If you have been paying attention to the events happening around you over the past couple of weeks then you have heard of the horrid conditions facing athletes and spectators of the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

A Twitter account dedicated to the strange and bizarre conditions in Sochi has amassed over 300,000 followers; that is more than the official Sochi Olympics account.

As laughable as the conditions can be at times, there is one Sochi problem that is not. In fact it’s absolutely disgusting.

I’m not talking about the restroom situation, either. No, I am talking about the systematic killing of dogs in Sochi, Russia.

So far, the estimated death toll is between 5,000-7,000 dogs. That isn’t population control — that is genocide.

These animals have been pegged as stray or feral dogs, but that isn’t the case for all the animals.

Many of these dogs have been displaced due to the demolition of homes in preparation for the construction leading up to the Olympics.

There have been some reports of attacks from dogs, but not enough to say all of them are vicious killers.

There were some activists, bless their hearts, that attempted to save as many of the dogs as they possibly could before the opening of the games. However, by that time the damage had already been done.

Possibly the worst bit of information regarding the extermination, is the means by which these dogs were killed.

The “wild” dogs were shot with a poisonous dart that slowly caused the animals’ body to shut down. With this particular poison it takes about 90 minutes for the heart and lungs to shut down.

The dogs were not shot and then picked up, they were shot and left to die out in the middle of the streets. People walking by could do nothing to help these poor animals as their hearts and lungs shut down.

I can’t imagine any scenario where I would think it’s okay to shoot something and leave it to die out in the open.

I hope by this point you know I am completely against the killing of these dogs. However, if you are going to kill dogs and these are the means that you are going to do it, you are asking for trouble.

Why not pick the dogs up after shooting them? Why make everyone watch the dogs slowly die?

As a dog owner, and someone who treats his dog like his own child, the situation in Sochi fills my heart with a great sadness.

However, the injustice taking place in Sochi reminds me that the world is a much different place outside of the U.S.

Can you reasonably have imagined something so terrible happening before the Super Bowl in New York earlier this month?

Protests and possibly even riots would have prevented a mass execution like that of Sochi.

I am not naive enough to believe that there are no crimes against animals in the United States, but I am thankful that our nation has enough sensitivity to keep it out of sight.