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Animal welfare advocates fear the revised New York City Housing Authority pet policy could lead to even more dogs ending up in shelters.

As of May 1, tenants who live in New York City Housing Authority buildings are barred from owning pit bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman pinschers and any dog that weights more than 25 pounds.

Public housing residents who already have dogs can keep them, but only if they weigh under 40 pounds — the previous weight limit.

the new regulations have confused many public housing residents, who, under the changes, are also required to register their dogs with the housing authority.

Dozens of people who have called the ASPCA for advice in recent weeks, unsure about whether they can keep their beloved dogs, the New York Daily News reported.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation out there,” said Debora Bresch, a lawyer in the ASPCA’s government relations department.

“One woman who has a lovely pit bull that weighs under 40 pounds said she was having trouble registering her dog,” said Bresch. “We had to get involved and speak with the manager.”

NYCHA spokesman Howard Marder said the managers were well-informed about which dogs are allowed and which are not.

“This is a wrongheaded policy that doesn’t get into the root problem,” said Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, which rescues animals from shelters. “You need to go after the reckless owners who don’t treat their dogs like family members.”

 About 5% of the city’s population live in housing authority properties.

In the weeks leading up to the policy change, more than 170 dogs from New York City Animal Care and Control shelters were adopted out to NYCHA tenants. According to Bresch, who obtained the statistics, more than 100 of these dogs would no longer be allowed into those homes because of the new weight and breed restrictions.

“That’s a whole population of potential owners foreclosed to us,” said Hoffman. “Hundreds of dogs will be dying in shelters because of this policy.”

Veterinarians and dog owners in New York are on alert for leptospirosis after reports this week that two Brooklyn dogs died of the disease and dozens more have been hospitalized.

The infectious illness rarely strikes the city in high numbers, but vets say it seems to be hitting a little earlier and harder this year, the New York Daily News reported.

“Lepto likes warm, wet weather and we’ve got that to a T,”  said Dr. Cathy Langston, a renal specialist with the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, which is treating three dogs for the disease.

The swift-moving illness is spread by a bacteria in the urine of rats, skunks, raccoons and other infected animals, which dogs can come in contact with through contaminated water or moist soil. The disease can damage the kidney and liver and prove fatal if untreated.

The first signs in dogs are weight loss, vomiting, lethargy, depression, muscle pain and sometimes diarrhea or bloody urine.

The Daily News article says Amy Tiscornia, a waitress, returned home from work to  her 4-year-old pit bull Bird unable to move. The white dog’s skin and belly were glowing yellow from jaundice and his eyes, she said, “were the color of Mountain Dew.”

 The dog fully recovered after three days of treatment in a Long Island animal hospital.

And after a week of round-the-clock IV and treatment at a Long Island animal hospital — amounting to a $7,000 bill — Traci Schiffer’s Boston terrier Fenway also recovered.

Both women live in the East Village and frequently take their dogs to East River Park, where the canines play in the soggy fields and puddles of still water left by the intense rains, the story noted.

A Health Department spokeswoman said it is not considered an outbreak. In 2007, 17 cases were reported in the five boroughs.

A non-denominational church is conducting dog-friendly Sunday services in a bar in Austin, Texas.

 The City Community Church meets at La Zona Rosa, a music venue and bar, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Church members say meeting in a bar and allowing dogs seem to make people feel more comfortable, and it only takes about an hour and a half to make the switch from bar to church — a simple matter of  cleaning up beer bottles.

Once the services are over, the establishment returns to being a bar.

It all got started a few months ago when the church started giving out breakfast tacos and dog biscuits to local dog walkers and bikers, said Scott Harmon, 50, who helped start the church. Soon members started encouraging dog walkers to stay and bring their pets inside, Harmon said, and the dogs proved to be very well-behaved.

“A few weeks ago, a German shepherd tried to eat one of the smaller dogs, which was a little awkward,” the Rev. Matthias Haeusel said. “But, generally, they’re very well-leashed.”

Haeusel said the church, one of many churches in Austin that meet in unconventional locations, has a core group of about 25 regular attendees.

“La Zona Rosa is a landmark that represents what Austin is proud of — the creativity, the music,” Haeusel said. “What better place for our church?”

Harmon says the decision was also based on the desire to leave a “light-footprint church. Our strategy is to use buildings already there. It doesn’t make sense to have a building used only on Sunday.”

Harmon said he and a small group of church members arrive at 8:30 a.m. each Sunday to clean up beer bottles and put up baby gates to block off the pool tables and the area behind the bar.

Even though letting in dogs draws attention to the church, Haeusel says that members don’t want to be defined by that.

“It’s easy to get pigeonholed as the ‘dog church,’ but we’re about Jesus. We just happen to be in a place where people can bring dogs,” he said. “This isn’t a gimmick. We’re just trying to love our neighbors.”

(Photo: Deborah Cannon /AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN)

Only one of the eight show dogs left overnight in a hot van in Missouri survived.

A Siberian Husky named Cinder is now back home with her owners, according to St. Louis Today.

Seven of the show dogs — many big breeds with thick coats — perished from heat stroke after being left in the van on June 22. The dogs were returning from a dog show in Iowa and were left in the van by their handler.

Investigators aren’t certain how many hours elapsed before the dogs were found. Authorities said temperatures in the van could have risen to as high as 120 degrees.

Capt. Ralph Brown of the Jefferson County sheriff’s office said Wednesday that detectives were wrapping up their investigation and would sending a report to the county prosecutor.

How cute is this? It looks like he could keep on going forever. Let’s just hope he stays out of the pug-unfriendly New York City subway.

Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) is celebrating Independence Day with a special “Spirit of ’76″ promotion: Starting July 5, the shelter will be waiving adoption fees for the first 76 adopted dogs.

“We’re celebrating Independence Day by making this best time ever to adopt a dog,” says Jennifer Mead-Brause, Executive Director at BARCS. “Our goal is give 76 dogs their freedom from life in the shelter by placing them in wonderful new homes.”

Every dog adopted from the shelter has been neutered and de-wormed; given rabies, DHLPP and bordatella vaccines; and provided with a flea preventative, a general examination, a food sample, and even a month of free health insurance. Regular adoption procedures will apply.

To adopt an animal from BARCS, call at 410-396-4695 or visit http://www.baltimoreanimalshelter.org..

BARCS is open for adoptions Monday through Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm. The shelter will be closed on Independence Day.

BARCS, along with other Baltimore area animal shelters — the Maryland SPCA and the Baltimore Humane Society — report that their earlier adoption promotion, the Baltimore 500, was a success. The three shelters waived adoption fees in June in an attempt to find homes for 500 cats.

A total of 573 cats and kittens were adopted from the three organizations, compared to 353 in June 2008 .

Hurley, a terrier who seemed to finally have his troubles behind him and appeared headed for adoption in Oregon, is now lost.

After a life on the streets, an uncertain future in a California shelter, a trip to Eugene and reconstructive surgery, the terrier was at his first-ever adoption event when he slipped his collar and disappeared, the Eugene Register-Guard reports.

To make matters worse, Hurley is deaf.

The brown-and-white smooth terrier, was among a handful of rescue dogs hoping to find owners at a June 20 event held at Wine­Styles in south Eugene.

West Coast Dog & Cat Rescue co-director Jennifer Clark said that, spooked by some balloons, he wriggled out of his collar and took off.

“He’s definitely the perfect storm of lost dogs,” Clark said, noting Hurley, in addition to not being able to hear, is likely a little skittish.

The Register-Guard reports that he has been spotted twice, most recently near the downtown Eugene bus station last Saturday.

Hurley, believed to have been born deaf, was living in a shelter in California, trying to get over a broken paw, when he was removed  by a Lane County rescue group and brought to Eugene in March. Bush Animal Hospital provided him with free surgery — a $3,000 operation to fix his leg. He was then housed with a foster family for several months.

“I hope that he’s still out there and safe,” Clark said. “It would be great if somebody found him, fell in love and wanted to give him a home.”

(Photo: West Coast Dog & Cat Rescue)

Animal rights groups are criticizing the decision by animal control officers in Navajo County, Arizona to shoot and kill more than 50 dogs owned by a man who was serving a month in jail and couldn’t take care of them.

According to the Arizona Republic, the woman who heads the shelter where the county usually takes stray dogs said the agency could have handled the dogs if someone had called.

“Shooting is not a humane way to end an animal’s suffering,” said Anna-Marie Rea, executive director of the Humane Society of the White Mountains in Lakeside.

“We do feel like the decision made in the field was the right one to prevent suffering for the animals,” said Dr. Wade Kartchner, director of the county’s health department.

The dogs were owned by Edward Harvey, who lives outside of Heber and regularly took in stray dogs. He said he had been jailed for about a month on a gun violation in early May because he couldn’t make bail. He returned home to find some of the dogs’ bodies still on his property.

“That’s more punishment than I deserve,” Edward Harvey. “No one needs to be treated that way, especially animals.”

While the county contracts with the Humane Society of the White Mountains for shelter services, county officials said the dogs were aggressive, would have been difficult to round up and would likely have died in the county animal-pickup vans, which aren’t air-conditioned.

Rea said the humane society could have dispatched a euthanasia technician, food, water and kennels to the site, or have transported the animals to shelter.

The agency has fielded at least 30 phone calls from upset residents who read about the shooting in a local newspaper.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also are criticizing the shooting.

“Animal-control departments and the Humane Society around the country have dealt with situations where a large number of animals that need to be contained and humanely dealt with without resorting to shooting the animals,” said Betsy McFarland, senior director for companion animals at the Humane Society of the United States.

PETA has aksed for an investigation into the shooting.

Whether you think the measure of a civilization is how it treats its prisoners, or how it treats its dogs, it’s clear Navajo County doesn’t measure up too well on either count.

Baltimore’s wackiest opportunity to show off your dog (or other pet) — the American Visionary Arts Museum’s “Pets on Parade” — starts 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The event includes a pet talent show. To enter, show up and register at 9:30 at AVAM, located near the Inner Harbor at 800 Key Highway, at the foot of Federal Hill Park.

In past years, museum officials say, the pet talent show has featured a memorable range of acts, from singing dogs to hermit crabs re-enacting Revolutionary War battles.

In addition to the parade and talent contest, there will be a round of musical chairs and a chance (for pets) to cool off in pools.

Trophies will be awarded for Best Costume, Most Patriotic, Owner & Pet Look-alikes, Least Likely to Succeed as a Pet, and the esteemed Most Visionary Pet Award. Dressing up pets is encouraged but all animals must be leashed or carried.

 
The Pennsylvania SPCA, which will be showcasing some of its adoptable mutts at Philadelphia’s Fourth of July parade, managed to squeeze all the information you need into their patriotic announcement. So we’ll just salute and say no more.