ohmidog!

Smooth as it may look — especially when one’s zooming toward your head — the flight of the bumble bee is actually an awkward affair.

In fact, it’s surprising they even get off the ground.

According to a report in the journal “Experiments in Fluids” (in case you didn’t get your copy this month), an Oxford University study observed bumble bees in free flight within a smoke-filled wind tunnel, and found them to be “surprisingly inefficient.”

“Aerodynamically-speaking it’s as if the insect is ‘split in half’ as not only do its left and right wings flap independently but the airflow around them never joins up to help it slip through the air more easily,” the study leader said in a statement.

Most flying insects and birds rely on aerodynamic forces, but, with the bumble bee, it’s a matter of brute force — augmented, researchers say, by their diet of energy-rich nectar.

As part of its continuing “Making a Difference” series, NBC Nightly News recently featured the Circle L Ranch — an Arizona sanctuary for dogs, cats, horses and other farm animals that, though we’ve yet to pay it a visit, I have a hunch we someday will.

That’s because the woman behind it, Phoenix physician Deborah Wilson, happens to be married to one of my many former bosses — a member, in fact, of that extremely small and highly exclusive group, “Bosses I liked.”

Dr. Wilson, who’s the wife of Steve Wilson, communications director for Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, says the Circle L, like most sanctuaries and shelters, has seen unprecedented numbers of animals coming in due to the faltering economy, foreclosures and layoffs. “It’s just one sad, heartbreaking story after another,” she told NBC’s Maria Menounos.

The Circle L Ranch, on 37 acres in the Prescott Valley, was established as a sanctuary in 2006 and is now home to 70 horses and an assortment of cows, goats, sheep, not to mention cats and dogs.

Dr. Wilson, its founder, is an animal rights advocate who has been active in the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary, and PETA. She’s on the Board of Directors of Audubon Arizona and Liberty Wildlife.

Six kids from across the nation — including a Maryland girl who volunteers at Frederick County Animal Control — have been named winners in the American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Kid Contest.

Be Kind to Animals Week, established in 1915, is being observed May 3-9 this year. It is the oldest event in the nation to celebrate the companionship, friendship and love that animals bring into people’s lives.

Annie Lee Vankleeck, 6, grand prize winner in the age 6 to 12 category, was honored for helping Out of the Pits, a non-profit pit bull rescue in Albany, New York.

After she and her parents, of Shokan, New York, learned that the organization needed blankets and towels, Annie went to work. She collected blankets and towels at the town’s annual Olive Day festival, then went to yard sales and persuaded people to donate. She also collected blankets and towels at school. She’s still at it: For her upcoming 7th birthday party, she is asking her guests to forego bringing her gifts, and bring towels and blankets for “the doggies” instead.

Read more »

Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) is running a  “Love is in Bloom” adoption special through May. Every Sunday this month, adoption fees will be reduced from $65 to just $5 for any animal.

BARCS is also looking for some foster homes for kittens and cats, which, this being spring, are showing up at the shelter in extreme numbers.

BARCS says it is particularly desperate for foster homes for motherless kittens who need to be bottle fed. No experience is necessary, and training will be provided.

If you can help, contact BARCS at 410-396-4695, or email Debra Rahl (debra.rahl@baltimorecity.gov) or Frank Branchini (frank.branchini@baltimorecity.gov).

There are plenty of other ways to help out BARCS, short of taking home an animal. Among the items BARCS gladly accepts donations of are: Leashes, (6 feet long, 1″ thick, nylon), collars, cat litter (no-clumping), toys (without catnip), cardboard box lids (like those from cases of food/paper for use as disposable litter pans), paper towels, dish detergent, bleach, 32-gallon heavy-duty trash bags, hoses, gauze, alcohol, distilled water, latex gloves, peroxide, hand sanitizer, copy paper, laminating sheets and index cards (3 x 5).

Loudoun County’s policy prohibiting the adoption of pit bulls from the county shelter ended up in court this week, with two days of arguments over whether it amounts to discriminating against the breed.

Loudoun is the only Northern Virginia county that prohibits public adoptions of pit bulls, and it has reportedly euthanized 214 of them since January 2006.

The case, heard in Loudoun County Circuit Court, stems from a civil lawsuit that claims the county violated state and local laws that give people the right to adopt the dog of their choice from a publicly funded shelter.

Read more »

Finally, the Baltimore Sun is giving dogs some say. Either that, or it has laid off so many people it has to turn to dogs to provide content. In any case, the once-great newspaper printed a letter to the editor today from an Airedale, who may or may not have been assisted by her owner, Tom McCracken.

Apparently provoked by the new $1,000 penalty for unleashed dogs, the dog unleashed some opinions of her own in the letter, which was directed to Baltimore’s City Council. Here are some excerpts:

City Council Members: Please do not be surprised to get an e-mail from a dog …  My name is Maggie Mae, and I am a very lucky dog. My people live along a wonderful park …  A lot of my friends and I get to meet in this park almost daily for socialization and exercise, and any dog will tell you that a happy dog is a much better citizen than a frustrated one.

Maggie Mae Airedale

There’s an interesting discussion unfolding in the Windy City – a drama in, basically, three parts.

Scene One: For the love of her dog, Jess Craigie dives into the icy waters of Lake Michigan to save her 2-year-old mutt, Moxie, who had uncharacteristically, while off leash, jumped in the water. Dog and owner are both rescued, and are now doing fine.

Scene Two: Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune writer, showing some moxie of his own, uses the much publicized event as the basis for a column entitled, “Your Dog Doesn’t Love You” — one that starts, snarkily enough, this way:

“Note to Jess Craigie: Your dog still doesn’t love you.”

The piece goes on to explain that dogs don’t feel love — unconditional or otherwise. What we mistake for love is all an act they put on to get fed. Zorn cites no scientific studies, but he does quote the prolific author of dog books, Jon Katz.

Scene Three: The readers, Craigie included, respond — most taking issue with Zorn’s conclusions. A few leash law sticklers take the opportunity to point out Moxie would have never gone into the water if she had been on her leash. But, mostly, readers take Zorn to task for his cold-hearted view. A reader poll shows 9 out of 10 voters do think dogs can love.

It all makes for some thought-provoking and entertaining reading — even though the whole debate is a bit off point.

Craigie didn’t dive into the water because of Moxie’s love for her, but for her love of Moxie.

The Mid Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League is sponsoring a benefit motorcycle ride, starting in Frederick, with stops in Mount Airy, Taneytown and Boonsboro, before looping back to its point of origin – Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick.

The event, dubbed “Doing it for the Danes,” costs $25 for participating drivers, $10 for riders. In addition, those taking part will raise money through pledges.

Included in the ticket price are food, music, t-shirts (for the first 200 drivers), door prizes and a beer tasting (upon conclusion of the ride). Proceeds from all raffles and a portion of vendor sales will benefit MAGDRL.

The event will be held Saturday June 28. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m, with the first riders leaving at 9:30 a.m.

Riders will cover a 110-mile scenic route — with stops at Lu & Jo’s in Mount Airy, the Taneytown Tavern and The Dog Patch in Boonsboro — before returning to the Flying Dog Brewery, 4607 Wedgewood Blvd. (off English Muffin Way).

To take part, make a pledge, or just learn more, visit the MAGDRL website, or email Chris Ronald at chriskronald@yahoo.com

Cesar Millan goes “undercover” for tonight’s episode of “The Dog Whisperer,” helping Last Chance for Animals rescue 11 dogs from a big-time breeder, then working to rehabilitate them.

In the episode (9 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel), Millan, who says he has had no previous contact with puppy mills, joins a team of Last Chance for Animals operatives as they negotiate the release of the dogs, then work together to get them over the trauma of growing up caged.

One of the dogs ends up getting adopted by Sharon Osbourne, who was stopped by Last Chance for Animals when she was on her way into a pet store to buy a dog. Instead, she was talked into taking one of the rescued dogs.

Millan, while he has seen the hyper and nervous behavior dogs from puppy mills often exhibit, had never been inside a factory-style breeding operation — the kind said to churn out more than a million purebred and “designer” dogs a year.

“It takes a lot of concentration not to judge (puppy mill owners) when you know they’re doing something wrong. But in order for me to help and influence them, I have to see what they’re doing,” he says. “I saw a dog that was blind. I saw many dogs in one kennel. I felt a lot of frustration; I felt a lot of confusion … definitely aggression .. a lot of anxiety.”

On the program, Millan’s work with dogs previously rescued by Last Chance for Animals is also featured.

Last Chance for Animals is a national, nonprofit organization that works to eliminate animal exploitation through education, investigations and legislation.