The long awaited Fifa World Cup 2014 is now well on its way, this year Brazil are the hosts.
I was thinking about Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia and how they cruelly rounded up the stray dogs to 'clean up' the town before the games started and I was truly hoping that Brazil didn't carry out the same inhumane method towards their innocent street dogs too.
I didn't need to look far on the internet before I was faced with the grim reality that Brazil had too rounded up and removed their homeless dogs from the streets, in order for this competition to take place.
I am, as always shocked and dismayed at the callous decision made in Brazil to remove and kill innocent stray dogs in order for a sport to take place.
In Brazil the stray dogs are known as cão comunitário, which translates as community dogs.
These stray dogs were here first and as they are a direct result of years and years of people being ignorant and either allowing their un-neutered or un-spayed owned dogs out on the street to roam or people tossing their dog out on the streets, when they decided that he/she is too big, too expensive, too loud, too energetic or the excitement of owning a dog wore off and it is exactly because of this behaviour that the stray dog population exists and that is why we owe it to the dogs to make their lives and existence easier because we created most of these lives.
There doesn't need to be a choice, people don't need to be so brutal and choose between whether Fifa World Cup can take place or whether the stray dogs live.
These street dogs here and in all other countries around the world have a right to continue their normal everyday lives on the streets, without the dogs having the potential threat of being killed by a people.
Stray dogs, like these in Brazil and many other countries are actually looked after by many locals who feed and do what they can to care for them, they live on the street, are much loved and are part of the local community.
People should learn to live alongside the stray dogs, rather than constantly be at war with everything around them, with these type of people they don't just wage a war on the dogs, they complain about absolutely everything.
Even Cave men over 30,000 years ago happily lived alongside dogs and strongly valued their companionship.
If you have spent lots of time alongside street dogs from around the world, you will understand what I mean when I say that every dog is an individual and each is lovable for their completely different traits and personalities, if you are one of these type of people, you will understand more about why killing the street dogs in totally not acceptable, because to us they are not a statistic, to us they are our companion.
These stray dogs to you and I have a name, these dogs to you and I roll over and want us to stroke their tummies, these dogs to you and I are our faithful friends, these dogs to you and I are regular and loyal visitors, these dogs to you and I enjoy their regular spot in town, these dogs to you and I greet us with a big tail wag, these dogs to you and I join us on a walk, these dogs to you and I sit at our feet, these dogs to you and I crave our love, these dogs to you and I are the make-up and character of the town.
A life is precious and we should honour that, whether it is in a person or an animal, killing these dogs so that Fifa World Cup 2014 can take place is totally unacceptable behaviour of civilised and modern day people.
The only way to deal with the stray dog population is to carry out humane methods on the street dogs, such as Neuter and Spay programs, in which the stray dogs are castrated (they can't reproduce anymore and they become calmer) then returned back to the street from he/she came from.
When the Neuter and Spay programs are carried out correctly it is the only proven successful and fair way in reducing the stray dog population.
To read the full story, click here: Stray Dogs Killed for Brazilian World Cup
