As a dog owner, I was simply stunned when I read about what had occurred in China last week (I issue the warning now that the link is very graphic - read at your own risk).  China, in a weak response to three deaths from rabies, executed over 50,000 dogs in a 5-day period.  I won’t go into the gruesome details, as that is what the linked article is for, but suffice to say, I was outraged.  And as if once wasn’t bad enough, another city decided to join in the fun.  What does this have to do with sports, you may ask?  Well, this is a country which has the privilege of hosting the greatest sporting event in the world, the 2008 Summer Olympics. 

 I know there are those who will say that human lives are infinitely more important than those of animals, and I wholeheartedly agree.  But this is China we are talking about; a country that doesn’t have the greatest track record in the treatment of their people either.  Not only did they carry out this massacre without warning and in inexcusably brutal fashion, but this also tells of their inability to control a disease which is easily preventable.  What does this say about how they plan to protect the millions of people who will descend on their country when the Games start 2 years from Tuesday?

Are they deserving of the honor of hosting the Games?  About as deserving as Germany was in 1936 in the midst of their extermination campaign.  I guess if you are on the International Olympic Committee, you don’t have to learn from the mistakes of the past and can just ignore what goes on inside a country vying to host the Games, as long as they have deep pockets.  If they have any spine at all (which we know they don’t, based on their “anti-doping” policy), China will be stripped of the Games and the message will hopefully be sent that they better clean up their act.