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The reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for setting a pit bull on fire last week in Baltimore has now grown to $23,500.

The total includes $2,500 pledged by the Humane Society of the United States.

Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS) has received $7,000 in donations to the reward fund, the city Animal Control office has received a $1,000 donation to add to the fund, and the Baltimore County Humane Society has raised $5,000.

The pit bull, named Phoenix by staff at BARCS, was found in flames by a police officer Wednesday. As other onlookers watched, the officer, Syreeta Teel, put the fire out with her sweater. Phoenix survived for three more days, but died Saturday in Pennsylvania, where she was sent to receive additional medical care . Staff at Main Line Animal Rescue, whose staff called her case the worst animal cruelty they had ever seen. Phoenix was burned over 90 percent of her body.

“This poor dog suffered a painful and needless death and we want accountability for this vicious act of animal cruelty,” said Ann Chynoweth, senior director of The HSUS’ Animal Cruelty and Fighting campaign.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Baltimore City Animal Control at 410-396-4688.

The reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or people who set a pit bull on fire in Baltimore now stands at $6,000, according to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS).

Phoenix, who was doused with gasoline and set on fire, leading to burns on over 90 percent of her body, was euthanized Sunday morning after suffering kidney failure.

A Baltimore police officer used her sweater to put out the flames when she found the dog Wednesday. After receiving treatment locally, Phoenix had been sent to Pennsylvania for further treatment.

BARCS says police report there was a camera on the street where the incident took place, and that some of it might have been caught on tape.

A hectic week is underway at the The Pennsylvania SPCA, which handles animal control for Philadelphia and is the state’s largest operator of animal shelters.

In addition to seeing a new executive director named, the organization is dealing with an outbreak of an undetermined canine disease that has led to six deaths and a quarantine at its two Philadelphia facilities.

The shelters will continue to take in stray dogs and place them in isolation, but has shut down adoptions for two weeks.

The Philadelphia Daily News reports that canine flu has yet to be confirmed as the cause of the deaths, but quotes Rachel Lee, the medical director of PSPCA, as saying the afflicted dogs exhibited symptoms characteristic of the respiratory infection. Results of diagnostic tests are expected to be ready by Thursday.

“We cannot confirm that it is canine influenza yet,” said Lee. “But we are treating it as if it is, at this point.”

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Baltimore area animal shelters have come together to make a life-saving offer.

Throughout the month of March, adoption fees on cats and kittens are being waived — at the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter, the Maryland SPCA and the Baltimore Humane Society.

Like shelters across the country that are feeling the effects of a choppy economy, Baltimore’s are inundated, especially at this time of year with cats.

Every day, they’re dropped off by the boxload. At BARCS alone, 696 cats arrived at the shelter in May.

The Maryland SPCA, which put together this video, is swamped with cats as well.

The joint effort by the Baltimore Animal Welfare Alliance is being called “Baltimore 500: A Race to Save Lives” — an attempt to find families for 500 cats.  And if free isn’t cheap enough, consider this: Each cat comes with a free medical exam. Six local veterinary clinics are offering free exams to cats adopted from the shelters in June.

“We need everyone’s help in the community in order to save lives. This is the best time to adopt,” Jennifer Mead-Brause, Executive Director at BARCS said.  “You will get a loving companion who has been spayed or neutered, vaccinated for rabies and bordatella, de-wormed, Felv tested, and provided with a flea preventative, a general examination, a food sample, and even a month of free health insurance.”

Scientists in Sweden have tracked down the source of sensory ataxic neuropathy (SAN) — a recently identified neurological disorder in golden retrievers.

The disease strikes goldens in puppyhood, causing them to move in an uncoordinated manner and have sensory deficits.

The researchers were able to trace back all affected offspring on the maternal side, over more than 10 generations, to a female that lived during the 1970s, confirming that SAN is caused by a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA.

The study by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala University and the Karolinska Institutet was published May 29 in the journal PLoS Genetics.

The researchers showed that about five percent of the golden retriever population in Sweden carries the mutation causing SAN — and that, with proper screening by breeders, the disorder could be eliminated.

“This is a good example of how a close collaboration between clinicians and geneticists led to a rapid detection of a harmful mutation that can now be eliminated from this dog population to reduce suffering and disease,” said co-author Karin Hultin Jäderlund.

On Wednesday the Whole Foods at Harbor East will be donating 5 percent of their sales for the day to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS).

Volunteers from BARCS will be outside the store all day, with dogs available for adoption, dog bite prevention information and tips, and information on disaster planning for families with pets.

Whole Foods Harbor East is located at 1001 Fleet Street. The store is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.

BARCS is the largest animal shelter in the Baltimore area and cares for 11,000 animals each year. It became a non-profit organization in 2005. BARCS’ mission is to prevent cruelty to animals by rescuing animals, finding homes for the neglected and abandoned animals, and promoting the health and welfare of animals through education, advocacy and pet population control.

No charges will be filed against the Alameda K-9 officer whose dog died after he left it unattended for more than three hours in his vehicle, the Alameda County district attorney’s office says.

“It is very tragic when an animal dies under these circumstances, but there is insufficient evidence to prove that the officer acted unreasonably based upon all the evidence presented in the case,” Assistant District Attorney Charlotte Green said in a written statement on Monday.

An internal police investigation into the actions of the unnamed police officer is still pending, according to the San Jose Mercury-News.

(Apparently the dog’s name isn’t being released either. Not a single newspaper report seems to mention it.)

The officer was attending a training exercise May 5 when he left the animal in his personal vehicle for about three hours and 15 minutes, police said. Temperatures that day were around 70 degrees in the Bay area, and police say the officer did leave his windows cracked.

Nevertheless, when he returned, the 6 1/2-year Belgian Malinois was in distress. The dog was taken to the Bay Area Veterinary Emergency Clinic in San Leandro, where it died.

The officer remains on duty.

There’s a creepy story unraveling in Hoosick, New York, where the town’s animal control officer has been charged with unlawfully euthanizing dogs and burying them on his property.

Matthew Beck, 46, a former member of the town council who’s still listed as animal control officer, was charged after a May 27 state police search of his farm revealed “several” dog carcasses.

Since then, Beck has also been charged possession of stolen property in connection with a missing hay rake that was found on his property during the search, the Albany Times Union reports.

Beck is suspected in the disappearance of two dogs reported missing by April Stevens, a local resident. When three of her dogs ran off, and only one returned, she searched for the other two, then put up posters, according to News 10 in New York. After that she contacted Beck, who  told her he had picked up two dogs, but they were of a different breed than her’s.

Later, though, the woman who had handed the dogs over to Beck saw them on a flyer, and told Stevens they were the dogs she turned over to Beck.

Beck told state troopers the carcasses found on the property were not those of the dogs that he had picked up. Those dogs, he said, were turned over to another town resident.

Beck has been charged with filing a false written statement, second-degree forgery, official misconduct as a public servant and larceny, troopers said.