This year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi are shaping up to be as much about the dogs as the competition and medals. After word got out that the city had authorized the slaughter of thousands of abandoned pups before the games began, animal lovers from across the globe raced to save the Sochi strays. Here are 11 things to know about the situation:
www.facebook.com
1. The poor pups were abandoned
How did Sochi end up with such a large stray dog population? Well, when the Olympic village was being constructed there were upwards of 100,000 workers in town. They brought in dogs, or feed strays, to guard their temporary housing. When they left, they didn’t take the poor pups out with them, Voice of America reports.
www.calgaryherald.com
2. City ordered all stray dogs murdered, social media tried to stop the slaughter
After reports surfaced that a pest control company had been contracted by the city to capture and kill some 2,000 stray dogs before the opening ceremony began, animal lovers took to social media to mobilize. It worked. Not only did the international media pick up the story, but a Russian billionaire also took interest.
www.facebook.com
3. Billionaire with a big heart
After learning about the mass killings, oligarch Oleg Deripaska, himself a dog lover, stepped in to build and fund Sochi’s PovoDog shelter. He then began rounding up dogs in a “dog rescue” golf cart before the killing squad could get to them. The temporary shelter is now home to more than 100 dogs — each one has its own little doghouse as pictured here.
www.foxnews.com
4. Ordinary Russians also helped
It wasn’t just Russia’s one percent stepping up to the plate to save the pups. Russian animal lovers of all types began making headlines, organizing car ferries that smuggled dozens of dogs out of Sochi to safety inside new homes in other parts of Russia. The articles telling the story, like this one from The Washington Post, are tearjerkers.
www.facebook.com
5. Americans also raced to save the dogs
Neil Dreher, of Denver, Colorado, was one of the first Americans to help out a Sochi street dog. A volunteer working at the games, he found Fisht — pictured above —hanging around the Olympic Park with three other puppies before the games began. She stole his heart, and he committed to raising enough money to bring her home after the games. He has reached his goal, he told Dogheirs.com, and will give any extra funds to safe houses for Sochi strays.
www.twitter.com
puppy love is real to puppies.
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 11, 2014
6. Olympians also stepped up
Gus Kenworthy, a freeskier from Telluride, will be returning to Colorado post Sochi with a silver medal and five Sochi street dogs. Kenworthy placed second in the slopestyle competition on Thursday, the same day he made headlines for tweeting photos of himself with the four puppies who befriended him in the Olympic village. Kenworthy has announced on his Facebook page that he is also hoping to bring home the mother of the pups.
7. And so did newscasters
Tweeting this photo and response to a fan question, Natalie Morales — a rescue dog mama herself — admitted to having a soft spot for the stray on the Feb 13 Today Show broadcast from Sochi.
www.twitter.com
A stray dog just strolled into the stadium ahead of the Sochi opening ceremony. Volunteers chased him away.
— James Ellingworth (@jellingworth) February 7, 2014
8. Street dogs like to watch Olympic Opening Ceremonies too
Although hundreds of dogs were killed before the games got underway, some managed to survive. One pup — pictured above — even managed to crash the opening ceremony, generating lots of buzz for his canine compatriots on Twitter. His photo was re-tweeted 694 times and Favorited more than 200.
www.facebook.com
10. But more than anything, they just want to be loved
These are friendly pups. “Throughout Sochi, there are hundreds of stray dogs. On the Olympic work site we have had daily visits from some of the friendliest, most social stray dogs I’ve ever seen,” Neil Dreher, the American volunteer bringing home a Sochi street dog, told Dogheirs.com.
www.facebook.com
10. PovoDog’s Facebook page is now getting heavy traffic
The shelter created a Facebook page on Feb 5, the same day they opened their doors, and it already it has more than 2,100 likes. The shelter said it is receiving dozens of international adoption requests — 90 percent of which come from the U.S., Voice of America reports.
www.facebook.com
11. You’d be helping out a great deal by donating or adopting
If you want to adopt one of the Sochi strays, the easiest way to do so is to get on a plane to Sochi. If this isn’t possible, then the Humane Society International has a detailed guide posted on its website explaining the international adoption process. . If you can’t adopt, you can donate by visiting the PovoDog shelter’s Facebook page.
