August 21, 2023 • 7 mins
The extraordinary Niall Harbison joins Jonesy & Amanda to chat about his mission to save 10000 dogs a month while uploading positive uplifting content online.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda gem Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
If you're on social media and you love animals, chances
are you know our next guest. His name is Nil Harbison.
He went from being a successful entrepreneur cooking for celebrities
like U two and Tom Hanks, to caring for stray
dogs in Thailand and growing over a million followers in
the process. He credits the dogs with saving his life,
and he's written a book called Hope, How Street Dogs
(00:25):
Taught Me the Meaning of Life.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Niall, hi here, he is.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good morning, Gith, so nice to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I've seen all your stuff on Instagram. I didn't realize
your backstory and the kind of life that you stepped
away from. Tell us about those big, high flying years
of yours.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah. Well, I was a chef for a long time
and cooked for a lot of famous and rich people,
and then I set up businesses and was in the
corporate world and kind of trudging to work like a
lot of people ninety five pushing numbers of own spreadsheets
stuff like that, and then I just decided to to
quit and head to the beach in Thailand, which is
(01:04):
a dream I guess for other people.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Because it's interesting. You get from being a chef to
a number crunch as you say, but cheffing is kind
of more creative, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it is, but it's also a really hard job.
You know, most of us eat and enjoy your time out,
but like, you're working pretty anti social hours. I used
to drink a lot. You're working weekends, you don't get
to see your friends. So it's maybe as glamorous as
it sounds being a chef.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I now remember when you say, how are you cooking
for you too? And people like that, You know that'd
be great. You know Bono would be you know, he'd
always be up for a Guinness pie.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, he ordered Actually one time when I was cooking
thirty seven full Irish breakfast when he heard the chef
was Irish and I was in the kitchen. So that
was six o'clock, six o'clock in the morning. So he
was actually one of the nicer celebrities, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
When you went to Thailand, did you have this mission
in mind or did you saw the need on the
streets of Thailand?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
No, I saw the need. I mean it's a long story,
but I actually ended up in hospital because I drank
so much and I had, like I suffer from depression
and anxiety, so I had a bit of a life
flashing before my eyes sort of moment where I was like,
wow that like, you know, this is if I'm going
to die here, which I thought I was. I was like,
this isn't very you know, I haven't achieved very much
(02:23):
in my life, so I was like, I need to
do something more meaningful. It sounds a bit corny, but
that's exactly how it was. And I just started then
feeding dogs and building a whole new life.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So when you feed the dogs, it's not like you
take them all into your home. You actually feed the
dogs on the streets.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, it's kind of hard
to understand, but I feed eight hundred dogs every day
via a little woman makes it food for me and
then I distribute some of it on my mopad and
other I give it to other volunteers as well. If
anybody's been to maybe Bally and you're part of the
world or one of these countries, they're so many street
dogs and it's not like you know, where I'm from
(03:03):
Ireland or Australia where everything is nicely. You know, everybody's
got their pets and you've got the odd dog. There
are dogs on every street corner that are looking for food,
so it's a whole different world and they struggle massively,
so I'm trying to help them out a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Are they more and more dogs appearing or do you
know what I mean, because it's never going to stop,
is that there's going to be dogs and all of
a sudden there be too many dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, well, once they hear there's an Irish guy out
on the moped feeding that, they do appear from everywhere. No,
I do a lot of sterilizing as well, which is
neutering or spain the dogs. So that's the only way
to tackle it, is to get the numbers down. So
the feeding is fun and essential, but the sterilizing is
even more important. So my dream is to get the
(03:50):
number of street dogs down around the world. So it
does take a lot of less exciting stuff. I guess.
The sterilizing is really really.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And you do that yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, I've said it all up like literally from the
back of my moped.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
But no, but the steril are you do the sterilizing
yourself on the back of your mind. I was about
to say, gee.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, there's a look, I'm a bit squeamish as well,
Like I've struggled. I always deal with broken legs and
stuff like that. But I take them to vets and
there's and I'm trying to like build out build out
systems here as well. There's there's some other actually a
couple of ausies here who do do some work as well.
So we we have a team of vets and and
people on the ground now as well who.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Help tell us some of the individual dogs. The stories
are heartbreaking, aren't they The cases with dogs that have
been hit in the head with axes and things. And
I love seeing the transformation of these pets, of these dogs.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, the some of them are are just her I
see horrific cruelty. But I think if you like, if
you look on social media or anywhere, it's quite depressing.
So I tried to put a positive spin on it,
like and show their transformations so nobody wants to log
in and see cruelty or or you know, bloody images.
So the way I do it is like I have
(05:02):
some really good little characters, like McMuffin is one dog.
She is cancer and she's thrown out in the streets
basically because they didn't want her anymore. So we transformed her,
fixed her up, but took about four or five months,
but she's now fantastic. There's King Whacker. Yeah, he got
split open with a pick axe on his head, which
(05:24):
was not was pretty grim at the start when I
had him in the truck, but now he lives over
in Scotland. So basically the I focus a lot on,
like those individual cases are really transformations and they make
people feel good, I think, and then they see a
happy ending. So I've rehomed fifty five dogs in the
last year, which is that's pretty good. Yeah, it's not
(05:44):
going to change the whole problem, but it's definitely for
those dogs and the families they've gone to. I think
it makes it difference.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And how has this turned your life around? You said
that the dogs have saved you.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yeah, unbelievably, like I was in hospital. Like I said,
it's one of them drinking in the background. Tina, who's
one of the one of the special dogs. She's she's
actually unfortunately in the later stages of her life now
at the moment, but I'm kind of people love her.
She's a Golden Retriever. She was tied up on a chain,
but she she's now living a wonderful life. So it's
(06:19):
changed changed my life in terms of like, look, it's
really early here. I just woke up at five point thirty.
The sun was out, and I have a huge pepper
mut Like I get to go and feed dogs for
the day, which is a dream for many people. I
might in the old days, I might have just been
coming home now or even starting to drink at this
time after waking up. So it's a bleak game changer.
(06:40):
I get to do what I love, and I'm very
I feel blessed to do that because most people are
like I used to be, you know, tied down with
mortgages and dependencies and you know all the all the
stuff that I used to trudge to work and not
enjoy it at all. So now I'm doing something I
really love when I'm very, very blessed with that.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Well, no, you're doing great work. Because my experience with
dogs in the street dogs is Lady in the Tramp
and that's pretty much.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know how they ate all the spaghetti.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That was pretty much it. But you know this is
a new light.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, my god, watch that movie.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
That's that's good.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That's good, niall, thank you for joining us. You can
pre order Nile's book Hope, How Street Dogs taught Me
the Meaning of life through Booktobia and Amazon. Thank you
for joining us.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Thanks for having me, guys, and have a lovely day.
Jersey and Amanda gem Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
If you're on social media and you love animals, chances
are you know our next guest. His name is Nil Harbison.
He went from being a successful entrepreneur cooking for celebrities
like U two and Tom Hanks, to caring for stray
dogs in Thailand and growing over a million followers in
the process. He credits the dogs with saving his life,
and he's written a book called Hope, How Street Dogs
(00:25):
Taught Me the Meaning of Life.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Niall, hi here, he is.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Good morning, Gith, so nice to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I've seen all your stuff on Instagram. I didn't realize
your backstory and the kind of life that you stepped
away from. Tell us about those big, high flying years
of yours.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah. Well, I was a chef for a long time
and cooked for a lot of famous and rich people,
and then I set up businesses and was in the
corporate world and kind of trudging to work like a
lot of people ninety five pushing numbers of own spreadsheets
stuff like that, and then I just decided to to
quit and head to the beach in Thailand, which is
(01:04):
a dream I guess for other people.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Because it's interesting. You get from being a chef to
a number crunch as you say, but cheffing is kind
of more creative, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it is, but it's also a really hard job.
You know, most of us eat and enjoy your time out,
but like, you're working pretty anti social hours. I used
to drink a lot. You're working weekends, you don't get
to see your friends. So it's maybe as glamorous as
it sounds being a chef.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I now remember when you say, how are you cooking
for you too? And people like that, You know that'd
be great. You know Bono would be you know, he'd
always be up for a Guinness pie.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, he ordered Actually one time when I was cooking
thirty seven full Irish breakfast when he heard the chef
was Irish and I was in the kitchen. So that
was six o'clock, six o'clock in the morning. So he
was actually one of the nicer celebrities, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
When you went to Thailand, did you have this mission
in mind or did you saw the need on the
streets of Thailand?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
No, I saw the need. I mean it's a long story,
but I actually ended up in hospital because I drank
so much and I had, like I suffer from depression
and anxiety, so I had a bit of a life
flashing before my eyes sort of moment where I was like,
wow that like, you know, this is if I'm going
to die here, which I thought I was. I was like,
this isn't very you know, I haven't achieved very much
(02:23):
in my life, so I was like, I need to
do something more meaningful. It sounds a bit corny, but
that's exactly how it was. And I just started then
feeding dogs and building a whole new life.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So when you feed the dogs, it's not like you
take them all into your home. You actually feed the
dogs on the streets.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, it's kind of hard
to understand, but I feed eight hundred dogs every day
via a little woman makes it food for me and
then I distribute some of it on my mopad and
other I give it to other volunteers as well. If
anybody's been to maybe Bally and you're part of the
world or one of these countries, they're so many street
dogs and it's not like you know, where I'm from
(03:03):
Ireland or Australia where everything is nicely. You know, everybody's
got their pets and you've got the odd dog. There
are dogs on every street corner that are looking for food,
so it's a whole different world and they struggle massively,
so I'm trying to help them out a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Are they more and more dogs appearing or do you
know what I mean, because it's never going to stop,
is that there's going to be dogs and all of
a sudden there be too many dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, well, once they hear there's an Irish guy out
on the moped feeding that, they do appear from everywhere. No,
I do a lot of sterilizing as well, which is
neutering or spain the dogs. So that's the only way
to tackle it, is to get the numbers down. So
the feeding is fun and essential, but the sterilizing is
even more important. So my dream is to get the
(03:50):
number of street dogs down around the world. So it
does take a lot of less exciting stuff. I guess.
The sterilizing is really really.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And you do that yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, I've said it all up like literally from the
back of my moped.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
But no, but the steril are you do the sterilizing
yourself on the back of your mind. I was about
to say, gee.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, there's a look, I'm a bit squeamish as well,
Like I've struggled. I always deal with broken legs and
stuff like that. But I take them to vets and
there's and I'm trying to like build out build out
systems here as well. There's there's some other actually a
couple of ausies here who do do some work as well.
So we we have a team of vets and and
people on the ground now as well who.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Help tell us some of the individual dogs. The stories
are heartbreaking, aren't they The cases with dogs that have
been hit in the head with axes and things. And
I love seeing the transformation of these pets, of these dogs.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, the some of them are are just her I
see horrific cruelty. But I think if you like, if
you look on social media or anywhere, it's quite depressing.
So I tried to put a positive spin on it,
like and show their transformations so nobody wants to log
in and see cruelty or or you know, bloody images.
So the way I do it is like I have
(05:02):
some really good little characters, like McMuffin is one dog.
She is cancer and she's thrown out in the streets
basically because they didn't want her anymore. So we transformed her,
fixed her up, but took about four or five months,
but she's now fantastic. There's King Whacker. Yeah, he got
split open with a pick axe on his head, which
(05:24):
was not was pretty grim at the start when I
had him in the truck, but now he lives over
in Scotland. So basically the I focus a lot on,
like those individual cases are really transformations and they make
people feel good, I think, and then they see a
happy ending. So I've rehomed fifty five dogs in the
last year, which is that's pretty good. Yeah, it's not
(05:44):
going to change the whole problem, but it's definitely for
those dogs and the families they've gone to. I think
it makes it difference.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And how has this turned your life around? You said
that the dogs have saved you.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yeah, unbelievably, like I was in hospital. Like I said,
it's one of them drinking in the background. Tina, who's
one of the one of the special dogs. She's she's
actually unfortunately in the later stages of her life now
at the moment, but I'm kind of people love her.
She's a Golden Retriever. She was tied up on a chain,
but she she's now living a wonderful life. So it's
(06:19):
changed changed my life in terms of like, look, it's
really early here. I just woke up at five point thirty.
The sun was out, and I have a huge pepper
mut Like I get to go and feed dogs for
the day, which is a dream for many people. I
might in the old days, I might have just been
coming home now or even starting to drink at this
time after waking up. So it's a bleak game changer.
(06:40):
I get to do what I love, and I'm very
I feel blessed to do that because most people are
like I used to be, you know, tied down with
mortgages and dependencies and you know all the all the
stuff that I used to trudge to work and not
enjoy it at all. So now I'm doing something I
really love when I'm very, very blessed with that.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Well, no, you're doing great work. Because my experience with
dogs in the street dogs is Lady in the Tramp
and that's pretty much.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know how they ate all the spaghetti.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That was pretty much it. But you know this is
a new light.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, my god, watch that movie.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
That's that's good.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That's good, niall, thank you for joining us. You can
pre order Nile's book Hope, How Street Dogs taught Me
the Meaning of life through Booktobia and Amazon. Thank you
for joining us.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Thanks for having me, guys, and have a lovely day.
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