Recently, Russia was in the spotlight because of a new trend where average citizens are killing dogs as a type of sport. Many of the participants are armed with various rifles while others are using easy to acquire poison from utilizing the death cap mushroom. I just want to briefly touch on a few points about this issue. Hopefully our Russian brothers will accept this critique.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Russians for the courage to step forward and defend themselves from harm. Many people act in a cowardly manner when confronted with conflict and would rather hide indoors. It seems as though our Russian brothers are not cowards and they have chosen to protect humans from the violent attacks of stray dogs. This is the very essence of love for your fellow man: you want them to be safe so you take action and protect them. Bravo!

However, there are a few points that I would like to address:

Legality
In Russia, there are (rarely enforced) laws in place to protect dogs from such activities. I would like to advise our brothers to lobby for a repeal of these archaic and outdated laws. There is absolutely no reason that any human being should risk their freedom for a bag of fur. There are many legal ways to dispose of these mutts. Try to utilize all legal methods first. If you are genuinely under siege and totally encapsulated by stray dogs then by all means do anything within your ability to return your streets to a state of normalcy. There is no reason that anyone should live in fear because of stray animals.

Safety
While I admire the effort, I am a bit disturbed by the means. Poison is fine when used in a very controlled setting, but I am hearing reports of poisoned meat being tossed haphazardly in the city streets. Anyone who has children knows that kids will often innocently and trustingly take any object from the ground and place it into their mouths. If there is a gang of stray dogs and you want to throw poison to them from the safety of your car then, by all means, go ahead and do so. I don't mean to place a burden on anyone who wished to kill the dogs. There is a concern about the safety of innocents that needs to be addressed. Whenever you deploy poison you are morally and legally responsible for who or whatever it kills. Imagine if you intended to kill the dogs, but instead you inadvertently killed two kids who were walking home from school.
Bottom Line: If you must use poison, then do so responsibly. After the dogs eat their fill and disperse make sure that any remaining traces of the poisoned food are cleaned up afterwards.

I recommend that if anyone is in fear for their safety that they find a legal way or at least a way that cannot possibly hurt or kill innocent human beings. If anyone is looking to make this sport more popular, then maybe the best way would be to have weekly contests with death count stats. Larger and more vicious dogs could be worth more points per kill, etc.

Kill The Dogs