Latest news with #Tina:TheDogWhoChangedtheWorld
USA Today
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Saving one abused dog at a time in Thailand
Saving one abused dog at a time in Thailand | The Excerpt On Sunday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Following the loss of his rescue dog, a sweet golden retriever named after the legendary Tina Turner, Niall Harbison set out on a personal mission: to rescue and rehabilitate abused street dogs in his adopted country of Thailand. Niall captures the story of Tina and his dog rescue journey in his new book "Tina: The Dog who Changed the World." Niall joins The Excerpt to discuss Tina's legacy and what's next in the fight to save even more dogs while bringing about a fix to this persistent global issue. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Dana Taylor: Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, May 11th, 2025. Niall's new book, Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World is on bookshelves now. In it, he documents Tina's legacy and what's next in the fight to save even more dogs or bringing about a fix to this persistent global issue. Thanks for joining us on The Excerpt, Niall. Niall Harbison: Thanks for having me. Dana Taylor: Niall, you're really about hitting what's known as rock bottom as the entry point to your rescue work. Can you share more about that turning point for you? Niall Harbison: Yeah, I started my life in the corporate world and I actually escaped to Thailand. When I sold my business, I wanted to sort of lie on the beach and relax, but unfortunately, I actually was an alcoholic and I nearly drank myself to death. So I ended up in ICU, in hospital, really rock bottom, literally, nearly drank myself to death, and I had to rethink my life completely when I was lying in that hospital bed. And I decided that my mission would become to save dogs if I was lucky enough to survive, and I did survive, and that's what I've gone on to do. Dana Taylor: Let's turn to the namesake of your latest book. How did Tina come into your life and what was her rehabilitation like? Then you say she started a movement. How did that come about? Niall Harbison: Well, when I got out of hospital, I actually just started feeding one dog, two dogs, literally on a very small scale, and it quickly grew then to a stage where I was feeding 80 or a hundred street dogs myself. And we now actually feed 1,200 every single day with fresh food, but we also rescued dogs. And one day I came across a beautiful dog, Tina. She was on a chain. She wasn't beautiful when I first saw her. She was chained up. She'd been used for breeding, terribly malnourished, and she was close to death. So she kind of reminded me of myself and I rescued her, which was tricky, but she blossomed back into the most beautiful golden retriever you could ever imagine. And unfortunately it wasn't straightforward. The damage had been done already with Tina and her kidneys were really bad. So she actually only lived for six months. But in those six months, she inspired me by not living in the past, and she really just had this magnificent outlook on life and was a wonderful, wonderful creature. She inspired me to go on and do wonderful work in her name. And we're building a hospital. We sterilize, which is neutering or spaying 7,000 dogs every single month, and we obviously rehabilitate more dogs. So a lot of that has been done in Tina's name. Dana Taylor: You mentioned commenters on social media who often say, "Niall, take that one home with you," but that you couldn't possibly take them all because it would distract from your mission and just the numbers that you're talking about that just wouldn't be possible. When did you know that Tina was going to live with you and be your dog? Niall Harbison: Pretty much straight away. I brought her home the first night and we had this incident where she was incredibly skinny because she hadn't been fed and it's actually a thing called refeeding syndrome. So I thought the best thing to do for a skinny dog would be to give her a big wholesome meal. Turns out that's the worst thing to do. I nearly killed her because her stomach expanded with gas and really, really dangerous. So I made a mistake. She was in my apartment and she nearly died two days after saving her. So from that very, very early day, she was with me and we had a very, very close bond. And she survived luckily. And we went on to have loads of time together, but not enough. I still miss her on a daily basis, but her being and just her presence has inspired me to go on and help so many other dogs. Dana Taylor: How's the rescue operation impacted the communities that you work in? Niall Harbison: There's so much work to do. So in Thailand where I am, there are eight to 10 million street dogs. So it's a very hard number to process. It's huge. If you go to your local gas station, if you go to your local food mart, there'll be eight, 10 dogs outside everywhere, and they're not owned. They're part of the community. So it's a real battle between the community and the dogs. Not everybody wants 10 street dogs outside their house ripping up the trash. So I have to find a way that is not just rescuing one individual dogs, but it's all about trying to change legislation, trying to do the sterilization, trying to educate the kids and really create a movement that will help dogs at massive scale. There's no point in me going... I could go around and find another Tina 10 times a day, but that's not going to fix the core problem. So I used Tina's memory to... I remember burying her, and I remember saying, "Okay, your life is not going to be in vain. I'm going to make change that is impactful in your name." Dana Taylor: Now, once the animals have recovered, how do they go to new homes or be released back to where they were living? Can you share the process you've created here? Niall Harbison: Yeah, sometimes we rehome them locally, so we find some brilliant owners. Sometimes we rehome them abroad. Very lucky to have a big social media following, and people love the little characters. So we have dogs in England, we have dogs in America. Mr. Fox is one of the dogs. He's in Montana. We have Brad Pitt who are rehomed. He's in Long Beach. Snickers is in Washington, so we rehome a few, but the rehoming is never going to fix the problem. And I'm well aware that there's plenty of shelter dogs in America, for example. But what the rehoming does for us is it helps us sort of educate the world about these wonderful street dogs, that they are, in fact, just like the pets that a lot of people have. They're dogs who just need a home. So the storytelling around rehoming the dogs is really educational, but again, it's not going to fix the problem by rehoming a few dogs. It's part of the much bigger educational program. Dana Taylor: You mentioned some of the other dogs that you've rescued. Tell us about Whacker. Niall Harbison: His name for a start is quite funny because when you go to the vets, they ask you for a name and I might arrive at the vets five times a day with a new dog. So I arrived with this dog in my arms who member of the public had called me about, and his head was split open. If you look on the internet, you'll find a picture. I'm not joking, you could nearly see into his brains that somebody had hit him with a pickaxe straight down the middle. They'd obviously tried to kill him, and I held him, brought him to the vets. The vets told me that they'd missed by a millimeter, one more millimeter, and he was gone. So the Thai lady asked me, "Okay, what's his name?" And I couldn't think of anything. I just thought he'd had a whack on the head. So I just said, "Look, Whacker, his name's Whacker." So I wrote that down on the piece of paper. Once he recovered, he started behaving quite regally and he was quite proud of himself as he walked around. So he became King Whacker. So King Whacker now recovered, took about six months, and he's now king Whacker of Scotland. He lives in Scotland with his family, and he has a wonderful life there. So I think it's just part of the storytelling, and I think that's my favorite name out of all of them. Dana Taylor: This work is moving, but I know that it can also be harrowing. How do you find resilience on very hard days. Niall Harbison: I'm not going to lie and say, I've got it figured out and it's easy, it's not. It's really, really hard. We see dogs who've been shot. I've seen quite a few dogs poisoned, and seeing a dog poisoned is incredibly traumatizing. You see them taking their last breaths, their legs are kicking. To see something like that is horrible, but you just have to push on. And things like Tina helped me push on and the success stories, the Whackers, the Brad Pitts, the dogs that we've adopted, I just simply get home broken some nights, but I look at them on my phone and the pictures of them, and it shows me that, look, you can't save all the lives, but you can definitely have a positive impact. Dana Taylor: Now, you described Tina's death in your book with these words. "It was by far the most profound moment in my life that I'd ever experienced." How did her passing change you and influence your work? Niall Harbison: That's a good question. I was really broken when it happened because it sort of lasted for about a month, and I had three dogs die at the same time. My own pet, Snoop, Tina and another dog called Derek. And I buried her. I have to stay strong for the dogs themselves because when they're dying, you have to be there for them. I buried her myself, and I remember screaming. It's in the middle of the jungle, but I padded the ground. I remember just sort of screaming into the air being like, "I'm going to effing do something in your name." And just really just had a sort of a guttural scream that I was just like, I'm going to turn this negative into something really, really positive. And that's what started the acceleration of everything I do. Dana Taylor: Niall, the dog rescue and care organization you founded is called Happy Doggo. How is it different from other animal rescue and care facilities? Niall Harbison: The thing is, with animal care facilities, I love anybody who's working in charity. I love anybody who's trying to help animals. One person adopting a dog is my hero because they're saving one dog's life, a medium-sized charity, large charities, we should all be working together because it's a common goal. I'm not going to be able to fix it on my own. I think we do things a little differently. In Happy Doggo, we're trying to tackle the root problem and get at the cause of it and really make change in my lifetime for these dogs. But I have so much respect for everybody who helps any type of animals, and the more we can work together and change opinions and harass friends into adopting dogs rather than buying special dogs, it's a real team effort to change the welfare of dogs around the world. Dana Taylor: You mentioned that it's your mission to rescue a million or more dogs. Is it achievable and what will it take? Niall Harbison: Yeah, I think it's achievable. I think that numbers need to up it because we sterilize between five and 8,000 every month now. So that's a huge amount. Each one of those is an operation where you have to sedate them, the vets operate on them, and that means that mothers like Tina won't have... she probably had 40, 50 puppies in her lifetime that were sold, but each operation stops that happening to 40 or 50 dogs coming into the world. So we're doing five to 8,000 of those every month. So that adds up to nearly a hundred thousand dogs stopped coming into the world every month because of sterilizing. So I think a million is conservative. I think we can speed things up. Obviously it takes marketing, funding, logistics, really tough things like that. But I'll do it in Tina's name. Dana Taylor: Niall, thank you so much for being on The Excerpt. Niall Harbison: Thanks for having me. Dana Taylor: Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Green, and Kaely Monahan for their production assistant, our executive producers Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
Herald Sun
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Herald Sun
Oasis' Liam Gallagher and Tina, the dog who changed the world
Dog rescuer NIALL HARBISON is beloved on social media and around the globe for his work with the Happy Doggo sanctuary. In this edited extract from new book Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World, he shares the moving story of one very special girl – and a hardman rocker who stepped in to help. It all starts, as so many dog rescues do, with WhatsApp pinging. I don't recognise the number, so I can be pretty sure that the image I've received will be of a dog – and it's probably not a cute 'awww' kind. As I wait for it to download, there's a familiar sense of dread of whatever's coming next. It wasn't long after getting sober that my mission to save the street dogs in Thailand began. The dog that changed the world … Tina the rescued golden retriever, with Niall Harbison. Photo: Ryan Dunbar You'd imagine I'd get hardened to seeing upsetting pictures of mistreated animals after all this time. Some are cruelly abused by humans, others were just unlucky enough to be born. Unwanted and unloved by anyone. As the picture on my iPhone finally crystallises into a clear photograph, I see it's a dog on a chain. The fur is fair, thin and matted in places, while sparse in others, with sore-looking skin exposed. The poor thing has been lying in its own toileting. But the dog's face is long and noble somehow, and poking out from the fur obscuring its vision are the most vulnerable-looking, saddest dark eyes I've ever seen: an expression of complete dejection. I groan audibly and put my head in my hands. It is impossible to tell the breed from the picture, and let's be honest the 'breeds' in Thailand are way more loosely based on the intended breed. Most of the dogs out here in Koh Samui are a mix-up of all sorts as they've haphazardly mated on the street and multiplied (and multiplied, and multiplied …). 'You'd imagine I'd get hardened to seeing upsetting pictures' … Niall is often sent confronting photos of dogs that need rescuing. On a good day, their stories have happy endings, as in this picture shared on his Instagram. This particular poor mite had been spotted by a tourist in the mountains that morning. I'm knackered. I want my dinner, I want a shower, and I want to curl up on the sofa with my own dog Snoop. But this is one of those moments when you just know you have to drop everything. I quickly find the number of my Aussie mate, Rod. He moved out here to retire from working in the police force, but because he's as passionate about animal welfare as I am, he seemed to work even harder now in his so-called retirement. When a dog rescue seems like it might be a complex one, Rod is the guy I call. He picks up after three rings. 'Rod,' I announce, cutting short any pleasantries. 'I need your help, my friend, there's another dog that needs us right now – and I have a feeling this one won't be easy …' TRIGGERED CHILDHOOD MEMORIES I really wanted Tina Turner, as we'd named her, to know that not all humans were bad. She obviously was a special dog for holding onto life as long as she had, and I was taking care of her now to make up for that. I'm not sure whether I twigged this at the time, but there was something about Tina that brought back more of my unhappy and slightly complicated childhood memories. I guess her being a mummy of all the pups that she'd been separated from, most likely before it was time to do so, triggered those memories again. I didn't even realise I'd tried to blot them out from all that time ago, but I was suddenly transported back to the moment when I woke up in my family home to find that my mum had left us. The day before she was there when I got back from school, and the next day she was no longer there. It's still one of the most isolating feelings I have ever experienced, that hurt and confusion, and trying to understand what causes this bewilderment has made me question so many things throughout my life. I think we all just want to belong somewhere and have someone to care for and be loved by. 'Tina had every right to be wary of any human' … but she bonded swiftly and deeply with Niall. Photo: Ryan Dunbar That may sound silly comparing my own life to dogs, but that's what I do all the time, to be honest. Another observation I've had many times over since I started all this is how dogs are so much purer and kinder souls than us humans. Whereas I distrusted people for years and pushed women away as an adult – for fear of ever being rejected and hurt again, I suppose – animals seemed more forgiving and trusting than I used to be. Tina had every right to be wary of any human, but instead she immediately opened her heart to me and gave me her total trust. She clung to me those nights in that first week or two, trying to get as close as possible, even curling up right on my head some nights as if seeking comfort and safety. The pair of us misfits bonded so deeply, and I quickly became incredibly protective of her. I had a gut instinct about this dog, it was like meeting an old friend or, without meaning to sound too 'woo woo', some soul from a past life. I loved every bone in that skinny little body. TINA THE FOSTER MUM Tina followed me everywhere, always within about two feet of wherever I was. Every day I do what I call the 'sick rounds', just to check in with the patients (in this case the poorly mutts) and where they are with their recovery (or not, sadly). Tina would be there, right beside me. She would be gently cleaning little puppies, or just keeping a watchful eye and bringing her own unique calming presence to general proceedings. She might have been parted from all the puppies she had been forced to breed in her former, miserable life. But that natural motherly instinct was always in her. She loved to give. You know those so-called 'vampire' types of people in our lives whose presence can suck the life out of you? Tina was the very opposite of that: she radiated life in every direction and lifted us all up in every imaginable way. 'The abandoned pup needed a mum' … little Solo with Tina, who became her foster mother, in one of Niall's Instagram posts. Like the day we found a tiny puppy dumped in the jungle. The poor little mite, covered in ticks and fleas, wouldn't have lasted more than 24 hours all alone without a mum. So, of course we took her straight in and started to look after her, feeding her goat's milk for nourishment. But the abandoned pup needed a mum really, and we didn't need to think long about who might best nurture her with some maternal TLC. Tina had already swung into action to take little Solo (as we named the puppy for obvious reasons) under her wing. The pair of them soon became inseparable and Solo worshipped the ground that Tina walked on. Like a real daughter, Solo even started to pick up Tina's little mannerisms and her gentle, kind ways. Tina was always fussing over Solo and sharing her toys, making sure the pup felt cared for. It was beautiful to watch. Under the influence of her foster mummy, Solo became the gentlest, sweetest little angel, and I'm thrilled to say that there was a happy ending for Solo – my own little brother fell in love with her after my family had visited. She is now living her best life in Belgium. Tina would be so proud. THE NEWS NOBODY WANTED In the late spring we received the bad news we simply didn't want to hear. More test results came back from the vet, who diagnosed that Tina was suffering with stage 2 to 3 kidney failure. We were left reeling. We asked multiple vets in Thailand for advice, and some overseas vets who'd heard about Tina's story online also offered their opinions and shared their expertise. But whoever we asked, the unanimous verdict was that Tina Turner – the brave little warrior she was – would have just three to six months to live. Although the news was terrible I was determined to make whatever time Tina had left in this world as joyful as she deserved. 'We were left reeling' … Niall with Tina on her final day. Now her legacy lives on. While all the humans who loved her were devastated, Tina was largely oblivious to the fact her time on this earth was limited. Or perhaps she knew but like a wise old person decided just to not care and to make the most of every day. Seeing her and knowing we wouldn't have her for much longer made me very philosophical. I started all sorts of deep pondering on mortality and life – after all, everyone's time on this earth is limited. But most of us don't really confront the fact we will die at some point. Once again, it reminded me of the fact that it was only when I was made to face my own mortality that I realised I wanted to live. I tried very hard in those days to reframe Tina's bad diagnosis as something that would bring positive change. I just didn't know what at that stage. TROLL WITH IT: ROCKER LIAM STEPS UP Some time after Tina died, we started looking after an abandoned pup we called Buttons – a real charmer. Eventually we went through our usual process and put her up on the website for adoption. People took to her online immediately. I think it was because everyone loved her story. The idea that she was trying to create a better life for herself, and had been trekking around the jungle to find it, really appealed to people. Looking through the adoption requests is all part of the weekly admin – it's wonderful seeing that people are interested in offering a Thai street dog their forever home. We had about 30 or 40 applications for Buttons – not bad – and as I scanned the names on the spreadsheet, I immediately noticed one name in particular: Liam Gallagher. 'We loved that dog' … the animal-loving Liam Gallagher on a walk with Buttons, the abandoned dog he adopted from Niall Harbison, in one of the singer's own Instagram posts. 'Look, somebody's got the same name as Liam Gallagher,' said one of the other guys. I pulled a face at him because obviously it's a very famous name … but it's also not a particularly uncommon one. I shrugged and carried on reading. But then, in the next column on the form, where potential adopters fill in what they do for a living, they had written 'singer'. Ha! As if. Come on, I thought, this is ridiculous. This was obviously my mates having a joke, or some troll with too much time on their hands. I read the rest of the information in the form to see what other gags this person had come up with. There was a legitimate-looking business address, which out of curiosity I Googled and found that it was connected to a Debbie Gwyther: the name of the partner of THE Liam Gallagher. And so it was, that after more research – and following the usual stringent steps of our adoption process (no exceptions for celebrities) – we found ourselves on a video call with the British Oasis star himself. 'That's the sort of effect she had on people' … Liam Gallagher as most people know him, on stage in September 2024. 'I hope you're OK after Tina, we loved that dog,' were the first words from Liam and it stopped me in my tracks. Here was a famous singer asking me about Tina. That's the sort of effect she had on people. Liam Gallagher ended up successfully adopting Buttons, with Niall taking her from Thailand to the animal-loving rocker's house in the UK – an adventure he details in the book. 'I CAN'T HELP SMILING' As you read this, building has started on Tina's Hospital for Dogs Who Aren't Doing So Good. It is due to open in late 2025. I wish things could move faster but it isn't for a lack of hard work, funding or will on our part. I find myself stopping by Tina's grave nearly every day. I wait until nobody else is around, then I just sit there and talk to her. I tell her about the fancy New York architects, the people climbing mountains in her name and the T-shirts with her face, being worn all over the world now. Tina would have been too modest to ever think it was because of her. She'd have been more worried about how everyone else was feeling, eager to give out some more love and attention. 'Now it is starting to become a reality' … the cover of Tina: The Dog Who Changed The World. But this dream of Tina's Hospital was all down to her, and now it is starting to become a reality. I know she would be grinning about all of this in whatever canine heaven she is in. I imagine her up there somewhere, wearing her favourite bandana, with a tennis ball at her feet, and my lovely Snoop next to her for company. And I can't help smiling. This is an edited extract from Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World, by Niall Harbison. It will be published by HarperCollins on May 14 and is available to pre-order now. Originally published as How tragic Tina melted hearts around the world, inspired rocker Liam to adopt a pup and made a hospital for dogs happen
