ohmidog!

When a stray 20-pound Australian cattle dog was struck by a car while crossing Washington Street in South Philadelphia back in March, three police officers rushed her to the Pennsylvania SPCA.

On Sunday, the dog, now known as Miss Mickey, and her foster parent, from the Australian Cattle Dog Rescue Association, dropped by the Third District Police Station at 11th and Wharton Streets with a $150 donation to the city’s Fallen Officers Fund, presented on the dog’s behalf.

Officers Brian Karpinski, Jason Rush and Melissa Kromchad accepted the gift, with appreciative pats for Miss Mickey, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“Last time I saw her,” Rush said, “she didn’t look anything like that.”

When Miss Mickey was hit, the officers put her in a patrol wagon and sped to the SPCA, where veterinarians found her pelvis had been crushed.

After a week of treatment there, Miss Mickey, thought to be about 6 years old, was tranferred to Valley Central Veterinary Referral Center in the Lehigh Valley, where metal plates were implanted in her pelvis. The surgeon discounted his bill, from the normal $10,000 to $1,800.

South Street merchant Tony Fisher, who witnessed the accident, started soliciting donations from his customers via email. It was Fisher, who runs Big Green Earth, who came up with the dog’s new name.

Fisher and Marianne Ahern, who volunteered to foster Miss Mickey, also used Facebook to get the word out about her condition. One of Fisher’s customers even sold some of his original artwork on eBay to raise money, and donations came from as far away as Florida and California.

The campaign brought in $4,000. After paying the dog’s medical expenses, the remainder was donated to the Fallen Officers Fund.

Ahern said Miss Mickey is fully recovered from her injuries – and up for adoption. If interested, visit the website of the Australian Cattle Dog Rescue Association.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is reminding Oregonians that dogs aren’t welcome in grocery stores unless they’re providing a service to the disabled.

“Of all the complaints we receive … pets in a grocery store — especially dogs — is by far our number one issue,” said officials said in a press release on the DOA website. “We’ve received complaints about dogs urinating in the aisle of a grocery store, jumping up and licking packages of meat, or sniffing food items on the shelf.”

The new public awareness campaign uses dog-shaped posters that will provide definitions of service animal and “tips” for consumers who see pets inside stores. Pamphlets will also be distributed to business owners to help them “know what to ask” and “when to ask” when an animal enters a store.

State officials say it is against state and federal law for live animals to enter establishments selling or preparing food,  unless the animal falls under a specific exemption of the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.  The ADA defines a service animal as “any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability.”

Citations will be issued to businesses in violation, not animal owners, according to the DOA website.

A lawsuit headed to court next week in Arlington County, Virginia will take up the question of what a pet’s life is worth.

Jeffrey Nanni sued his former domestic partner, Maurice Kevin Smith, alleging that Smith  killed their 12-pound Chihuahua, Buster. Smith was found guilty of assault and battery and cruelty to animals in connection with the incident. Since Buster’s death, the suit says, Nanni, 42, a paralegal, “continues to suffer severe emotional distress.”

The suit, according to a story in Monday’s Washington Post, asks that monetary damages be awarded on the basis of  Buster’s worth to Nanni “as a companion animal.”

If he wins, the case would be groundbreaking one in Virginia, where state law says that dogs and cats are considered property, and that owners are entitled to recover only the value of a pet. In the past, that has been interpreted to mean the replacement value.

Nanni’s attorney, a White House counsel for President Bill Clinton, hopes to move the boundaries of Virginia law in asking a jury to award money for “Buster’s actual value” to Nanni, saying pets have “irreplaceable relationships” with their owners.

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A drug company and a pet health company have joined forces to market a new spray mist pain reliever for dogs.

The companies are developing a mist version of the pain medication meloxicam, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is commonly used to treat dogs with arthritis.

It is currently available in pill, liquid and injectable forms.

Abbott Laboratories said in a press release today that it  is collaborating with Velcera Inc. to make and sell the pain treatment that will use Velcera’s “Promist” system, which allows a mist-formulation of the drug to be sprayed inside a pet’s mouth.

The product will be the first canine pain management product delivered in a transmucosal mist — a form the company says can get into the bloodstream as much as ten times more quickly than a tablet.

“Abbott Animal Health is dedicated to bringing high quality and innovative treatments to veterinarians and their clients,” said Lynn Bromstedt, divisional vice president, Abbott Animal Health. “This revolutionary pain management product will be a great addition to Abbott’s existing animal health portfolio and could make medication compliance easier for pet owners.”

Promist(TM) technology delivers the active ingredient through a fine mist to the inside cheek or oral cavity of the animal, where it is quickly absorbed through the mucous membranes of the mouth.

Authorities say up to 14 dogs were involved in the fatal attack on a former University of Georgia professor and his wife, as they walked near their home in Lexington.

The dogs that mauled Lothar Karl Schweder, 77, and Sherry Schweder, 65, were known to neighbors, belonged to a many who used to live nearby, and had not shown signs of aggression before, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. The newspaper reported later today that the dogs, all mixed breeds, will be euthanized.

The dogs were still standing over the slain couple when the coroner arrived at the scene on Saturday.  They seemed to be guarding the bodies as if they were prey, said James Matthews, coroner for Oglethorpe County. “They were not aggressive whatsoever,” he said. “I guess that’s what makes the attack so hard to figure out.”

An autopsy performed at the GBI Crime Lab concluded that the dogs were responsible for the deaths. “There’s nothing to indicate foul play,” said Jim Fullington, special agent in charge of the GBI’s Athens office.

Sherry Schweder was out looking for one of her own six dogs when she was attacked. Her husband was killed after he went looking for his wife, Matthews said. Their mutilated bodies were found by a pair of visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses about 12 hours after they went missing.

The dogs belong to a man who used to live in the area but was forced to move because of medical problems, neighbors said. A friend would take the former owner to the property to feed the dogs, they said.

Matthews said the dogs, rounded up Monday afternoon by animal control officers from a neighboring county, showed no signs of malnourishment or rabies and said Oglethorpe County had never received complaints about the dogs.

Fullington, the GBI agent, said he was not sure what would happen to the dogs.

Lothar Schweder taught German at UGA, and his wife worked as a humanities bibliographer at the university’s main library. They were known as avid animal lovers and often walked their dogs on the same quiet road where they died.

Just what this dog has against Barack Obama isn’t clear — but it is clear he won’t take a treat when Obama’s name is attached.

Apparently he’s been trained in such a way that the name Barack Obama serves as a negative, uh, what’s the word, stimulus.

 
I’m not going to make fun of this study. I’m not going to make fun of this study. I’m not going to make fun of this …

Ah, I can’t resist.

A study at Cornell University is trying to determine whether walking the dog helps owners shed and keep off unwanted pounds, according to USA Today’s Paw Print Post.

If that sounds like a no-brainer — one of those things that perhaps man could figure out without an expensive study –  consider this: “An early look at the data shows that the dogs who walk the most steps have a better body condition score.”

In all fairness, there’s more to the study than determining whether exercise is good for us and our dogs; and dog walking habits could, if properly approached, make for some pretty interesting reading.

Basically, I see three types of dogwalkers: Those who jog with their dogs, clearly getting exercise; those who hike or walk laps with their dogs, also getting exercise; and those who take their dogs to the park and let the dogs get all the exercise while they sit on the bench, yap with fellow dog walkers, smoke, or talk on cell phones.

In defense of the latter group, it should be pointed out that we they, are still getting exercise by virtue of walking to the park, and that, rather than being total slouches, they may prefer to let their dogs playfully romp and socialize off leash with other dogs — thereby getting even more exercise (the dogs, anyway) than they would by being walked in boring circles on a rope.

It should also be pointed out that members of the more sedentary latter group — while violating leash laws — are also allowing their dogs to gain social skills, and, perhaps, honing their own in the process.

But back to the study. Cornell researcher Barbour Warren says they are analyzing everything from how much dogs and humans actually walk together to human attitudes, and the decisions to walk the dog or not walk the dog.

“We’re trying to get people to make small changes in the amount of food they take and the amount of physical activity they take,” says Warren, “and finding out how dog walking might be involved and how typical veterinary practices might be involved in helping more.”

Warren says the study stems from the rise of obesity in the USA and obesity-related illnesses, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and arthritis. More than two-thirds of the people across the nation are overweight and one third are considered obese. Dogs are increasingly falling into those categories as well.

“We became interested in trying to prevent weight gain,” he says. “Dog walking offers two of the key elements for regular physical activity, purpose and companionship. Dogs can provide both of these in spades.”

The goal of the study is to develop the necessary data and tools to build a program to combat obesity by increasing dog walking as a form of family exercise.

New York dog writer Nadia Zonis recently appeared on New York’s WNYC to tout the newest in a series of guides for walking your dog in the city.

Zonis, the New York editor for Urbanhound.com, is the author of “City Walks With Dogs, New York,” which includes 50 flash cards, each depicting a different route, and the pet-friendly attractions you’ll encounter along the way.

Some of the walks included are SoHo and the West Village, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Roosevelt Island and Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue. You can order it from Amazon here.

A former University of Georgia professor and his wife found dead along the highway Saturday morning were apparently killed by a pack of dogs, according to the state medical examiner.

Lothar Karl Schweder, 77, who had taught German at the university, and his wife, Sherry Schweder, 65, who worked at the university’s main library, were found on a road where they often walked their own dogs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The couple were found by visiting Jehovah’s Witness members.

After an autopsy Monday morning, Oglethorpe County Coroner James Mathews told the University of Georgia student newspaper, The Red & Black, that a dog attack was to blame.

“It was the results of a brutal dog attack,” Mathews said. “Without being graphic there were bites from head to toe… There are a lot of weird circumstances with this one. I’ve been coroner for 28 years, and this is one of the weirdest cases I’ve investigated.”

The state Bureau of Investigation responded to a call about the bodies around 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

Oglethorpe County animal control officials were out Monday looking for the dogs in the area, along Highway 77, near Highway 78.