Dogs pay for Russia's stupidity

I am a sucker for a good Buzzfeed photo scroll of cute dogs.

When I came across some supporting pieces of paper with their names written over a crossed out “biological waste” I had to do more than “oh” and “ah.”  

It was a comment made by Alexie Sorokin that started this furry petition. Sorokin is the owner of Basya Service, a private company hired by the city of Sochi to exterminate stray dogs. He called them “biological waste.”

Call me crazy, but if anyone dared to call my dog “biological waste,” there’s a good chance I would find myself in handcuffs.

Animal rights activists estimate that between 5,000 and 7,000 dogs have been killed in an effort to clean the streets of Sochi. I don’t need to say that this is horrible. But I will — this is horrible. If I wasn’t disgusted with the simple-minded Russian government before, I definitely am now.

Some of these animals used to be pets. They had families who loved and cared for them. But when the government needed to mow down homes to build the Olympic facilities, families were compensated with apartments. Pets aren’t always ideal in small areas, and families were forced to abandon them.

I am not at all saying that it’s acceptable for people to ditch their pets. I understand that life happens and it throws you curve balls, but abandoning your pet in the city is ridiculous. When you choose to take in an animal you accept certain responsibilities, which includes finding a suitable home for your pet when you can no longer care for it.
But in this particular case, I’m putting most of the blame on Russia’s government. The reality is that Sochi wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility of playing host to the Olympics. And all the while, they knew that Sochi was overrun by stray dogs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, has acknowledged the high population of stray dogs in Sochi. It is nothing new to them.

In spite of that, Russia neglected to take the proper time it needed to prepare, acting like a teenage girl trying to clean up her mess by shoving all the dirty laundry under the bed. But the laundry is dogs and they’re being killed.

Another aspect of this issue to look into is the way the dogs are being killed. Sorokin claims his company uses traps and poisons to euthanize the animals, because apparently in Russia poisoning is humane.

Dogs are not rats. They are man’s best friend, and killing your best friend is frowned upon.

If Russia wants to look pretty to impress the international cool kids of the world for two weeks, it needs to find a humane way to do so.

Stop hogging all the Chobani yogurt and build some animal shelters.

­— lnbanks@indiana.edu
Follow columnist
Lexia Banks
on Twitter @LexiaBanks.