Niall Harbison hit a low point in 2020. After greedily drinking a lot of alcohol and snorting Valium, he spent several days alone in a Thailand ICU. “I was 41 and miserable,” he told The New York Post. “I said I had to do something meaningful.”
That moment sparked a comeback. Harbison left a successful tech and private‑chef career in Dublin, moved to Southeast Asia, and vowed to change his life. He started feeding stray dogs on the coast of Koh Samui, a popular Thai island about 300 miles south of Bangkok. The videos he posted of him handing out food to curious street pups went viral, and people all over the world offered help.
Now, at 46, Harbison runs a nonprofit called Happy Doggo. He has built a team of 22 staff—cooks, medics, and field workers—and feeds around 1,200 dogs daily. The organization also runs a small hospital and plans to launch mobile veterinary clinics to reach rural communities where stray dogs are often shot or abandoned.
Every morning, before the heat rises, Harbison rides a moped around Koh Samui to feed the dogs. “I feed 100 street dogs at 7 a.m. on my moped,” he says. But the work never follows a schedule. “A dog could have been hit by a car, or a puppy dumped by a road, or someone might shoot a dog,” he explains. The unpredictable nature of street life means Harbison has to be ready for anything.
The job can be emotionally draining. He admits to bouts of depression and describes the veterinary work as “frightening” when animals have been stabbed or shot. “I have to just lay down in a dark room for an hour,” he says. Still, the dogs keep him going. “They’ve got nobody to count on, so you’ve got to help them and move on to the next one.”
Harbison has faced direct hostility, once being threatened by a knife‑wielding local and another with a firearm. He stresses that such violence is a societal problem, not the fault of one person. “People shoot stray dogs because that’s the rule of the land. I try to change the culture with kindness and education instead of anger.”
Happy Doggo’s mission goes beyond feeding. Harbison wants to reduce the world’s stray‑dog population from about 500 million to 250 million. He relies on three pillars: sterilization, education, and legislation. To expand the program, he announced a bold fundraising plan—running the Bangkok Marathon with only a month’s training.
“I was at a meeting and said, ‘We need to raise money, so I’ll run the marathon.’” He canceled a six‑month training plan and doubled down in just 30 days. The race will help fund new mobile clinics, which bring veterinary care to remote areas where stray dogs face high mortality.
This marathon isn’t just about money. It’s personal, too. Harbison says the short training period will make the run tougher than a typical marathon, but it’s all for the dogs. “It’s about the bigger mission—cutting the number of street dogs worldwide in half,” he adds.
What keeps Harbison passionate is the chance to make a real difference. He’s already built a large online following—over a million followers on Instagram, X, and TikTok. The platform lets him raise awareness, share life‑saving stories, and encourage others to get involved.
Happy Doggo is now setting its sights on a 2026 launch of a full‑scale mobile clinic and hopes to double its staff to 40–50 people. “We’re building these mobile clinics,” he says, “and we need to get governments involved to make lasting changes.”
In the end, Niall Harbison’s story is one of near‑death, determination, and a lifelong mission to help stray dogs. He has turned a personal crisis into a global movement—feeding, rescuing, and educating, all while pushing for policy reform. Whether it’s a morning feed on a moped, a field rescue after a drive‑by shooting, or a sprint through Bangkok’s streets, Harbison stays focussed on what matters: giving stray dogs a second chance at life.
Source: New York Post
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