Stray dog danger

SOCHI, Russia:,Sochi's stray dogs keep popping up in unwanted places, this time on the cross-country skiing track.

In another incident that highlights the possibility of the uncontrolled animals interrupting an Olympic event, a dog was filmed by a Russian website barking at skiers at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon center during Thursday's training session. As skiers turned their heads in surprise, the dog walked alongside the track while three security guards watched a few meters away.

Pelle Johansson, a Swedish newspaper journalist who was by the finish area at the time, said the dog later walked down into the stadium, where a number of skiers were training, and marked his territory next to the main bleachers.

''He stayed out of the skiers' way,'' Johansson said Friday. ''He was very calm.''

Thousands of stray dogs live in and around Sochi, and have already been spotted in the Olympic Stadium, inside security zones and even in a hotel. Local organizers declined to give details on their measures for preventing a similar incident during a race, but said any dogs found on an Olympic venue are captured and given a full veterinary check, then released if healthy.

U.S. cross-country skier Kikkan Randall, one of the favorites in the women's individual sprint, said she hasn't seen any dogs during her training sessions - ''or any other wildlife'' - and wasn't worried they might interrupt the races.

''I grew up in Alaska where you have to be prepared for a moose running out of the forest,'' Randall said. ''So I feel like I'm ready for anything.''

Many people are complaining that they can smell " death" as in the deaths of the dogs but many have also indeed said that though the stray dogs are stray they aren't bothering any tourists because they are dead. While others feel there is another way to go about getting rid of the dogs rather than just killing them. One woman said that she saw two stray dogs laying in the sun outside of her hotel room and they weren't dead they were left there to die in the hot sun, she felt it was a inappropriate way to get rid of the dogs and was highly upset that they didn't take care of the fact that they were in front of the left to die. 

While many to send Russia saying that they are trying their best to clean up, many people feel as though there's more that can be done- not only for sanitary reasons but for safety.