Amy Sumida's Blog - Posts Tagged "sochi"
Bloody Olympics
Maybe it's just because I'm a huge animal lover but I truly cannot believe how many people are still watching the Olympics after all that the Russian Government has done. I refuse to support it this year because of two things: orcas and dogs.
In case you haven't heard, the Russians took two young Orcas out of their family pods in the wild and put them on display in an aquarium to make money at the Olympics. There's a petition being signed online for the release of these mammals though I fear the damage has already been done, they may never be reunited with their family again. I'm both shocked and saddened by the ambivalent reactions I get when I talk to people about this. I want to say "How would you feel if someone tore your three-year-old child from your arms and put him on display in a glass bubble in the middle of the ocean? Oh but don't worry, we'll thrown him back on land when we're done making a profit off of him." I think it's reprehensible.
Then there are the dogs. There are a lot of wild dogs in Russia but these are no normal animals. They live in the country and are so intelligent, they've learned how to ride the train into the city every morning with the humans and scavenge for food. Then every night, they get back on the trains and go home. The Russian government decided these dogs would be a hazard to the Olympics, they might bite someone... even though these are obviously tame dogs who commute daily. So a year ago the government decided they would slaughter all the dogs. Well, the Russian people had a fit, they petitioned the government not to kill the animals. The government agreed and then promptly hired private companies to go out and murder puppies. Yeah, I said it, puppies. Not just grown dogs, these companies went out and slaughtered puppies and they did it inhumanely. They poisoned meat and threw it to the animals so they'd die in horrible pain. The Russian civilians were so horrified, they went out in great groups and collected the dogs, bringing them to shelters and even their own homes to protect them. You can actually go online and adopt one of these pups if you'd like, I've read that several have been shipped to the US already.
You can also sign the petition to release the orcas here:
https://www.causes.com/actions/176405...
Bottom line, I'm not watching the Olympics this year.
In case you haven't heard, the Russians took two young Orcas out of their family pods in the wild and put them on display in an aquarium to make money at the Olympics. There's a petition being signed online for the release of these mammals though I fear the damage has already been done, they may never be reunited with their family again. I'm both shocked and saddened by the ambivalent reactions I get when I talk to people about this. I want to say "How would you feel if someone tore your three-year-old child from your arms and put him on display in a glass bubble in the middle of the ocean? Oh but don't worry, we'll thrown him back on land when we're done making a profit off of him." I think it's reprehensible.
Then there are the dogs. There are a lot of wild dogs in Russia but these are no normal animals. They live in the country and are so intelligent, they've learned how to ride the train into the city every morning with the humans and scavenge for food. Then every night, they get back on the trains and go home. The Russian government decided these dogs would be a hazard to the Olympics, they might bite someone... even though these are obviously tame dogs who commute daily. So a year ago the government decided they would slaughter all the dogs. Well, the Russian people had a fit, they petitioned the government not to kill the animals. The government agreed and then promptly hired private companies to go out and murder puppies. Yeah, I said it, puppies. Not just grown dogs, these companies went out and slaughtered puppies and they did it inhumanely. They poisoned meat and threw it to the animals so they'd die in horrible pain. The Russian civilians were so horrified, they went out in great groups and collected the dogs, bringing them to shelters and even their own homes to protect them. You can actually go online and adopt one of these pups if you'd like, I've read that several have been shipped to the US already.
You can also sign the petition to release the orcas here:
https://www.causes.com/actions/176405...
Bottom line, I'm not watching the Olympics this year.
