As you watch the thrilling ping-pong matches or the NBA gangsters lose basketball games at the 2004 Olympics, think about the mass killing which took place in Athens recently. According to the ASPCA, approximately 30,000 stray dogs in Athens were poisoned.

The Greek government has for many years failed to deal with the problem of stray dogs and cats. The practice of lacing food with poison and feeding it to stray animals is common in Greece. Spaying and neutering one's animal is practically non-existent.

Stray dogs have roamed the city of Athens for decades. They eat scraps of garbage and breed unchecked. In preparation for the 2004 Olympics, the Greek government decided they had a problem. Rather than collect the thousands of strays, sterilize them, and hopefully find homes as many of the animals that can be accommodated--they simply fed them rat poison.

The dogs that eat the tainted bits of food, slink back to their makeshift shelter and internally bleed to death. Athens garbagemen then come around and scoop up the dead animals. Seems that we should expect more from a society which considers itself to be the 'cradle of humanity.'

I have worked with many animal welfare groups and I understand that there are more animals than people willing to care for them. I also understand that many of them must be euthenized, which is a better alternative to being crushed under the wheels of a car. However, you always give them every chance to survive and at least help provide a dignified death.

Greece has spent a few billion dollars to clean up the filthy city of Athens and build glitzy venues for such "sports" as badminton and beach volleyball. They would be well served to spend a fraction of that money on educating the Greek citizenry about the benefits of responsible pet ownership.

It has been said that a society can be judged by the way it treats animals. If one holds Greece to this standard...that country has richly earned the disgust of the civilized world.