Marine police are seeking people to adopt three puppies living on the oil-smuggling boats that went missing from Sattahip last week. The vessels were later found and towed back to a pier in Songkhla province.
In addition to the eight crewmen, police also found seven dogs and three puppies on the boats.
The adult dogs belong to some of the crewmen who are in detention, pending the outcome of an investigation theft of the boats, which initially carried 330,000 litres of fuel.
Police are only seeking new homes for the three puppies, as they could not catch the mature dogs because they were rather fierce. They left them on the boats with food.
Crewmen told police that they kept dogs on board for security reasons, as they would bark when strangers came near while they fished at sea.
A police officer told reporters that a puppy recently fell off a boat, but was rescued in time. They boarded the boats and found two more puppies. They are caring for them until someone adopts them.
The disappearance of the boats has sparked criticism of the police regarding their theft while officially impounded. The boats had been seized in March and their crews were arrested for allegedly being involved in smuggling untaxed oil.
Police are yet to locate the owner or owners of the boats or issue any arrest warrants. Five marine police officers in Sattahip were transferred after the boats were found to be missing.
