Sochi’s stray dogs are meeting a rapid, untimely end as the 2014 Winter Olympics push closer and closer. The dogs, which are known to wander freely including in and out of the Olympic facilities, are being killed by a pest control company, The Associated Press reports.
Russian politicians have gotten behind the efforts to kill the dogs instead of finding other methods of containment.
Sergei Krivonosov, a lawmaker from the Krasnodar region, said that removing dogs was Russia’s, “responsibility to the international community and that their elimination is the quickest way to solve this problem.”
Alexei Sorokin, the owner of the pest control company, would not say whether they poison the dogs or shoot them, the AP reports. He also refused to say how many dogs they kill a year, claiming that it’s “a commercial secret.”
Sorokin used the example of a dog recently wandering into a stadium while a rehearsal for the opening ceremony was taking place.
“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.”
A year ago Sochi city hall declared they would build shelters for the dogs instead of killing them before the games, but there has been no shelter built.