BANGKOK — The Siberian husky burned in Bangkok, the flames devouring her thick fur. Holding hands in the pet funeral hall, the dog’s owners wept soundlessly.

They had paid $160 for their dog, Friendly, to be cremated in the proper Thai way, festooned with marigolds and sprinkled with holy water at a Buddhist temple, or wat.

Bangkok, a messy city with little green space, is not ideal for pets. A park near where I live is home to nine-foot-long monitor lizards that looked capable of snacking on Agatha, my family’s miniature schnauzer. Pets swallowed whole by pythons are not as uncommon an occurrence as one would hope.

The Bangkok government takes a blasé attitude toward stray animals, so there is little in the way of spaying or neutering. As a consequence, an estimated 100,000 street dogs, in varying states of disrepair, roam the streets of the Thai capital.