ohmidog!

Phoenix, the Baltimore pit bull who was set on fire last week, has died.

The dog, who showed signs of having been used in dogfights, was doused with gasoline and set on fire Wednesday afternoon in Southwest Baltimore. A police officer, upon spotting her, put the fire out with her sweater. No arrests have been made.

The dog was taken to BARCS, treated locally at Swan Harbor Animal Hospital, then sent to Pennsylvania for additional treatment.

Officials at Main Line Animal Rescue, in whose care the dog was placed, said yesterday that Phoenix experienced increased creatinine levels, causing her kidneys to shut down.

The dog,  who arrived at BARCS with her tail wagging even though she’d received burns over 90 percent of her body, was put down at 8:45 this morning.

” She had a strong will to live but her physical problems were just too extensive,” a MLAR representative said. “Thanks to all the caring people who will hold her in their heart.”

 ”She touched the hearts of everyone that came in contact with her and anyone who heard her story,”  said Jennifer Mead-Brause, executive director of BARCS.  “We can only hope now that someone will come forward so that there can be a conviction on this case.”

As Mead-Brause explained it, Phoenix’s kidneys couldn’t cope with the natural chemicals her body was producing to fight off infection.

“As her body was trying to heal, her muscles were producing natural chemicals that are excreted through the kidneys. Unfortunately her kidneys could not handle the process and began to shut down. Due to kidney failure, and the long road still ahead for recovery, the veterinarians that were caring for her decided it would be best to euthanize her.”

BARCS has set up a reward fund, which now stands at $3,000, for information leading to the suspects.

For information on how to donate to the reward fund, or the Franky Fund, which helped pay for the initial emergency care Phoenix received, visit the BARCS website.

We often hear of dogs finding their way back home, but it’s even more impressive when that dog is a statue.

The artwork, called “There is Honour in Being a Dog,” was taken May 20 from outside the east entrance of Purdue University’s Lynn Hall of Veterinary Medicine, according to the Journal & Courier in Lafayette.

Cox said it appeared that someone used a wrench to unbolt the piece, which is part of “The Dog Days of Summer,” an outdoor exhibit put on by the Purdue Veterinary Medicine Department and the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette.

John Cox, chief of the Purdue University Police Department, said an officer spotted the dog late Wednesday on one of the floors of the Northwestern Avenue parking garage, not far from where it was removed from its concrete base and  taken.

“We’re guessing that the dog was in someone’s apartment and they got scared. It probably had a lot to do with the news coverage of the missing dogs,” Cox said Thursday. “We do appreciate that it came back undamaged. It means a lot to the art foundation.

” … From what it looks like, someone waited until no one was in the garage and took the dog out of their car and set it there.”

“Honour” is one of 41 decorated dogs in the exhibit, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the veterinary department and the 100th anniversary of the museum .

“It’s in excellent condition, just a small scratch by its ear, but it should be easily touched up,” said Kevin Doerr, a member of the Dog Days of Summer committee and director of public affairs for the veterinary school.

At least three dogs in the exhibit have been taken, and some vandalized. ”Alfie, the Alpha Dog” was stolen on May 10 and remains missing. “Give a Dog a Bone”  was stolen the same night but was later found in some shrubbery.

“Dog Days” runs through October, and the dogs will be auctioned off when it ends.

Exhibit officials last week removed 18 dogs from the Purdue campus and West Lafayette sites because of a series of thefts and vandalism. Those and the one recovered Thursday are being stored indoors until safer ways can be found to place them back on display.

(Photo: “There is Honour in Being a Dog” by Gina Rosenow, via Lafayette Journal & Courier)

The national touring company of “Annie” will present an evening of cabaret-style entertainment Monday night at Sonar to raise money for the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS).

They will be performing favorites from some of the best musicals of all time.

Doors open at 7:30pm and the show is appropriate for all ages. There is a $15 cover charge and all proceeds will be donated to BARCS.

Sonar is at 407 E. Saratoga St. in downtown Baltimore. For more information, call 410-783-7888.

The Humane Society of the United States does not run or regularly fund the nation’s 3,500 animal shelters.

HSUS President and CEO admitted that yesterday on his blog, “A Humane Nation.” 

Of course he would have told you that a month or year ago as well, because, despite an “investigative report” out of Atlanta, later retracted, and despite the criticism from a group called the Center for Consumer Freedom, HSUS has not become the mammoth non-profit that it is by proclaiming it provides shelter for America’s homeless pets.

It has implied that it cares about animals, and that it works to improve their lives. It has tugged at your heartstrings in its fundraising spots, and it has made the most of publicizing its work. It has done some things I wouldn’t agree with and failed to do some things I wish it would have. To disagree with its priorities, or some of its policies, is one thing. But to say its an organization built on deception — that it has tried to lead Americans to believe it’s tucking shelter dogs in at night — is off the mark, and overlooks the work the organization does.

“If anyone reads my daily blog, looks at our website, reads our magazines, or scans our email and direct mail letters, you’ll find no claims that we run America’s 3,500 animal shelters, or serve as a granting agency for them—or that any one organization serves this function,” Pacelle wrote on his blog yesterday. “Their accusation is a fiction.”

“CCF and our opponents would love it if we just gave money to shelters. That way, the corporations that fund CCF would have much clearer sailing in conducting their animal exploitation activities …  Right now, we’re their worst nightmare, and we are not going away.”

Some critics say HSUS has a secret “vegan agenda” — that it wants to take our steaks away. As a meat lover, and a smoker, and a person who likes smoked meats, I say, even if that were the case, so what? The animals I eat deserve a spokesperson.

“It would be a terrible dereliction of duty if we did not address the other problems of animals in society,” Pacelle wrote. “There are 10 billion animals raised for food, principally on factory farms, in America every year — and that’s nearly 30 million a day. There are tens of millions of animals used in laboratory experiments. More than 100 million killed for sport. Tens of millions killed in the fur trade, and tens of millions killed worldwide in cockfights and dogfights.

While most animal lovers have a pet issue, Pacelle notes, HSUS is trying to look at the big picture, and the roots of what it sees as the biggest problems.

“We have to be there for as many animals as we can, and use our finite resources in a highly strategic way to achieve the biggest impacts,” he wrote.

“While we help many thousands of animals in distress … our primary strategy is to strike at the root of the problem, rather than to address the symptoms. Whether it’s in the field, in the courts, in legislatures, in influencing public opinion, conducting undercover investigations, or by some other lawful and mainstream means, there’s no group that is a greater agent of change or brings the arsenal of tools we do to the fight for animals.”

(Photo: vegdaily.com)

Kim Wolf at the Pennsylvania SPCA is pulling out all the stops to find a home for Otis Redding,  a 7-year-old pit bull mix who has been at the shelter for months.

Here’s one of the imaginative steps she has taken — a poster promoting Otis Redding.

She’s also made a video which can be seen here.

“I’m trying really hard to find him a home,” said Wolf, adding that, were it not for the five dogs she already has, she’d take him home herself.

Otis Redding’s $75 adoption fee includes neutering, a microchip, 3 free weeks of veterinary care, and 1 year of vaccinations. Wolf says he gets along with everyone, including other dogs, cats, and kids. 

We give Kim points for ingenuity and suspect that, if her efforts to find a home for Otis are successful, we’ll soon be hearing about more adoptable dogs available in Philadelphia, with names like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye and Barry White.

Here’s a household pet hazard that — dastardly as it is — you don’t hear about too often.

But first the moral of the story: If you have a pet at home, or a child for that matter, don’t ever leave your paper shredder on automatic.

The owners of a mixed breed dog named Diamond found that out the hard way last week, when their 8-year-old dog licked their’s, only to have her tongue pulled into the sharp blades.

“She had licked a paper shredder in the house that was set on automatic,” Dr. Marc Wosar, of Miami Veterinary Specialists, told TV station WPLG.

Fortunately, Diamond’s owners were home and responded quickly. They disconnected the head of the shredder, carefully taking it and the dog whose tongue it held to the animal hospital.

“We anesthetized her first, then reversed the shredder off the tongue and assessed the damage,” said Wosar. “There were a lot of lacerations to the tongue as well as a lot of bite wounds. In her panic, she’d also bitten her tongue.”

It took more than a 100 stitches to repair Diamond’s tongue. A portion that was too severely damaged had to be removed, but doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

“She just won’t have a perfectly round tongue. She’ll have a little nick in it,” said Wosar.

(Photo: WPLG)

Phoenix, the Baltimore pit bull that was doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned over 90 percent of her body, is stable but still considered in critical condition at a veterinary hospital in Pennsylvania.

The dog is in the custody of Main Line Animal Rescue in suburban Philadelphia, and is being cared for at a 24-hour veterinary hospital

The primary concern of veterinarians is Phoenix’s ability to fight off secondary infection from the extensive burns. She is on IV antibiotics, pain medicine, and supplemental nutrients, said Jennifer Mead-Brause, executive director of Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.

Several veterinarians are examining her skin to see if she will need skin grafts, or if it has the potential to heal on its own in some areas.

She is receiving constant bandage changes throughout the day in order to help her body through recovery.

Mead-Brause said Phoenix faces a long battle — “several months, years even …to repair what has happened.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the young female pit bull was found in Southwest Baltimore doused with gasoline and left to burn to death. A Baltimore City police officer put the fire out with her sweater.

Phoenix was brought to the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter, where Mead-Brause said the dog arrived wagging her tail. She was transferred to Swan Harbor Animal Hospital for immediate care.

BARCS was able to begin her treatment through the Franky Fund, which has has helped hundreds of homeless abused and sick animals receive the care they need.

Additional updates on Phoenix and details on the various ways to donate to her care are listed here.

(Photo: Courtesy of BARCS)

From now until supplies run out, all proceeds from the sale of “ohmidog-O’s” will go to BARCS Franky Fund to help offset the medical costs for Phoenix, a pit bull recovering from being doused with gasoline and set on fire in Baltimore this week.

We’re turning our entire inventory — which isn’t a whole lot — over to Lucky Lucy’s Canine Cafe, which has agreed to pass 100 percent of all ohmidog-O sales on to the Franky Fund at Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter.

What are ohmidog-O’s? They’re the healthy, all natural, handmade dog treat that keeps on giving. We cooked them up and sold them to raise money for the Maryland SPCA at last month’s March for the Animals. Since then, they’ve gone to raise money for a couple of other dog-related causes.

Now what’s left of the limited edition treats will be sold at Lucky Lucy’s to raise money for the BARCS Franky Fund, which provides emergency medical care to seriously ill and injured animals.

Stop by Lucky Lucy’s, 1126 S. Charles St., and pick up a bag.

More than 400 American Eskimo dogs have been removed from a puppy mill in Kennewick, Washington in what is being called “one of the worst cases” of abuse animal welfare workers have seen.

“The conditions were not only shocking, but also heartbreaking to veteran deputies,” said Benton County Sheriff Larry Taylor, who led the raid Wednesday at the Sun Valley kennel of 66-year-old Ella Stewart.

Stewart was arrested May 12 after a deputy responded to an unrelated call at her neighbor’s home, according to an Associated Press report.

Dogs were found living in wooden crates, shopping carts and other makeshift kennels caked with feces and soaked with urine, investigators said.

Taylor said the dogs weren’t seized at the time because there was no place to put them. Emergency kennels are being prepared at the Benton County Fairgrounds.

Inga Gibson, with The Humane Society of the United States’ West Coast regional office, said the raid was “one of the largest in Washington state and close to one of the largest in the country.”

Stewart pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor count of second-degree animal cruelty in Benton County District Court. If convicted, she faces up to 90 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. Prosecutors reviewing the case said they may file additional charges.

Since we reprinted the Humane Society of the United States full response to allegations made in a since-retracted piece of investigative journalism by Atlanta’s WSB-TV, the Center for Consumer Freedom has asked that we reprint their entire response to that response.

So, being entirely responsible, we’re doing so.

It comes from David Martosko, director of Research for the center, who appeared in the WSB report and is a longtime critic of HSUS:

“The level of deception exhibited by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) never ceases to amaze us. Its baseless attacks on the Center for Consumer Freedom are a good indication of the organization’s shrill tone, and the desperation it must be feeling as its house of cards begins (finally) to tumble.

“If there’s a “front group” in this story, it’s HSUS. The organization “fronts” for the PETA-approved vegan way of life while pretending to represent average pet owners. Conversely, we are very open about who we are, what we do, and why. It seems HSUS has no stomach for answering charges — only making them.

“HSUS complains so bitterly about our work because we are the only voice pointing out the dishonesty inherent in raising money for one thing and spending it on another. We’re happy to absorb the rumor-mongering and false innuendo of HSUS and other groups that jealously guard their unearned public credibility if it means we can continue to shine disinfecting sunlight on HSUS and the rest of the animal rights industry.

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