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Sochi trying to eliminate stray dog problem.


Myles

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Thousands of stray dogs have been living amid the mud and rubble of Olympic construction sites, roaming the streets and snowy mountainsides, and begging for scraps of food.

But as the games drew near, authorities have turned to a company to catch and kill the animals so they don't bother Sochi's new visitors -- or even wander into an Olympic event.

Alexei Sorokin, director general of pest control firm Basya Services, told The Associated Press that his company had a contract to exterminate the animals throughout the Olympics, which open Friday.

Sorokin described his company as being involved in the "catching and disposing" of dogs, although he refused to specify how the dogs would be killed or say where they would take the carcasses.

The dogs have been causing numerous problems, Sorokin said Monday, including "biting children."

He said he was stunned last week when he attended a rehearsal for the opening ceremony and saw a stray dog walking in on the performers.

"A dog ran into the Fisht Stadium, we took it away," he said. "God forbid something like this happens at the actual opening ceremony. This will be a disgrace for the whole country."

The strays tend to gather near construction sites where they have gotten food and shelter from workers. Dogs have even been able to get inside the Olympic Park and accredited hotel complexes and villages, in the coastal cluster of arenas and venues up in the mountains.

A pack of at least a half-dozen healthy-looking dogs roamed around a loading zone of a gondola, 1,200 feet above the Gorki Plaza in the mountain venues for the Olympics as construction work continued late Sunday.

Olympic volunteers patted and cooed over strays that trotted into the park Monday. Another dog dropped to the ground, sunbathing under the Olympic Rings near a public site where medals will be presented to athletes during the games.

Animal activist Dina Filippova is among the opponents of the latest dog-culling plan, saying city authorities are using the Olympics as an excuse to cover an ongoing practice.

"We should understand that it is done not only before the Olympics but constantly," she told the AP in an interview in downtown Sochi, where she was trying to find homes for seven puppies she recently rescued near the Olympic Park. "Two killers from that company work for the city to kill 300 dogs a month."

"It is not humane," she added. "There is a humane way of solving the problem of stray dogs which is used in Europe and the United States and even in some countries of the former Soviet Union -- that is a mass sterilization which eventually leads to no stray dogs on the streets."

Sorokin's company operates in the Krasnodar region, which includes Sochi and the neighboring area. He refused to say how many dogs they kill a year, calling it a "commercial secret."

Sergei Krivonosov, a lawmaker from the Krasnodar region, last year supported the dog culling.

Krivonosov said taking the dogs off the street was Russia's "responsibility to the international community and that their elimination is the quickest way to solve this problem."

He conceded, however, that this is "not the most humane way" of dealing with the problem and that authorities should encourage dog shelters.

Sochi city hall last year announced a contract "to catch and dispose" of strays in Sochi -- a move that animal activists vehemently protested. Authorities pledged to give up the practice and build animal shelters for strays instead.

Activists say there is no evidence that a shelter has been built. But city hall said in a statement on its website that it had opened a dog shelter Monday for 100 dogs.

Shooting stray dogs has been common practice in many Russian regions despite activists' efforts to push for more humane ways to deal with the issue.

Nadine Kincaid, an Olympic volunteer from Portland, Oregon, was surprised by how many dogs are roaming around Sochi.

"There's a lot of dogs everywhere. Right behind where we're staying, there's a whole legion of dogs," she said. "I come from a town where there's leash laws and everyone has to pick up after their dogs, so that's unusual to me to see that."

Kincaid said she would be upset if the dogs were being poisoned.

"As an animal lover, for me that's sad. But if they're like stray cats, they can keep breeding and cause more problems. So I can see, maybe, why," she added. "It's sad, but what do you do if you can't control them?"

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/02/03/sochi-officials-order-stray-dogs-killed-ahead-olympics/

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I would dearly love to see a dog ski-jumping. Would be sight for sore eyes.

He could adjust his landing with his tail wag!
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How does such an ass-backwards country like Russia get to host the olympics?

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How does such an ass-backwards country like Russia get to host the olympics?

Same as everyone else...politics and money.
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I hope they are also pushing the spay/neuter option.

I understand the need to eliminate these dogs at the present time. Packs of wild dogs can be very destructive. I had a pack around me a few years back. They would show up every couple weeks, tear up the trash cans and the trash in them. Once they killed several chickens. Then they are gone. I tried calling animal control, but unless I could tell them where they were, they couldn't do anything. I ended up shooting one of them. They haven't been back since. Strange that killing one out of four would keep the other three away.

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I hope they are also pushing the spay/neuter option.

I understand the need to eliminate these dogs at the present time. Packs of wild dogs can be very destructive. I had a pack around me a few years back. They would show up every couple weeks, tear up the trash cans and the trash in them. Once they killed several chickens. Then they are gone. I tried calling animal control, but unless I could tell them where they were, they couldn't do anything. I ended up shooting one of them. They haven't been back since. Strange that killing one out of four would keep the other three away.

I hope they are taking a humane approach as well but I can't help thinking..no.. Ammunition is a lot cheaper than the alternatives. Too bad :(
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Yep. just like the at the Olympics in Athens and the EU footballs games in the Ukraine, all the usual stray/unwanted dogs will be rounded up and slaughtered. Nothing says universal brotherhood of Man brought together in friendly sports competitions than the slaughter of thousands of innocent dogs. Good job!

Just to refresh your memory of the Ukrainian strategy for dealing with this problem.

"In some cases, dogs have been tossed into giant incinerators, she said, while in other cases dogs have been fed food that has been laced with cheap chemicals that have caused them protracted suffering and ultimately death.

Local officials have admitted buying mobile incinerators to destroy dogs, arguing that they are an effective method of fighting a serious problem.

"We put this incinerator on wheels and are now able to cover large areas including neighbouring towns," Yuri Basyuk, an official in the town of Lisichansk, told the RT TV station. "We had many objections but they are of far less importance than our fight against bites from stray dogs and the spread of infections.""

I have a message for the Ukraine; while I applaud your efforts towards closer relations with the EU, you will never be granted EU status until you join the civilized world in it's humane treatment of animals. That goes for Russia, China, Greece and every other country that hosts Olympic games.

A pox on all your houses!

Edited by redhen
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I want every cat and dog in a safe home, wish all of them could be.

But something I don't get- if these dogs are such a problem, why are they waiting till the last week or so before opening day to do something about it? Why haven't they been trying to do something for all these months they have been preparing in other ways?

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I want every cat and dog in a safe home, wish all of them could be.

But something I don't get- if these dogs are such a problem, why are they waiting till the last week or so before opening day to do something about it? Why haven't they been trying to do something for all these months they have been preparing in other ways?

I was also wondering about this.

As far as the way they are killing them, throwing them live into an incinerator is horrible. I'm not as opposed to a bullet to the head. If done right, it is instant death. If the USA can't even get the chemicals needed to properly excecute someone on death row, Russia wouldn't have enough for hundreds (or thousands) of stray dogs.

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I want every cat and dog in a safe home, wish all of them could be.

But something I don't get- if these dogs are such a problem, why are they waiting till the last week or so before opening day to do something about it? Why haven't they been trying to do something for all these months they have been preparing in other ways?

Cost
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Cost

Cost? How so? The didn't have the money till right now to start doing this? Or didn't figure they would need clear out the dogs till now and didn't want to spend the money they could use on other things?

I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just curious as to how you mean cost.

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Cost? How so? The didn't have the money till right now to start doing this?

Sure, Russia has money.

Or didn't figure they would need clear out the dogs till now and didn't want to spend the money they could use on other things?

Bingo! Like in too many other communities/countries they just don't see it as a problem, until an international spotlight is directed their way.

There's similar feral dog problems closer to home. Let's just say I wouldn't want to be a cat in Detroit. Indian reserves in North America are also a problem and again, it's a cultural difference.

Shine a light I say.

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Double post: I wanted to make this point totally separate.

Why don't these folks round up the dogs and make this the biggest international pet adoption event that has ever happened? There is going to be a gajillion folks from all over, some of them likely able to adopt.

Though oh crap. Would this be the best idea ever for a ton of forever homes- or the crappiest idea ever for people to pick up a living breathing souvenir they will later toss aside somewhere else in the world?

Oh, I can still edit. I should make a point of it in this idea- if you want to adopt, you have to pay to have that dog spayed/neutered and given vaccinations before they get to come home, including paying to mind to all international quarantine procedures. Yes, that blows big time for the dog to go through all that. Could weed out a bunch of the nefarious folks. And the pups come to their forever home all checked out.

Edited by rashore
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A rescue like that would be a logistical nightmare. After protests last year the local government decided not to implement a cull and instead promised to build a shelter. Well, those were empty words, and they clandestinely carried on a cull.

The owner of the "pest control" company who was awarded this new contract said;

""A dog ran into the Fisht Stadium; we took it away," he said. "God forbid something like this happens at the actual opening ceremony. This will be a disgrace for the whole country.""

Right, a dog running into an Olympic stadium makes Russia looks disgraceful. Poisoning, shooting and bludgeoning stray dogs is not disgraceful. Gotcha, I understand.

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