ohmidog!

The city council in Monroe, Washington – heeding the call of many concerned dog owners –  has opted to avoid targeting pit bulls, Akitas and other breeds for now, and has passed a temporary dangerous dog ordinance that focuses on a dog’s record rather than its bloodlines.

The interim ordinance gives the council extra time to research recommendations for dangerous dog legislation that have been sent to the council from dozens of agencies and dog organizations, said City Councilman Mitch Ruth, who opposed the breed-specific language, according to the Herald in Everett, Wash.

“We’re trying to find an ordinance that gives adequate teeth for enforcement,” he said. “We want to ensure public safety without using breed-specific language.”

The City Council began considering stricter regulations on dogs after people living in a Chain Lake neighborhood demanded the city do something about dogs involved in several incidents.

Monroe, like most area cities, uses a two-strike approach when dogs become aggressive. Dogs earn the label of potentially dangerous if they bite or act aggressively once. If a second incident happens, the dogs are registered as dangerous.

The council considered a proposal that called for the first warning to be skipped in cases involving about a dozen breeds, but that proved unpopular with many dog owners.

Michael Vick pleaded guilty today to a state dogfighting charge, and apologized to ”the court, my family, and to all the kids who looked up to me as a role model.”

The former NFL quarterback pleaded guilty to one charge and not guilty to a second count that was then dropped. While conviction of the charge carries a maximum five-year sentence, Vick was given a three-year suspended sentence, according to the Associated Press.

By pleading guilty to the one charge, Vick became eligible for early release from prison and a possible return to the NFL. Federal law prohibits prisoners from being released to a halfway house if there are unresolved charges pending against them.

Vick, 28, already is serving a 23-month sentence in Leavenworth, Kan. for a federal dogfighting conviction. He’s scheduled for release on July 20, 2009, and will serve three years of probation.

Read more »

The stabbings last week that killed a former Japanese health minister and his wife were the result of an unemployed man’s lingering anger not over his pension, but over the death of his dog in a local pound decades ago.

A man with a knife last Monday and Tuesday attacked the homes of two retired vice ministers who had led the pension department in the Health and Welfare Ministry in the 1980s, when millions of records were lost during a botched computerization effort.

Originally, police suspected that the attacks were connected to public anger over the loss of the pension records.

But Takeshi Koizumi, 46 and unemployed, who turned himself, and his knife, in to police over the weekend, has told police he was “hacked off” not about pension issues but about the death of his dog in a local pound, according to the Washington Post. Read more »

Printer problems? You might want to try the solution this cat uses — much like my approach to computer-related problems: When in doubt, whack it.

Sixteen cats and  nine dogs found themselves homeless again after a fire broke out at the Animal Rescue Foundation office in Terryville, Conn.

All 25 animals in the shelter escaped unharmed.

Authorities said the fire started when a malfunctioning light fixture melted, dripping plastic onto bedding materials for the animals. Shelter staff were in the building, preparing for a Sunday’s bake sale fundraiser when someone smelled smoke.

The six volunteers inside quickly moved the animals to outdoor pens, according to the Republican American in Waterbury, Conn.

“We were just running on adrenaline,” said shelter president Kathy Johnson. “We didn’t care about the fire. It was just ‘let’s get the animals out of here as fast as we can.’”

The Animal Rescue Foundation, a nonprofit organization run by volunteers, was incorporated in 1978. The shelter takes in abandoned, abused and unwanted dogs and cats and houses them until they are adopted. Read more »

A dog left in his master’s idling van somehow shifted the vehicle into gear and wound up crashing into a  Long Island coffee shop last week.

Bentley, a 50-pound boxer-Sharpei mix that musician Bryan Maher rescued from a shelter about a month ago, “drove” the vehicle through the front window of Cool Beanz in St. James, Long Island, according to the New York Daily News.

“I ran inside the coffee house to sign up for open-mike night, and I left my car running because it’s cold outside and I didn’t want my dog to freeze,” said Maher, 60. “The next thing I knew, I looked up to see my van coming at me in the window, with Bentley in the driver’s seat grinning at me.”

The crash left the shop’s glass front window cracked, some patio furniture busted and the van with minor damage, but there were no injuries.

Maher said he’d learned his lesson, and wouldn’t leave the dog in an idling vehicle again — even if it is cold outside. Instead, he plans to get him “a nice doggie coat for Christmas.”

Suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick used family pets as “bait dogs” to train his pit bulls, and he took part in hanging three fighting dogs who did not perform well, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report.

The 17-page report, released Friday, provided new details on Vick’s participation in Bad Newz Kennels — including the revelation that pet dogs were used for training purposes, according to an ESPN report.

“Vick, (Purnell) Peace and (Quanis) Phillips thought it was funny to watch the pit bull dogs belonging to Bad Newz Kennels injure or kill the other dogs,” the report by the USDA’s inspector general-investigations division says.

Vick is serving a 23-month sentence in a minimum-security federal prison camp in Leavenworth, Kan., on a conspiracy charge relating to the interstate dogfighting operation he helped run on a property he owned in Surry County, Va. He is scheduled to be released on July 20, 2009.

He still faces two state charges — one count of torturing and killing dogs and one count of promoting dogfighting. Each carries a five-year maximum prison term. He is expected to plead guilty to those at a hearing Tuesday in Surry County Circuit Court and, under the terms of his plea agreement, and will receive a three-year suspended prison term and a $2,500 fine (which would be suspended if he pays court costs and maintains good behavior for four years).

By resolving the pending state charges, Vick would qualify to be moved to a halfway house to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Read more »

America’s largest chain of puppy-selling pet stores, Petland Inc., is also the nation’s largest retail supporter of puppy mills, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

An eight-month investigation by the HSUS reveals that many Petland stores across the country are marketing puppy mill puppies to unsuspecting consumers. There are more than 200 Petland stores worldwide, with about 140 in the U.S., and they sell tens of thousands of puppies each year.

Many of the puppies sold at Petland stores come from massive commercial breeders in Missouri and other Midwestern states, where hundreds of breeding dogs are packed into cramped, barren cages, the HSUS says.

The HSUS is urging people to contact Petland’s corporate headquarters to ask Petland to stop selling puppy mill puppies.

Baghdad authorities killed more than 200 stray dogs on Sunday, the opening day of a campaign to cull dog packs roaming the capital city.

The campaign was prompted by a spate of fatal attacks on residents.

Three teams of veterinarians and police officers used poisoned meat and rifles to kill the animals, according to the Associated Press.

Dr. Hassan Chaloub, an official at the veterinary hospital supervising the effort confirmed that the campaign started Sunday in wester Baghdad and will move to the eastern half of the city early next year. He said the capital has no dog shelters.

Thirteen people died in August in the capital after being attacked by dogs, according to Baghdad’s provincial council, which is overseeing the campaign.

Under Saddam Hussein, authorities killed stray dogs in the capital almost every year, but the practice ended with his ouster in 2003. Since then, local officials estimate, the number of strays in Baghdad has grown to more than a thousand.

Though Santa loves all dogs, some dogs like Santa more than others.

And a few — I discovered during my two-hour stint as St. Nick yesterday in South Baltimore’s Riverside Park — want nothing to do with him at all.

During an event to raise money for BARCS Franky Fund, nearly 100 dogs showed up to have their pictures taken with Santa. You can see all of the photos here.

Most dogs were eager to hop in my lap, but a handful didn’t want to get anywhere near me. Golden retrievers seemed particularly wary of Santa, even when tempted with treats. But one way or another, we managed to get photos of every dog with Santa.

A few dogs, like Lola (above) couldn’t wait to get off Santa’s lap — even dogs who, like her, are long-time friends and normally love me in civilian attire.

The biggest problem was keeping my Santa beard on amid all the squirming. One dog, a golden retriever whose leash I was holding, pulled me out of my bright green lawn chair (a kitschy South Baltimore Christmas was our theme), to the ground, and then actually dragged me a foot or two.

I only got growled at a couple of times, and most of the subjects were cooperative — dogs, humans and the two cats that showed up. All in all, the hardest part was walking the three blocks to the park. Several children stopped me, one of whom wanted a motorcycle for Christmas, but settled for a hug.

Several hundred dollars were raised for the Franky Fund — an emergency fund at Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter that provides medical care to sick and injured animals.

If you missed out, there will be another Franky Fund event (more traditional, and with a different Santa) Saturday, Dec. 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Federal Hill Park.

(No animals were harmed in the making of this blog entry.)