ohmidog!

The mayor of a small southeast Kansas town took the law into his hands over the weekend, responding to a call of two loose dogs and shooting them both from his car.

Don Call, the mayor of McCune, Kansas — population around 400 — says he was protecting his city, which had been dealing for the past six months with complaints about the dogs acting aggressively and intimidating residents.

The mayor says he had warned the owner to get rid of the dogs or else he would do it himself, according to TV station WIBW. 

After receiving a complaint Sunday that two troublesome dogs had jumped through a screen to chase some children, the mayor loaded up his rifle and drove to the property. Once he spotted the dogs, he fired several times from his car, killing them both. He then loaded him into his vehicle and took them to his property, reports say.

The Crawford County Sheriff says an affidavit of arrest was sent to the county attorney office who will decide whether to issue a warrant for the arrest of the mayor.

The question that has become all the rage in London — but hardly even gets asked in the U.S. — got some ink in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle, and with less than a week before the opening of the Westminster dog show.

The woman who was courageous enough to ask it, and honest enough to give the answer — yes — was Christie Keith, contributing editor for Universal Press Syndicate’s Pet Connection, past director of the Pet Care Forum on America Online, and a writer of a “semi-weekly” column for SFGate.com, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle.

As Keith points out, the BBC documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” got things rolling. The series showed that many purebred dogs are prone to diseases and health problems that have resulted from “the tyranny of the show ring” – breeders selecting their dogs to accentuate specific, often freakish traits that win at dog shows but leave them unfit for living the life of a normal dog.

“If that allegation sounds extreme, consider that the Pekingese dog who won top honors in 2003 at Crufts, Britain’s most prestigious dog show,” Keith wrote. “(He) had to be photographed afterwards while lying on an icepack because he couldn’t breathe well enough to efficiently cool his own over-heated body.”

In response to the BBC documentary, the network’s decision to stop airing Crufts, and the withdrawl from the show of several sponsors, Britain’s Kennel Club revised its standards somewhat, warning breed clubs that the most extreme traits would no longer be tolerated.

In the U.S., the American Kennel Club, and critics of it, were mostly silent. Only PETA stepped forward, as it’s prone to do, demanding that the USA Network follow BBC’s example and stop airing the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. USA Network declined, and the show will air Monday and Tuesday, February 9-10, from 8-11 p.m.

“But should it? Are purebred dogs really in that much trouble? And if so, are dog shows behind the genetic and other health problems that plague our pets?” Keith asks in her column.

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A bloody confrontation Saturday at the White Rock Dog Park in Dallas left a woman’s face slashed, a man charged with aggravated assault and carrying a switchblade, and pit bulls, as usual, bearing the blame.

Michael Armalavage, 44, was arrested after he accidentally slashed another dog owner while trying to protect himself and his Australian shepherd from an attack by another dog, described as a pit bull-Rhodesian ridgeback mix.

Krisha Pembroke, 30, whose dog, Bosh, was on a leash but apparently not under control, received a gash just above her right eye, according to the Dallas Morning News. The paper’s crime blog has Armalavage’s account of the incident, and is getting dozens of reader comments about the incident, mostly saying pit bulls, and pit bull mixes, should be banned from the park if not from the city.

Nobody, as you might guess, is calling for a Rhodesian ridgeback ban.

“I don’t have problems with him,” Pembroke said of her dog. “I’ve had him since he was a baby.” But witnesses say the dog dragged her owner across the park and latched on to the nose of Armalavage’s dog. The shepherd required a dozen stitches.

Pembroke says she doesn’t want to press charges agains Armalavage, and offered to pay his vet bill.

White Rock is a leash-free dog park.

A Raleigh restaurant that had become a Sunday favorite with dog owners has been asked to cease permitting four-legged clientele.

For three months of Sundays, Lenny’s Hideaway had welcomed dogs — but Super Bowl Sunday was the last chance for dogs to have their day.

Owner Ed Schultz, at the request of county health inspectors, declared Sunday would be his last pet-friendly day. He says his plan to allow dogs on Sundays was originally OK’ed by the health department.

Schultz, who named his sports bar for his late father, started the Sunday custom as a way to spend more time with his basset hound, Miss Chief (pronounced mischief). His friends from the Millbrook Dog Park were soon followed by others eager to let their dogs play while they watched football and ate burgers.

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Earl Simmons, better known as the rapper DMX, was sentenced in Arizona Friday to 90 days in jail and at least 18 months probation for theft, drug-possession and animal-cruelty.

Simmons pleaded guilty Dec. 30 to three felony counts — theft, possession or use of marijuana, and possession or use of narcotic drugs — and one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty.

The animal-cruelty and drug charges stem from an August 2007 raid that Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies conducted at Simmons’ home in Cave Creek, a Phoenix suburb. Authorities investigating a report of animal abuse found three dead dogs, guns, ammunition and drug paraphernalia, according to the Arizona Republic.

The 38-year-old rapper has been in the Maricopa County Jail since being arrested Dec. 9 in Miami on a warrant after failing to appear in court in Phoenix.

With apologies to my old Kentucky home for setting back its effort to overcome hillbilly stereotypes, we present Ernie Brown Jr., the Turtle Man — snagger of snapping turtles.

“I try not to smile cause I got my teeth knocked out by a chain saw,” he explains to the photographer in this piece for Kentucky Afield TV.

Brown, from Lebanon, Ky., calls himself “Kentucky’s best-kept secret” and “the poorest famous guy around.” Brown travels to farms and rids ponds of turtles causing problems such as biting horses and cows.

You can also find an excellent story and video about Brown in the Lexington Herald.

Brown, unlike most other turtle eradicators, works only with his hands. As for the shrill yell he emits with each catch, that’s not hillbilly — not purely a rebel yell, he explains — but half native American, as he says he is.

Though he says the turtles make for “good eatin’,” Brown insists he takes the turtles to ponds where they won’t cause problems. “I’m kind of like a warrior, like Robin Hood,” he says. “I bring a turtle out of this pond, put him in another where he won’t do no violence.”

“I don’t kill it,” says The Turtle Man. “I only catch it. Don’t never torture nothing. That’s my name of the game. That’s how you stay into it. Keep people liking you.”

I never knew this, but up in Canada they use their own ads during the Super Bowl.

Canadian stations buy the rights to air the Super Bowl in Canada, then sell the commercial advertising slots to Canadian advertisers.

Here’s one that aired up north for Autohound, an online used car dealership, featuring a basset hound with a thing for doggie porn. In another ad for the same company, the bassett hound gets on the computer to watch Greyhound racing.

Dogs, pigeons, Clydesdales, an ostrich, boar, rhino and water buffalo all made appearances in Super Bowl advertisements, and none of them were harmed in the process, according to the association that watches out for them.

The American Humane Association reports that 10 commercials featuring animals appeared during the big game, and that while some of them placed animals in outrageous situations, representatives monitoring the productions ensured that none was in danger. In every ad the association monitored, the advertiser succeeded in earning the “No Animals Were Harmed” designation.

“Thanks to decades of leadership from American Humane, film and television directors, producers and actors rely on American Humane to ensure the safety of animal actors,” Karen Rosa, director of American Humane’s Film & Television Unit in Los Angeles, said in a press release. “It’s especially exciting to see so many advertisers calling on our services as well. It shows that there is recognition of the importance of the human-animal bond and our fundamental responsibility to care for the animals that we interact with every day.”

Rosa noted that most TV networks will not air a commercial featuring an animal without American Humane’s sign-off letter stating that the production did not harm any animals.

American Humane is a 131-year-old organization with exclusive authority behind the “No Animals Were Harmed” end-credit disclaimer. All domestic productions working under the Screen Actors Guild contract are required to inform American Humane when using animal actors. However, enlisting American Humane’s help for oversight during filming is voluntary.

Love of Dog Bakery has chosen Recycled Love as its charity of the month, meaning 5 percent of the proceeds from all treats ordered in February will go the Baltimore rescue group.

You can read more about Love of Dog Bakery on our sponsors page.

The ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center has put together a list of the top ten poisons that affected dogs in 2008.

1. Human medications. For several years, human medications have been number one source of poisoning cases — both prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs. Pets often snatch pill vials from counters and nightstands or gobble up medications accidentally dropped on the floor. Keep them in cabinets.

2. Insecticides. Bug control products rank number two, and many of them involved misuse of flea and tick products—such as applying the wrong topical treatment to the wrong species. Check with your vet before beginning any flea and tick control program.

3. People food. Grapes, raisins, avocado, onions and certain citrus fruit can harm dogs. One of the worst offenders is chocolate, which, if ingested in significant amounts, can cause vomiting, diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst, urination, hyperactivity, and in severe cases, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors and seizures.

4. Rat and mouse poisons. Last year, the ASPCA received approximately 8,000 calls about pets who had accidentally ingested rat and mouse poisons. Many baits used to attract rodents contain inactive ingredients that are attractive to pets as well. Ingesting them can lead to life-threatening problems for pets, including bleeding, seizures and kidney damage.

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