US silver medalist on mission to save stray dogs in Sochi

(@guskenworth Twitter)


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SOCHI — U.S. slopestyle skier Gus Kenworthy has already won a silver medal, but now he's winning the hearts of animal lovers across the world by adopting some stray puppies he found around the Olympic Village.

Animal activists were in an uproar when it was revealed hundreds of stray animals had been killed prior to the start of the Olympics to clear the streets. Kenworthy made it his mission to take home as many stray puppies as he can find.

"I've been around animals all my life," Kenworthy told CBS News. "It's hard to watch."

On Tuesday, Kenworthy tweeted a photo of himself holding a stray puppy he had found wandering the streets of Sochi. He followed it up with an adorable picture of four stray puppies attacking him with cuteness.

"Spent all afternoon playing with a gang of stray puppies here in Sochi! Looking into finding a way to bring them home with me but also don't want to take them away from their mama because she was being super cute and protective over them,” Kenworthy wrote on his Facebook page. “I bought them some food and I'll go visit them again tomorrow."

He already has family members volunteering to adopt the puppies he found and told CBS News he will keep one for himself.

Authorities killed the stray dogs in Sochi because they were wild and dangerous, The New York Times reported. Russian billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska helped fund a rescue effort to save the animals that were set for slaughter.

“We were told, ‘Either you take all the dogs from the Olympic Village or we will shoot them,’” Olga Melnikova told the Times.

Melnikova is in charge of the rescue effort that Deripaska set up. People have been trying to help the stray animals in Sochi since October.

puppy love is real to puppies. pic.twitter.com/krauCUPjOg — Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 11, 2014

Kenworthy is doing his part to help the strays and vaccinated the pups he found and set them up in a kennel. The dogs in turn seem to be a good-luck charm for him — Kenworthy won the silver medal in the U.S.-dominated slopestyle event and made it [on the front of Kellogg's Corn Flakes](https://twitter.com/guskenworthy/status/434303705551097857) along with his two slopestyle ski teammates. His Utah teammate, [Joss Christensen](http://www.ksl.com/?sid=28689531&nid=335), took home the gold and teammate Nick Goepper won the bronze medal. ![](http://beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif?cid=145730&pid=4)

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Tracie Snowder

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