ohmidog!

A Pennsylvania woman, unable to cope with financial hardships, tried to kill her 29 cats, her dog and herself, authorities in Montgomery County, Pa., say.

The woman, Linda Muchnick, of Harleysville, was arrested on charges of cruelty to animals.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, Lower Salford Township Police Chief Thomas A. Medwid and Towamencin Township Police Chief Paul T. Dickerson announced the charges yesterday. They stem from an incident last week when police were called by a local veterinary clinic.

The clinic had “received information” that Muchnick intended to kill herself and her animals due to financial hardships, the district attorney’s office said in a press release.

Towamencin Township Police entered Muchnick’s home and found 29 cats in a locked bedroom with no open windows. Officers found D-Con rat poison had been placed in the food bowls of the cats.

Muchnick was found, unresponsive,  in a separate, locked bedroom with a sick pit bull.  More rat poison was found in the room, authorities said. Muchnick was treated at a local hospital.

One cat died as a result of ingesting rat poison.

 
It’s that time of year again — when students around the country head off to college, bidding farewell to mom, dad and, perhaps toughest of all, their dogs.

Solution? Go to a pet-friendly college.

Petside.com is back with another top 10 list, this time of the most pet-friendly college campuses.

Topping the list is Eckerd College in St. Petersburg Florida, with its four pet-friendly, air-conditioned dorm “clusters.” Students are allowed to have cats and dogs (under 40 pounds) as well as snakes and fish.

The list is based on the quantity and quality of pet-friendly housing as well as the types of pets allowed, Petside says.

(What Petside and the list don’t make a point of stressing is that most so-called pet friendly campuses regularly discriminate against big dogs, blacklisting — sorority-style – any beast whose weight exceeds its arbitrary limit, usually 40 pounds. )

The rest of the top five break down this way:

2. Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri offers one dorm as the designated pet dorm, allowing dogs, cats, hamsters and guinea pigs.

3. Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania allows students to bring their family pets along to school and live in the “Pet House” dorm. Cats and dogs less than 40 pounds, small birds, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, turtles and fish are allowed.

4. Principa College in Elsah, Illinois has seven dorms and university apartments that allow pets. Students may bring dogs, cats, rabbits, caged animals, and aquatic pets.

5. California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California allows cats in all dorms, as well as small caged and aquatic animals. Dogs are not permitted. Animal lovers can also join the Caltech Animal Team (CAT), a club devoted to caring for homeless and abandoned animals, especially cats, who live on the Caltech campus and nearby grounds.

“At Petside, we know how much the companionship of a pet can benefit a college student, particularly in the form of stress-relief and as a remedy for homesickness,” said Joshua Fried, Director, Petside.com. “We are pleased to know that so many of America’s colleges are welcoming responsible students and their pets.”

Also making the top ten, in this order, were: University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, University of Idaho, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, State University of New York at Canton and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

About 200 graduates of The Seeing Eye, the world’s oldest guide dog school for the blind and visually impaired in the United States and Canada, came together last weekend to celebrate the group’s 80th anniversary.

Every year, nearly 300 students attend The Seeing Eye to learn how to bond with a guide dog. About 8,000 people have been served since the organization’s inception, said Teresa Davenport, director of communications. About 500 puppies are born each year at the school’s Breeding Station in Chester Township, N.J. according to the Newark Star-Ledger

It costs tens of thousands of dollars to match just one person with a dog, yet the school relies solely on donations, Davenport said.

During the three-day reunion, the graduates attended banquets, workshops and toured Morristown.

Morris Frank started The Seeing Eye in 1929, after he was inspired by a 1927 article by well-known dog breeder and philanthropist Dorothy Harrison Eustis about guide dogs assisting blind World War I veterans.

Frustrated by his own lack of mobility as a blind person, he was wrote to Eustis, an American training German shepherd dogs in Switzerland. When she received Morris Frank’s letter, she agreed to help him, according to The Seeing Eye’s website.

“He promised he would return to the United States and spread the word about guide dogs.  In 1928, having completed instruction in Switzerland, he arrived in New York City, proving the ability of his dog Buddy before throngs of news reporters.  His one-word telegram to Mrs. Eustis told the entire story  … ‘Success.’  The Seeing Eye was born, with the dream of making the entire world accessible to people who are blind.”

“It was the beginning of the Great Depression, and here we are, 80 years later, and The Seeing Eye is still going strong,” said Pete Lang, former Seeing Eye instruction and training manager.

“It is the leading guide dog school in the world,” said Marion Gwizdala, president of the Tampa, Fla.-based National Association of Guide Dog Users. He said the school has for years set a standard for dog guide schools. There are about a dozen in the nation, and 72 worldwide accredited by the International Dog Guide Federation.

(Photo: Morris and Buddy)

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians has purchased controlling interests of dog racing tracks in Mobile and Pensacola, according to at least one racing official.

The purchase still requires approval by the National Indian Gaming Association, according to Al.com.

The tribe owns two casinos in Alabama — the Riverside Entertainment Center in Wetumpka and the Tallapoosa Entertainment Center in Montgomery.

Gov. Bob Riley has been strongly against gambling in Alabama throughout his two terms, and has stirred controversy in recent months with his opposition to so-called bingo machines. Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling has confiscated a number of gambling machines.

The tribe had long been one of the primary opponents of allowing gambling machines at the dog tracks in Mobile and Pensacola.

Two men have been charged for helping to operate a dogfighting ring that was busted Sunday in East Germantown by Pennsylvania SPCA , Philadelphia police said.

James Hargrove, 43,  and Tyrik Carr, 18,  were charged with felony cruelty to animals and felony criminal conspiracy, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Humane officers went to Hargrove’s house after receiving a tip on their animal cruelty hotline. They discovered two dead dogs and five others tied up nearby, the PSPCA said.

Carr tried to flee with one of the dogs but was later captured. He was described by the PSPCA as a “cut man” who treats dogs deemed worthy of saving after a fight.

A third man, believed to be the ringleader, remained at large, police said. His name was not released.

To report dog-fighting and other animal cruelty in Pennsylvania, contact the PSPCA at 1-866-601-SPCA (7722) or cruelty@pspca.org

Baltimore’s Riverside Park opened the pool to dogs yesterday, the last day of the swim season. Here’s what happened.

Twenty years ago, Miles D. Thomas was a successful stockbroker, and president of the school board in Harrisburg, Pa.

In the past two years, life has been less kind.

He lost his wife to Alzheimer’s in late 2007. Then, unable to pay the bills that had mounted for her care, he lost his house and turned to living in a series of cheap motels, or sleeping in his car.

Last month, authorities seized his dog, a 7-year-old collie named Baron, when Thomas left him in his car while getting a bite to eat. Because he’s homeless, apparently, he hasn’t been able to get him back since.

Hearing of Thomas’ plight, an attorney filed a suit in federal court on behalf of the  73-year-old former Harrisburg School Board president, seeking to get the dog back from the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area Inc. The agency maintains that the dog is being held as part of a cruelty case but has declined to release details, and Thomas has not been charged with any offense.

“To me, he’s the greatest thing I have in the world,” Thomas said of his dog, the fourth in a line of collies the family has owned. “I love him so much, yet they try to keep me from him. I can’t understand that.”

Thomas says it was 76 degrees on the day he left Baron in the car, with the windows open, and that he was gone less than an hour.

When he returned, the dog was gone and an officer with the Humane Society  informed him his dog had been seized. 

Last week, U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III issued a temporary restraining order barring the Humane Society of the Harrisburg Area from destroying or transferring ownership of Baron. A hearing is scheduled Sept. 3.

“I couldn’t imagine letting this man go without his dog,” Attorney Andrew Ostrowski told the Harrisburg Patriot-News. “He cares deeply for the dog, and he’s seriously affected by this. In my view, it’s a federal, constitutional civil rights issue, and I won’t shrink from it.”

Ostrowski said he’s also pursuing a civil suit that seeks damages.

Amy Kaunas, Humane Society of Harrisburg Area executive director, said  that Thomas’ dog was seized as part of a cruelty investigation initiated by a referral from the Middletown police.

She declined to discuss specifics of the case, but said animal-cruelty statutes require that animals be provided with adequate shelter and access to food, water and veterinary care.

Thomas fell more than $100,000 in debt after his wife spent three years in a nursing home, the Harrisburg newspaper reported. But he insisted he always took care of his dog. “I took better care of him than I did myself,” he said.

Since early August, Thomas has been living with Stephen Conklin, a friend of attonrey Ostrowski’s, who took Thomas in at his farm in York County.

Now that Thomas has a stable home situation, Conklin said the thinks the Humane Society should return the dog to him.

Ostrowski, contends that the animal agency pressured Thomas into signing over his rights to Baron two days after the dog was taken by the agency’s canine officer, threatening him with a $750 fine and up to 90 days in jail unless he turned over the dog. 

(Photo: CHRIS KNIGHT, The Patriot-News)

Michael Vick’s “handlers” approached the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals about conducting anti-dogfighting work with the organization, but was turned down, according to an ASPCA press release issued Friday.

“This organization and I personally have seen the acts of cruelty committed by Mr. Vick first hand — acts so heinous that the public has never laid witness to them,” Ed Sayres, president and CEO of the ASPCA said in a prepared statement.

Noting that the ASPCA helped process evidence that led to Vick’s 18-month imprisonment, Sayres condemned Vick’s return to the NFL and his signing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Today, it is difficult to see him in the uniform of a Philadelphia Eagle because of the startling lack of judgment and moral character he has demonstrated over the past several years. It is questionable whether he will have any credibility as an educator on the dog fighting issue.”

Vick has teamed up with the Humane Society of the United States to campaign against dogfighting.

The ASPCA statement was prompted by Vick’s interview last week on 60 Minutes:

Here is the press release in its entirety.

Read more »

The dogs of Martha’s Vineyard are readying to welcome Bo Obama. The First Pup will be honored Sunday evening by dozens of canines and their families at the inaugural Martha’s Vineyard Dog Parade — whether he’s there or not.

People are invited to bring their dogs to walk in the parade, according to organizer Kerry Scott, owner of Good Dog Goods and a selectwoman in Oak Bluffs.

The idea for a dog parade was first hatched a few months ago by resident Calvin Paris as a way to celebrate the island’s dog-friendliness, the Cape Cod Times reports.

The tie-in with Bo came after it was announced that President Obama and his family are expected to arrive Sunday for a week-long island vacation with their Portuguese water dog.

Scott didn’t know whether the Obama family will attend the dog parade.

“If Bo wants to come out and play, he’s more than welcome,” Scott said.