ohmidog!

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announced on Tuesday the creation of the Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force made up of city officials, prosecutors, police, animal advocates and city residents.

The task force will spend a year reviewing the effectiveness of Baltimore’s cruelty laws and how city agencies might better enforce them. At the end of the year, the task force will issue recommendations to the mayor.

“The protection and safety of animals in this city is an important concern,” Dixon said. “It’s imperative we treat this issue with the upmost importance.”

The first meeting will be at 6 p.m. July 15 at City Hall, but won’t be open to the public. Task force chairwoman Caroline Griffin, an attorney who’s on the board of Baltimore’s Humane Society, said some future meetings may be.

Animal advocates have been calling for a stronger city response to animal cruelty, especially since the May burning of a pit bull. Two teenagers have been charged in connection with the incident, in which the dog was first doused with gasoline.

The dog, known as Phoenix had to be euthanized.

In June,two tortured cats were found, burned and beaten and tied to a school fence.

“We just keep receiving case after case and not a lot is getting done,” says Jennifer Mead-Brause, executive director of Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, where Phoenix was first treated.

Thirty people have been arrested and as many as 350 dogs have been seized in raids across five states that animal welfare groups are calling the largest simultaneous raid of dogfighting operations in the U.S.

Authorities said that the raids were conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Oklahoma.

The raids followed a more than year-long investigation prompted by information from the Humane Society of Missouri, according to the Associated Press.

The ASPCA, which cooperated in the investigation, said the targets of the investigation ran what was believed to be the largest dogfighting operation in U.S. history.

John M. Bales, the U.S. attorney in eastern Texas, said nine people in his state were indicted on June 30 of three counts — conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal fighting venture and buying, selling, delivering or transporting animals for participation in an animal fighting venture. If convicted, the defendants each face up to five years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000.

Bales said eight people were arrested Wednesday in Panola and Gregg counties in Texas. Nine dogs, mostly pit bull terriers, were seized during a search of property in rural Panola County.

Ozzy Osbourne, if we can believe his daughter’s tweets, is devastated after one of his dog’s was killed by a coyote.

Daughter Kelly revealed the death of Little Bit, rescued by the family as a puppy, on Twitter:

“:( my dad’s dog Little Bit was eaten by a coyete (sic) last night in L.A. and he is devastated. She was his other women (sic)!”

London’s Mirror is among the news organizations reporting the death.

Little Bit was saved from a puppy mill following an investigation featured on National Geographic’s “The Dog Whisperer.”

Six years ago, Ozzy Osbourne, saved another family dog from a coyote, according to published reports. He reportedly tackled the predator when it got into the garden of their Beverly Hills mansion and attacked Pipi, Sharon Osbourne’s Pomeranian.

 
Whether dogs should get a couple of hours access a day to Willard Beach in Maine will be decided by voters.

South Portland city councilors voted unanimously Monday night to put the issue of dogs on the Nov. 3 ballot as a referendum question, TV station WMTW reports.

The issue has been debated for close to 20 years, and recent changes, after a push by dog owners, opened the beach up to dogs from 7 to 9 a.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.

After that, those opposed to dogs on the beach in the summer gathered more than 1,000 signatures, enough to present the issue to city council.

Authorities seized about 500 dogs being housed in wire crates and pens in Montague County, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The Montague County Sheriff’s Department served warrants Tuesday morning at the 1,200-acre property near Bowie after complaints about the animals’ living conditions, said Sandy Grambort, a supervisor with the Humane Society of North Texas.

Grambort said the operation has been the subject of complaints for as long as 10 years, but in the past none of them have been able to be verified.

The property owners sold puppies to the public on the Internet and through newspaper ads.

Grambort said there were at least 25 different breeds on the site, but most were small breeds.

Some of the dogs were kept in wire crates that were double stacked in a series of outbuildings. Dogs were also kept in outdoor pens and kennels. Some of the animals had sores, open wounds and skin conditions in need of treatment, she said.

Chesapeake Energy donated use of a 4,000-square-foot warehouse in the Fort Worth stockyards to temporarily house the animals, and PetSmart Charities donated several hundred dog crates, dog food and water bowls. Volunteers with United Animal Nations will help care for the dogs.

 
If your dog has been showing some uncharacteristic behavior problems of late, blame the economy.

According to Sainsbury’s Pet Insurance, some 3.35 million cat and dog owners have reported behavioral problems in their pets over the past 12 months, and “it is no coincidence that this comes at a time when many people are wrought with stress and anxiety” over the economy.

The study found that millions of troubled pets have caused damage to furniture, while others have suffered moodiness, aggression and loss of appetite.

Joanne Mallon, Sainsbury’s Pet Insurance manager, said this could all be due to the stress owners are under during the current economic climate.

“Cats and dogs can be very sensitive to their owner’s feelings and behavior, so changes in mood such as irritability, distress or remoteness could be sensed and leave the animals themselves agitated or depressed,” she said.

The findings come after the Sainsbury’s Bank revealed earlier this year that some 270,000 cat and dog owners have refused their sick pet veterinary treatment in the past because they could not afford it.

As further proof that for every strange dog behavior, there are human ones 100 times odder yet, comes this from Kenya:

A man in Kenya persuaded police to arrest his pet dog after the dog ate his rent money.

The dog’s owner says he left the money on his bed as he left for work. All that was left when he returned home later that day were a few shredded remnants of cash on the floor.

The man then took the dog to police and asked them to lock his pet up, according to Bartlesvillelive.com. They initially refused, but relented after the owner agreed to pay a “fee” to one of the officers.

That police officer was then fired for taking a bribe and the dog was returned to his owner.

The dog owner, still in need of rent money, has put the dog up for sale.