Olympic Organizers: Ugh, Fine. We Won't Kill 2,000 Stray Cats And Dogs

Getting a city ready to host the Winter Olympics is not an easy task. Stadiums have to be built, snow has to be hoarded, scores of innocent animals have to be mercilessly slaughtered. It's all just such an ordeal.

That's right, Olympic organizers in Sochi had originally planned to deal with the city's stray animal problem by hunting down and murdering more than 2,000 cats and dogs. Predictably, a bunch of animal rights groups were very upset by this plan, and the organizers eventually changed their minds. Not because of any pressure from humane societies, though, but because they couldn't find any contractors who were willing to carry out the executions. From USA Today:

Officials said the plan was changed because it didn't receive any public bids to carry out the extermination. Instead the city will seek an alternate route of "keeping, treating and sterilizing animals," according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Man, I'd like to see what that job posting looked like. "WANTED: Experienced Animal Murderer for the slaughter of more than 2,000 stray animals. Must supply own animal-murdering equipment. Salary non-negotiable."

Photo: Evan Kafka/Getty

[ USA Today]