COMMENTARY | St. Louis Blues captain David Backes
did not bring home a medal from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He did
however, bring back two stray dogs. While this would have been a touching story
of a big, bad hockey player showing his softer side, to me it seems more like a
publicity stunt to promote his new organization, Athletes for Animals. I am an animal lover, I will gladly admit. Dogs are my weak spot and
their soulful eyes will get me every time. However, there are millions of
strays and shelter dogs here in the United States.
 |
| American shelter dog awaiting a home. |
My question
to Backes and his wife, Kelly, is why bring back two stray dogs from another
country only to place them in a shelter to be adopted out? Are there not enough
unwanted and unloved animals crowding our shelters already? The fact that this
story has been featured on local news stations in St. Louis, Fox 2 News and KSDK News seemed to cover the story
extensively, did nothing to highlight the problem in American shelters or the
stray population on U.S. soil which should be a top priority for the ambassador
for Athletes for Animals. This story even went national when it was covered by
the National Hockey League Player
Association among
other national websites. Backes proudly stated that these two dogs will be
housed for 30 days at Five Acres Animal Shelter in St. Charles, MO and then
would be put up for adoption. Really? Two stray dogs were brought through all
the red tape and government paperwork in Russia to be placed in a shelter here
in the middle of the United States. What about the millions of American stray
dogs? Now these dogs will be competing with the animals already in the shelter
for a loving family to take them home.
There are
other such stories floating around about Olympic athletes bringing stray dogs
out of Sochi, Russia. It may be that those animals are also being placed in
shelters and therefore taking up precious space that American strays are in
dire need of. If the athletes had been so touched by the situation of stray and
mistreated animals in another country, they should have come home to their
respective countries and saved a life there instead of adding to the population
of shelters and essentially the problems of stray animals in their country. In
shelters and animal control facilities around the United States animals are
euthanized daily because they are unable to find a home.
In the Jefferson County Missouri Animal Control Shelter every animal housed there is euthanized on Thursday morning. This is true even if the animal is picked up Wednesday evening. Why are our professional athletes, the ones that children idolize, not looking closer to home and realizing that the same problems that they saw while in Sochi, Russia are right in their own back yards. I would have been more impressed with Backes and his wife had they raised awareness about animal control facilities such as the one in Jefferson County and put a plan in action to help the animals there who are not even given a chance at life. They are put in a large, dark trailer and gassed until they die. Where are Athletes for Animals in that situation and so many others just like it across the United States?
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