ohmidog!

Members of a sheriff’s SWAT team who broke down the door of Mayor Cheye Calvo’s home — and shot and killed his two Labrador retrievers during a search for drugs – did nothing wrong.

That’s the astounding conclusion of an internal review by the Prince George’s County sheriff’s office.

“My deputies did their job to the fullest extent of their abilities,” Sheriff Michael Jackson said at a news conference.

County officials have since acknowledged that Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, were victims of a smuggling scheme that used a FedEx driver to ship boxes of drugs to unsuspecting homes. The drugs would later be picked up from doorsteps by members of the smuggling ring.

Law enforcement officials say the Calvo family knew nothing about the box, or its contents. County police, who were leading the drug investigation, have said they were unaware the house belonged to the mayor of Berwyn Heights.

“It’s outrageous,” Calvo told the Washington Post. “Not only is he not admitting any wrongdoing, but he’s saying this went down the way it was supposed to and he’s actually commending his police officers for what they did.”

One dog was shot four times by the front door. The second, Calvo says, was running away from officers when it was shot twice. Jackson said deputies thought the dog was running toward another deputy in the home. 

Calvo has scheduled a news conference for Monday to announce “further actions.”

“I’m sorry for the loss of their family pets,” Jackson said. “But this is the unfortunate result of the scourge of drugs in our community. Lost in this whole incident was the criminal element. . . . In the sense that we kept these drugs from reaching our streets, this operation was a success.”

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Instructions: 1. Clip along the dotted lines. 2. Fold in half. 3. Laminate. 4. Insert in wallet.

We’ve gone to great expense to allow you to have your own “Bo Obama” card — one that should fit handily in your wallet, where it will be readily available to show to friends, family, police officers, motel desk clerks (be sure and ask for the FoBo discount) and the guys who check id’s at bars.

We don’t how much clout one wields by being a card-carrying FoBo (Friend of Bo), and we expect you’ll see this photograph a couple of million other places, as it’s Bo’s ”official” White House photograph, but since the White House went to all the trouble of making a “Bo” card, we figured we could help with the distribution.

(Cautionary note: Though Bo’s favorite food is listed on the card as tomatoes, it’s not advisable to feed them dogs. That information was included as a joke, based on an earlier ad-libbed joke by Obama, the White House said.)

Gov. Martin O’Malley has asked the state’s attorney general to review Maryland’s animal cruelty laws to determine if they are sufficient to deter “heinous” crimes like the torching of a pit bull in Baltimore last month.

Last month’s death of “Phoenix,” a pit bull doused with gasoline and set on fire in West Baltimore, was followed by another animal torturing this week — that of a cat found chained and tied to a utility pole and severely burned by firecrackers. Animal Control officers found the dead cat Wednesday on the 3700 block of Lewiston Ave.

“We must communicate to our young people that cruelty to animals is not acceptable behavior,” Olivia D. Farrow, interim commissioner of the Health Department, said in a statement. The health department has asked that witnesses to the cat torturing, as well as any dog fighting or animal abuse, call 311, the city service line.

Gov. O’Malley said he has received hundreds of e-mails and letters about dog fighting and the case of Phoenix, according to a story in today’s Baltimore Sun.

He said he was “deeply disturbed and saddened” by what happened to Phoenix, who died three days after she was found ablaze.

Baltimore police have charged two teenagers in the pit bull case. Police believe Phoenix was involved in dog fighting.

Under Maryland law, aggravated cruelty to animals through torture, beatings or dogfights is considered a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and $5,000 in fines. Abuse or neglect of an animal is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days and $1,000 in fines.

More often, though, offenders receive a “slap on the wrist,” according to Debra Rahl from the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter: “It’s often looked at as just an animal,” she said. “We have so many other serious crimes happening in the city and state, so this is not taken as seriously.”

Here’s the full text of the governor’s letter to constituents:

Read more »

Officials of a New Mexico animal shelter say they have canceled plans, announced earlier this week, to euthanize more than 50 dogs to make room for 12 pit bulls being held as evidence in a two-year-old court case.

The pit bulls were confiscated in 2007 from Daron and Duryea Scott amid allegations of dog fighting and animal abuse against the brothers. Those charges are still pending before the state’s appeals court, requiring the dogs to be held as evidence.

Dona Ana County animal control supervisor Curtis Childress had said the pit bulls were arriving Friday or Saturday at Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley because a grant covering their expenses at another site was expiring.

Because each would have required an individual cage, that would have meant euthanizing nearly 50 dogs now at the shelter, according to an Associated Press report.

Dona Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison said yesterday that funds had been raised to allow the pit bulls to be sheltered at another site.

A Massachusetts man told police he killed his bulldog Spot with a hammer because he could not afford to pay a veterinarian to put it down.

Charles Berube, 53, of Methuen, who had owned the dog for ten years, told police the dog had been sick for weeks, according to the Associated Press.

Spot had lost weight, had trouble walking and his legs were swollen, Berube told police. He said he couldn’t afford a veterinarian and didn’t want to burden a shelter with the animal, and that he didn’t want to see Spot suffer. The home euthaniasia took place last July.

Berube, of Methuen appeared in court Thursday on animal cruelty charges, and a jury trial is scheduled for Aug. 20.

The story of Hachiko, an Akita who came to a train station in Tokyo to wait for his master every day – and for another 10 years after the man died — is coming to the big screen in an Americanized version that stars Richard Gere and takes place in Rhode Island.

The movie still features an Akita, and it’s still named “Hachiko,” but his master isn’t Hidesaburo Ueno, the professor of agriculture at the University of Tokyo whose dog never stopped looking for him.

Instead, the story of one dog’s lifelong devotion to his owner centers around a Rhode Island music professor, played by Gere.

Lasse Hallstrom’s “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story” recently had its North American premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival, and reportedly produced enough sniffling to rival “Marley & Me.”.

The movie, from Sony Pictures, is based on a screenplay by Stephen P. Lindsey’s, who adapted a Japanese film about Hachiko made 20 years ago.

Lindsey changed the setting to Rhode Island and updated the story, according to Reuters,  but retained the basic idea of a loyal Akita who achieves an almost transcendental bond with his owner.

Gere , who’s no stranger to things transcendental, is one of the producers of the film, the story line of which begins when the professor discovers an Akita puppy that has been abandoned at the train station where he commutes to work. He brings the dog home on a temporary basis, but it soon becomes a permanent member of his household.

The role of Hachiko is  played by three dogs as an adult and about 20 as a puppy.

The real Hachiko was present in April 1934, when a bronze statue in his honor was erected at Shibuya Station. The statue was recycled for the war effort during World War II, but recommissioned after the war. Takeshi Ando, son of the original artist, made the second statue, which was erected in August 1948, and still stands at one of the exits of Shibuya Station.

Five Pekingnese and a pit bull left unattended in a car parked outside a Greenville, South Carolina employment office Monday have all died.

And a mother and her son have been sentenced to 96 hours in connection with the case, News 2 in Charleston, S.C. reported.

Apparently justice moves swiftly, if not with much severity, in Greenville.

Two of the dogs were found dead in the car Monday; the four others died later while receiving treatment at an animal hospital. 

Tanya Dunlap, 44, and Chris Dunlap, 20, both of Hoquiam, Wash., were charged after officers were called to the employment office after Chris Dunlap ran inside asking for water for his dogs because they were not moving.

Officers said that when they arrived the Dunlaps, along with others, were trying to provide medical attention to the animals by pouring water on them and packing ice around their bodies. They said that two of the dogs were dead when they arrived.

According to police, three more of the dogs died at a local animal hospital. They said the sixth dog died on Tuesday night, Fox News reported.

Police in the Dunlap’s hometown say Tanya Dunlap also faces charges there of animal neglect and abuse, stemming from having too many animals, the Associated Press reported.

(Photos: Greenville, S.C. Police Department)

Imagine authorities knocking on your door — well, we’d hope they’d knock — and informing you that owning more than one dog is against the law, and to choose which one you’d like to keep.

In another two weeks, that will be the situation in Guangzhou, as it already is in Beijing.

Beginning July 1, each household can raise only one dog. The regulation won’t be grandfathered in, so families with two or more dogs will apparently have to decide which one gets to stay, according to an Associated Press report.

“It’s a cruel regulation. These dogs are like family. How can you keep one and get rid of the others?” one owner of two dogs — a terrier mix and a Pekingnese —  told the Associated Press. She declined to give her full name because she feared the police would track her down and seize the dogs.

The regulation appears to be part of an effort to control stray dogs in Guangzhou, a city of 12 million that was once known as Canton. It’s one of the richest cities in China.

Many of those getting pets are first-time pet owners, don’t bother to spay or neuter their animals and end up abandoning them, leading to a large population of strays in Guangzhou, which is preparing to host the Asian Games next year.

People were quick to react to the regulation when it was announced in March, said Mao Mao, who six years ago founded a shelter for stray dogs called Family of the Pet. She said that before March, she would receive only a few calls a month from dog owners who wanted to give up pets. “Since March, every day we get about 10 calls a day,” said the woman, who takes in only strays and advises pet owners how to find new homes for their animals.

“I’m afraid there are going to be many more stray dogs in July when the one-dog regulation becomes effective,” she said.

Many other Chinese cities, including Beijing, have long had one-dog policies. Officials commonly launch mass roundups of dogs when the canine population is deemed too big or infected with rabies and other diseases. In 2006, Beijing authorities caught 29,000 unregistered dogs in one month — a campaign that sparked public anger and protest.

In the city of Hanzhong, in China’s central Shaanxi province, all dogs found outside homes in areas hit by a rabies outbreak are not being “culled” by ”dog-beating teams” who canvass the area and beat dogs to death on the spot — even those registered by their owners, according to a report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

The cull, which began May 23, is one of the largest in recent years, and has led to some outrage, most of it expressed in anonymous online discussions.

Meanwhile, back in Guangzhou, dog owners aren’t sure if the one-dog policy will be strictly enforced. Often Chinese authorities announce a tough new law, launch a crackdown, then ignore the measure.

(Photos: Scenes from Hanzhong, where dog culling is underway, and leading to demonstrations; courtesy of animalsasia.org)

Five German shepherds cloned from the cells of an award-winning search and rescue dog were unveiled today at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

With a poster of his original police dog, Trakr, behind him, cop-turned-actor James Symington choked up in his remarks as he stood behind a podium adorned with an American and a Korean flag.

The retired Halifax, Nova Scotia, police officer took possession of the five dogs this weekend — his prize for winning the “Golden Clone Giveaway,” an essay contest sponsored by BioArts International, a California biotech company that is cloning dogs in conjunction with a Korean scientist.

Symington said that if the puppies have the same abilities as Trakr — and he’s seen some signs they might — he intends to put them to work as search and rescue dogs.

Symington and Trakr took part in the rescue operation after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Symington says Trakr located the last survivor pulled from the rubble of Ground Zero.

Originally, Symington was to receive a single clone of the dog.

“We were going to do one, maybe two,” said BioArts CEO Lou Hawthorne. “But we decided collectively that the world would be a better place with more Trakrs.”

Hawthorne says Symington hopes to train all five dogs in search and rescue and work with them as a team, responding to crisis areas around the world.

Trakr died in April at the age of 16.

BioArts auctioned off five other dog clonings last summer to bidders in an online auction. Hawthorne said two of those cloned dogs have been delivered, and that a third will be delivered soon. The fourth has been born, and the fifth cloning has resulted in a pregnancy.

The cloning was done at  the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea and was led by Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk, who produced the world’s first canine clone in 2005.  The first Takr clone was born on Dec. 8 of  last year and the last arrived April 4.