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Warning: Major Rant AlertWhat the Prankster is about to discuss is far more than a Pet Peeve, it is a moral outrage. It is about the plight of the stray dogs of Sochi. For those of you who want to witness the pageantry and glory of the Olympics untroubled by what’s happening outside the boundaries of competition (like NBC and most of the mainstream media) you probably should not read on.My information comes primarily from the insufferably self-righteous, pompous pontificator, Keith Olbermann. He is on a crusade to make the public aware of what’s going on in Sochi. Although The Prankster can’t stand “Mr. Smug†he is in complete agreement with Olbermann on this issue.There are stray dogs in Sochi estimated to number in the thousands. These are not rabid, wild dogs, but rather well-cared for pets who were abandoned by their owners when the Russian Al Capone and his goon squad displaced these owners from their homes in order to build Putin’s Monuments, i.e., Olympic facilities. By most reports coming out of Sochi, these dogs are largely well-groomed, well-behaved and friendly.The solution to this problem? Officially, the Russian government says it has hired a firm to capture, house, feed and relocate the dogs. The reality---Sochi has hired an Exterminator Company to kill the strays at the rate of $35 a head. How does the Exterminator accomplish this task? By using some sort of muscle relaxing/paralytic drugs which they place in darts and shoot into the dogs or which they put into raw meat for the dogs to eat. The dogs suffocate to death. One eyewitness reported that a dog on the street shot with a dart took 90 minutes to die. That’s right----90 MINUTES TO SUFFOCATE TO DEATH!How’s the program going thus far---not too badly from the Exterminator Company’s standpoint. Reportedly it has earned over 10 grand so far (300 dogs) and counting. If they work really hard maybe they can get to a thousand OR MORE before the Games end. Who knows?And humans have the temerity to believe we’re superior to animals? Each time the Prankster starts to believe this, he will think of the unconscionable cruelty shown to the strays of Sochi, the mass slaughter of animals whose only sin was to trust people to care for them.What can be done? Not much. The Prankster is sure some petitions must be circulating on the web but they are little more than cries in the wilderness. The Prankster has made a donation to a local group that tries to find homes for stray dogs. Others might wish to do the same.Boycott watching the Olympics? A mass boycott would probably have some effect, but that is a pipe dream. Hypocrite that he is, the Prankster will watch some of the Olympics, although probably less than he would have otherwise.