ohmidog!

     You can strut your mutt, lug your pug or carry you Cairn. You can festoon your dachsund, decorate your doberman or gussy up your Great Dane. Maybe, for a fee, you can even kiss my Ace.

     When you think about it, there is no good reason not to show up for BARCStoberfest Saturday at Patterson Park.

    The big annual fundraising event for Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) kicks off at 11 a.m. (Rain date is Sunday.)  From its always popular costume contest, to a one-mile “Strut your Mutt” fund-raising walk (new this year), this year’s BARCStoberfest promises to be loaded with fun, freebies, prizes, spectacles and useful information – and it’s all aimed at helping homeless pets in Baltimore.

     As an official sponsor of BARCStoberfest, ohmidog! will have a booth at the event, occupied by Ace and me. The ohmidog! booth will be handing out home-baked dog goodies, while supplies last, from three of our advertisers — Love of Dog Bakery, K-9 Kraving and Lucky Lucy’s Canine Cafe.

     If that weren’t enough, the ohmidog! booth will also be featuring at least two exciting, carnival-like game that tests your skills (one involves tennis balls and the “o” in ohmidog!), an opportunity to have your dog’s photo taken (also involving the “o” in ohmidog!), and — unless the health department poo-poos my idea — a chance to let my dog lay one on you at Ace’s Kissing Booth and Dogbreath Emporium.

     In addition to providing my booth with free treats, Love of Dog Bakery, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month, has designated BARCS as its official charity of the month, meaning 5 percent of all of the company’s online sales in October will go to the shelter.

     Lucky Lucy’s Canine Cafe also has a long relationship with BARCS. On the last Saturday of every month, one of BARCS’ adoptable dogs is a guest at the store on Light Street in Federal Hill.

     My dog Ace has a connection, too — BARCS is where he ended up three years ago after being found roaming the streets of Baltimore.

    He was one of about 11,000 pets that pass through BARCS each year.

     Supporting BARCStoberfest will lead to more happy endings, for more dogs (not to mention humans). BARCS is raising money to improve its facilities, hire additional staff and help more homeless animals.

    All money raised at the ohmidog! booth will go to BARCS’ “Franky Fund,” which provides medical attention for seriously sick or injured animals that come to the facility.

     Because BARCS lacks the funding for expensive, specialized treatment of homeless pets, they are the ones that most often are euthanized. The Franky Fund helps provide the medical treatment that can lead to the animal getting adopted instead.

     BARCStoberfest runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the “Strut Your Mutt” walk from noon to 3 p.m.

Dogs — live and dead — are being used as shark bait on the French-controlled island of Réunion,  National Geographic reports.

The small volcanic island off Africa’s east coast is loaded with stray dogs — more than 150,000, says Reha Hutin, president of the Paris-based Fondation 30 Millions d’Amis (the Thirty Million Friends Foundation).

Hutin sent a film crew to Réunion this summer to obtain proof that live animals were being used as shark bait. (The photo above is a video still from that filming.) The practice was first exposed on the animal rights group’s weekly television show.

A videotape and photographs show the dogs with multiple hooks sunk deep into their paws and snouts. Cats are also being used as bait, according to the organization.

“From then on everyone started to take the whole story seriously and realized it was true,” Hutin said.

A veterinarian successfully treated one of the canines, a six-month-old dog with a large fishhook through its snout at an SPA (Animal Protective Society) clinic in Réunion’s capital, St.-Denis.

Unlike most of the hooked animals, the dog was someone’s pet, according to Saliha Hadj-Djilani, a reporter for the Thirty Million Friends Foundation’s TV program. The dog had apparently escaped its captors and was taken to the SPA by a concerned citizen. Fully recovered, the animal is now home with its owners.

The other two cases uncovered by Thirty Million Friends were strays. They now live in France with new owners.

The foundation plans to finance a sterilization program on the island to reduce the stray overpopulation.

Hutin said many locals view the strays as vermin. “There’s no value to the life of a dog there,” she said.

(Photo courtesy of Fondation 30 Millions d’Amis)