, Niall wound up in an intensive care unit in a Thai hospital.
He said: “I nearly drank myself to death.
“It was a breakdown.
“For three days I laid there thinking, ‘Oh my god, I need to change something — next time this happens I will be dead’.
“Life was flashing before my eyes and I thought, ‘I need to do something meaningful’.
“That’s when I started to help dogs.”
When Niall was discharged he swore to a life of sobriety and ditched spending endless hours in bars.
He filled his spare time by taking walks in the jungle, feeding a few street dogs along the way.
Niall said: “I felt really sorry for them, they were voiceless and I thought I could help.
“I started feeding four dogs every morning, a few months later it was 80 and now it is 800.”
He began documenting his journey with street dogs on social media last year and racked up 2,000 followers in the first few months.
Now his heart-warming content gets millions of views and has grabbed the attention of dog lovers around the world, who send donations to support the cause.
Niall said: “A Thai woman helps make the food.
“She cooks it up, we package it and then deliver it to volunteers.
“It is very fulfilling work and has helped me with my depression.”
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, dogs can reduce stress, anxiety and depression while contributing to humans’ overall happiness.
Niall believes he owes his life to dogs — especially his black Labrador- cross Snoop — who joined him on his journey to the tropics.
Niall said: “Dogs can play a massive role in helping people who struggle with mental health.
“That’s why I make the videos.
“People might have trouble in their own lives, maybe a divorce, financial troubles, whatever, but they can log in and see some dogs and it gives them joy.
“For me, I don’t know if it’s me saving them or them saving me.
“It is more that I don’t want to let them down.
“If I don’t show up they are not going to eat, and that keeps me on the straight and narrow.
“Our biggest mission now is to increase local sterilisation.”
Street dogs have overpopulated Thailand due to their unregulated reproduction.
A stray female will go on heat twice every year and can give birth to an average of 14 puppies annually.
Niall said: “You can continue to rescue them but it’s like rescuing water that continues to spill out of a bath.
“You need to turn off the tap, and that is what sterilising is.
“My initial goal was to sterilise about 1,000 dogs a month, but that has changed.
“There are about 600million street dogs all over the world, and my goal is to halve that in my lifetime.
“Maybe I’m crazy, but that is what I am going to try to do.”
Last month Niall launched Happy Doggo, a UK charity that will fund sterilisations and emergency medical care for stray animals globally.
He also vowed to build dog hospitals all over the world and continue to rescue dogs and nurture them on his acre of land in Koh Samui.
However, just as everything was looking up for the campaigner he was dealt a major blow.
His two sidekicks, Tina and Snoop, tragically died within five days of each other a few weeks ago.
He posted tear-jerking videos that paid tribute to their remarkable journeys through life, tugging fans’ heartstrings who flocked to share emotional goodbyes.
But their unfortunate passing has lit a fire under him that he says will never go out.
Niall said: “I use it as fuel.
“I’m going to reduce the numbers by half and I’m going to rally people to join the cause.
“When I was burying them both, I had to dig their graves.
“I was talking to Tina as I was doing it and I said to her, ‘I am going to build a hospital for you right here.
“Your life is not going to be in vain’.”
- Hope: How Street Dogs Taught Me The Meaning Of Life, by Niall Harbison, (Harper Element) is out now, £18.99.