Ten loveable dogs rescued from the streets of Sochi, Russia, have arrived in the US for adoption, the result of an international outcry over the plight of stray dogs in the 2014 Winter Olympics host city.
Sochi animal rescue organisations began bringing in dogs from the streets after reports that they were getting rounded up and poisoned circulated around the Games.
At the time, American skier Gus Kenworthy, an Olympic silver medalist, made headlines when he pledged to bring four street dogs back to the US after the February 7-23 Games.
Humane Society International worked both on Kenworthy's project and bringing these 10 dogs, all mixed breeds, to the US last week.
"These 10 are representative of some of the dogs that have been removed from the streets and are now up for adoption in Sochi," said Kelly O'Meara, director of Humane Society International (HSI).
"They're the sweetest, most interactive, very friendly dogs, very adoptable that just happen to be unfortunate enough to be living on the street."
The group worked with PovoDog Animal Shelter in Sochi and two other organisations to arrange vaccination, documentation and travel for the dogs, who then spent two days in transit.
"These dogs have had a tremendous journey. It's been almost two days of travel for them. They went from Sochi to Moscow, had a long layover in Moscow, and then the flight to Dulles airport today," O'Meara was quoted as saying by CNN.
"And as you can tell, they have to be pretty chill to handle it like this. And they did. They all did remarkably well," she said.
The dogs will be housed for the time being in the Washington Animal Rescue League facilities here.
Bob Ramin, CEO of the animal league, said the next few days are all about comfort for the animals.
"These animals are seeing a lot of new things and experiencing a lot of new things, so they're kind of stressed out," Ramin said. "We want to make sure they know they're in a safe place so we've got our staff working with them one on one."
Each dog will get a medical evaluation. If all goes well, the dogs could be available for adoption within weeks.
Organisers say that they expect a great deal of interest in these dogs because the public outcry before, during and after the Games. More dogs are expected to arrive in the US for adoption in the coming days, the report said.
