To "clean up" its streets ahead of its Millennium celebration set to begin September 12, Ethiopia plans to get rid of stray dogs with meat laced with strychnine. The meat will be placed around as "bait". The poison will cause the dogs a great deal of pain and convulsions before death. Of course, there is danger that small children, pets and other animals will get hold of the poisoned meat and die similar deaths.

As Ethiopia celebrates its third Millennium, the government's torture of animals is hardly a testament to the country's progress in the 21st Century. Just the opposite.