It’s too early to tell what kind of awards Olympic athlete Gus Kenworthy will take home for his slopestyle skiing, but it is clear that he’s already scored triple gold in the hearts of dog lovers.
When the news hit that part of Russia’s preparations for the Winter Olympics included hiring an exterminator to kill more than 2,000 stray dogs on the streets of Sochi, it was one more embarrassment in a long string of embarrassments. Between anti-LGBT laws, incomplete and poorly constructed facilities, terrorist threats, and killing dogs, the Olympic Games have not made Russia look good.
And yet, in the wake of the story about the exterminations of dogs, there have been some genuinely heartwarming stories. Russian citizens have put their own butts on the line to rescue stray dogs. And now, we have Kenworthy, a skiier from Colorado who’s come across several strays and fallen in love with them. Yesterday, Kenworthy wrote about the pups on his Facebook page:
Spent all afternoon playing with a gang of stray puppies here in Sochi! Looking into finding a way to bring them home with me but also don’t want to take them away from their mama because she was being super cute and protective over them. I bought them some food and I’ll go visit them again tomorrow.
Since then, Kenworthy has said via Twitter that he has made vaccination appointments for the pups and found kennels for them. “Doing all I can to bring them home w/ me!” he Tweeted today.
We hope the dogs are more than eight weeks old; that’s the minimum age for an adoption, and even then, the process is complex, as Michael Leaverton wrote here on Dogster a couple of days ago. If nothing else, it helps a potential adopter to be in Sochi, which is a big deal-killer for most of us. However, for Americans such as Kenworthy who do happen to be in the area, and want to rescue stray dogs in Sochi, the Humane Society International has published a guide on how to do it.
Good luck to Gus Kenworthy from us at Dogster — with the skiiing as well as the pups.
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