ohmidog!

About 75 people showed up for the first public meeting of Baltimore’s newly appointed Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force tonight, with many calling for improved education, harsher penalties for animal cruelty and creative measures to instill empathy for animals among young people.

Others ideas included bringing pets into schools; recruiting local celebrities, such as Ravens players, to become role models on how to treat animals; hiring an investigator trained in animal abuse cases for the police force, beefing up the 16-member staff of the city’s Animal Control Office; and mandatory spay/neuter laws to cut down on the number of homeless animals that often become targets for animal abuse.

The task force was appointed this summer after a pit bull puppy, later named Phoenix, was doused with gasoline and set on fire. The dog’s injuries were so severe he had to be euthanized a few days later. Since then, several cats have been discovered tortured, burned and abused.

The panel is expected to make recommendations to Mayor Sheila Dixon next July.

Baltimore’s Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force holds its third meeting tonight – the first to which the public is invited. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Coldspring Lane. That task force — made up of  representatives from city offices, the police, the states attorney’s office, animal welfare organizations and city residents — was formed in July after several highly publicized incidents of dog and cat abuse.

If you didn’t like Jon Gosselin before, you’re really not going to like him now.

Gosselin, saying he’s unable to care for the dogs — what with his celebrity, and his divorce from Kate, and his moving to New York — is sending his two German shepherds back to the breeder.

The eight Gosselin children are staying in the family’s Wernersville home in Berks County, Pa., and the parents are dividing the duty, taking turns being with the children while trying not to be around each other.

Apparently the dogs are too much trouble.

Shoka and Nala are being returned to the breeder, and Jon is quick to point out it’s Kate’s fault, because she won’t take care of them when he’s not at the house, Radar Online reports.

“Jon blames Kate for having to give up the dogs,” a source close to the situation told Radar Online. “Of course these days, Jon blames Kate for just about everything.”

But Jon’s attempts to blame Kate for getting rid of the dog simply isn’t fair, Radar quoted unidentified sources as saying. The dogs have always been Jon’s, and he made no attempt to find housing where he could keep his dogs.

(Photo: INF Daily, via Radar Online)

Big guys with large tattoos rescue dogs in “Rescue Ink Unleashed,” a new weekly series on the National Geographic Channel.

It premieres Sept. 25 at 10 p.m.

Rescue Ink was formed a few years ago when eight tough guys with soft spots for animals began their mission to save animals from abuse.

The New York Times had an excellent article on the group last year,  which led to National Geographic’s interest. Its members include bouncers, security guards, a retired New York City detective, and some who have run afoul of the law.

Each one-hour episode of “Rescue Ink Unleashed” takes viewers on “ride-alongs” as members follow up on leads in the New York metro area. Taking an average of 100 calls a week at their headquarters on Long Island, they jump into their cars — or on their “hogs” — and confront alleged animal abusers, rescue fighting dogs, investigate stolen animals and  encourage owners to give up their pets if it is in the best interest of the animals.

Animal “crush” videos — recorded depictions of extreme, and generally fatal, animal cruelty — have undergone a resurgence, ten years after they led to the passage of federal anti-animal cruelty laws, the Humane Society of the United States says.

With the U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider the constitutionality of a federal anti-animal cruelty law on Oct. 6, the HSUS revealed the results of a new investigation showing that such videos are widely available on the Internet, despite the decade-old law, and even more so since it was struck down by  an appellate court last July.

The enactment of the Federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty Law in 1999 halted the proliferation of animal crushing operations, the HSUS said. The law has also been used to crack down on commercial dogfighting operations.

“The federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty Law is the only tool available to crack down on this horrific form of extreme animal cruelty,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “We wouldn’t allow the sale of videos of actual child abuse or murder staged for the express purpose of selling videos of such criminal acts, and the same legal principles apply to despicable acts of animal cruelty.”

Pacelle wrote about the crushing issue on his blog yesterday.

The videos and photographs show, among other things, women, often in high-heeled shoes, impaling and crushing  puppies, kittens and other small animals. Read more »

The fashion industry elite have gathered in New York for Fashion Week, but I’m not sure how many of them made it to the Snuggie runway show.

Allstar Products Group, LLC, a global leader in the development, branding, marketing and distribution of consumer products, held a Snuggie Fashion Show in New York City yesterday to introduce the “next generation” of the Snuggie blanket.

The runway show featured both Snuggies for humans and the new Snuggie for dogs.

The Snuggie Fashion Show featured lights, cameras and glamorous models — human and canine — as they struck a pose in new Snuggie, according to a company press release.

But wait, there’s more.

Snuggie makers unveiled a number of new limited edition designs — including zebra and leopard animal prints.  Also introduced was the “luxury microplush” Snuggie, with extra roomy pockets, and new colors that include black, purple (attention Ravens fans), camel and hunter green. Also being introduced in limited numbers is a camouflage Snuggie and a tie dye “Snuggadelic Snuggie.”

Dog Snuggies ($9.99 for all sizes) are available only in pink and blue.

Three people have been convicted for their roles in one of Europe’s largest dog-fighting syndicates — offenses brought to light by a BBC program called “Panorama.”

Claire Parker, 44, from Lincolnshire, Mohammed Farooq, 33, from Birmingham, and a 17-year-old boy were convicted at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court, the BBC reported.

The RSPCA said it was one of the biggest cases of dog-fighting it had prosecuted. Read more »