Manly Vladimir Putin Cuddles Tigers Into Submission Like A Strongman Should

Don't you wish that Obama wasn't such a 98-pound weakling that just gets sand kicked in his face by Fox News on the regular? Wouldn't it be great to have a muscular bare-chested white man like Vladimir Putin, who can talk to the animals and show them who is boss, on account of all his manly manliness? You betcha.

Russian president Vladimir Putin intervened to calm a six-month leopard who attacked journalists in the Sochi region during a meeting with senior members of the IOC, according to reports.

State television showed Putin caressing the big cat, called Grom (Thunder), on his knee after it lashed out at journalists.

"I like animals, it seems I have a feeling for them," said Putin, who has been pictured with wild animals before. "We liked each other."

Kindred spirits, Putin and tigers. Thank god that Putin is there to keep each and every member of the press team from roving bands of big cats. Oh, except for the part where he took the journalists TO the tigers in the first place.

Putin took the IOC members in his own jeep to a nature reserve above Sochi. [...]

However, Grom did not like the large group of guests and attacked two journalists. One of them was scratched on the hand and one lightly bitten in the knee, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

According to state television, Putin entered the cage to soothe the animal after the media left. The animal seemed at ease in Putin's arms.

We don't know about you, but if Vladimir Putin offered to take us to a nature reserve that was chock full of predators that could eat us, we might decline the invite, but maybe that's just us.

Apparently this whole thing is part of Putin's charm offensive, where he has tried to show the softer side of Putin by cuddling tigers and polar bears and by using the Olympics as an opportunity to restore the Persian leopard population in Russia.

This all cuddle all the time thing might be going a little better for Putin had Sochi not decided to kill all the stray dogs prior to the Olympics especially after the part where they said they wouldn't kill all the stray dogs.

Sochi city hall last year announced a contract “to catch and dispose” of stray dogs in Sochi but animal activists vehemently protested the move. Authorities pledged to give up the practice and build animal shelters for stray dogs instead.

Did that shelter happen? Haha of course not, so now they just get to be killed because they might tarnish Sochi's image.

A pest control company which has been killing stray dogs in Sochi for years told The Associated Press on Monday that it has a contract to exterminate more of the animals throughout the Olympics. [...]

“A dog ran into the Fisht Stadium, we took it away,” [Pest control company spokesman Alexei Sorokin] said. “God forbid something like this happens at the actual opening ceremony. This will be a disgrace for the whole country.”

It behooves us to point out that much of the world would rather see a stray dog interrupt the Olympics than know that the Olympics led to mass dog killings. Couldn't they just get Putin to come down and soothe all the stray dogs, or do his dulcet tones and shirtless ripped pecs only work to calm bigger animals? Is he just too manly to calm the dogs down? Let's all call on Putin to diversify his animal-cuddling skills, because this dog stuff is some bullshit.

[ International Business Times / BBC / New York Daily News ]