Who watched the European Football Championships 2012 – Euro 2012? Not me. Football is boring. I watched about 1 hour of the whole tournament. And who knows that for the entire year leading up to Euro 2012 in Ukraine, stay cats and dogs were rounded up and killed in a street cleaning binge. Just to allow the government and organizers to present to the world an acceptable image. In Kiev alone (the capital of Ukraine) an estimated 20,000 stray dogs and cats were slaughtered in a public relations exercise from hell.
This is the norm for all big cities about to present big sporting events. It happened in China on probably a much grander scale before the Olympics. And in Greece, we are told, before the last Olympics. Shall I go on? How about Russia before the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. It is commonplace and accepted. However, I am sure that it has not happened in London in the lead up to the Olympics here.
What do the public at large think about the killing of stray cats and dogs in this manner? There is a Daily Mail story on it (a UK newspaper). There are 86 comments. You can’t accurately add up the comments that are for and against the killing because some fall in the middle but my assessment from the comments is:
So the public in the UK are against it. We are not seen as sentimental fools by others in the UK if we hate this. However, there are a decent number of people who think it is acceptable to kill tens of thousands of animals for the sake of football and to present a better public image. Of course the people of Ukraine put the animals there in the first place. Perhaps they are embarrassed and want to hide their shortcomings? I am sure they have an entirely different attitude towards animal welfare than Brits.
This kind of behavior is just one more example of our failure in relation to our side of the agreement in respect of the domestication of cats and dogs. We were not meant to kill them deliberately in huge numbers for our convenience.
Apparently there are no animal shelters in Kiev (or Ukraine? – I don’t know). However, PETA says that “dog-killing is a profitable business“. The profit probably comes from the dog’s skin, its fur. The fur trade is booming and Canada imports dog and cat fur as they do not check where it comes from. Mind you Canada has a history of fur trading. The Canada lynx is still hunted for its fur.
One reason why the Ukraine was selected to present Euro 2012, with Poland, was as an introduction to the possibility of joining the European Union. Please no, don’t let them join. The country is far from ready. Killing stray cats and dogs in this way is one reason why they are not ready.
We don’t know how the animals were killed. I can bet that is was in a cruel way. One person who left a comment implied they were poisoned with strychnine probably on the street by putting down poisoned food.We know some are shot; also, probably in the street.
It is not sentimental fools who dislike the mass slaughter of cats and dogs for no good reason. It is decent minded people.
I hate football and it makes me livid when a team loses and their fans weep and mourn and say they are ‘gutted’ and feel bereaved and how can they go on! Those people really do need something to cry about.
But thankfully I think most people here would object to animals being killed to ‘clean up’ their sports ground, Celia Hammond had numerous support and names on her petition to stop the cats on the Olympic site being killed.
No we don’t need more countries with no animal welfare, in the EU, we fought long and hard to get our Pet Welfare Act through and to get hunting with dogs banned, we need to move on with more protection for ALL animals, not to be held back by countries where animals lives count for nothing.
Animal lovers are not sentimental fools, we are decent human beings who care about other species of life as well as our own.
Excellent contribution Ruth. Thanks. We certainly do not need more countries who barely have animal welfare laws. Ukraine is not sufficiently developed. Perhaps in about 30 years!
Yes, Barbara. Thanks for reminding me about Celia Hammond. She was the famous model who was photographed by David Bailey. She saved the cats from the derelict buildings before they were knocked down to make way for the Olympic Park. Yes, there was initial contempt for the cats but Celia got her way and saved them all (or almost all of them) as I recall because there was one very independent cat who was hard to trap. She got him in the end after a lot of effort. I am not going to praise the UK for this but it is in stark contrast to China and Ukraine. In general we are perhaps the best or one of the best countries in the world in respect of animal welfare. There is a lot wrong with the UK but there are some good points too.
I think it’s realy sad that the killing of animals is accepted for the sake of “sport” though I’m sure that some people think it’s quite justified because to them sport is a god! I seem to remember a while back once it was known that London was chosen for this years Olympic games there began a cleansing of the area where the Olympic whatsit was going to be built and a large number of feral cats were to be removed and destroyed (or the other way round) and the powers that be wouldn’t allow access to the group who wanted to save them (I knew all the details at the time and signed petition etc – was it the Celia Hammond Trust?)I think in the end most of them were saved and relocated (how disgraceful that saving “most” was considered a good result)but of course they lost their chosen home – a home they were forced to find having been abandoned by humans. How sad that there are so many unwanted animals roaming the streets anyway, and how sad that they are “controlled” by humans who don’t even know how to control themselves.