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.

Stray cat in Ukraine. Did he survive? Photo by Hey Christine

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.