ohmidog!

You might want to sit down for this one: Michael Vick is going to star in his own television series.

Two weeks after his first regular season appearance as an NFL quarterback since completing his prison sentence for dog fighting, Vick has announced he has the starring and title role in an eight-part docu-series on BET, tentatively titled “The Michael Vick Project.”

Call it amrak (the opposite of karma). Call it unjust desserts. Call it absolutely outrageous. But the convicted animal abuser is on the verge of getting another heaping helping of good fortune.

“I just want people to really get to know me as an individual,” Vick said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.  “What I want to do is change the perception of me. I am a human being. I’ve made some mistakes in the past, and I wish it had never happened. But it’s not about how you fall, but about how you pick yourself up.”

The program will spotlight his controversial comeback with the Philadelphia Eagles and examine his tumultuous past — including his troubled childhood and his 2007 arrest for running a dogfighting ring, with visits to both the Virginia estate where he fought dogs and federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he served his sentence.

Officials with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals expressed skepticism about the project. “People who abuse animals don’t deserve to be rewarded,” said PETA spokesman Dan Shannon. “They shouldn’t be given multimillion-dollar contracts . . . or given the privilege of being a role model.”

The project has the support of the Eagles, the NFL and the Humane Society of the United States, which has enlisted Vick in its battle to end the widespread abuse of dogs in the inner city.

The project is being produced by DuBose Entertainment; Vick’s production company, MV7 Productions; and Category 5 Entertainment. No one associated with the production would comment on Vick’s compensation for the series, the Times reported. Vick has filed a six-year plan to repay creditors an estimated $20 million to get out of bankruptcy.

Producers of the Vick series said the program would not a typical reality show like VH-1′s “The T.O. Show,” which revels in the excesses of its flamboyant star, wide receiver Terrell Owens. The tone of Vick’s show, say producers, will be serious and somber as it focuses on his personal struggles since his release.

“This show can be a blueprint for so many kids,” Vick said. “I want to show them that things are going to happen, that they’re not going to get through life without dealing with some kind of adversity. I want to show that if they have a fall from grace, this is how they can turn it around. We want this to be a story of hope.”

The U.S. Marine Corps –which had outlawed pit bulls, wolf hybrids, Rottweilers and any other dog with “dominant traits of aggression” at several of its bases — has now instituted a blanket, worldwide breed ban for all of its bases.

Stars and Stripes reports that the policy was approved in August.

The policy allows Marines and families currently living in base housing to keep their pets if they apply for a waiver by Oct. 10 and if their dogs pass a behavior test. That waiver will last only as long as the family remains at the same base or until Sept. 30, 2012.

By that date, under the policy, all Marine housing and Marine-controlled housing should be free of any full or mixed breeds considered pit bulls, Rottweilers and wolf hybrids.

Daisy Okas, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club in New York, told Stars and Stripes that the policy comes as more local governments and public housing facilities are instituting similar bans.

 ”We’re seeing breed-specific bans pretty regularly,” she said. “We’re very against it. We look at how a dog behaves. It’s a frustrating topic.”

It’s tiny, and it’s wedged between busy downtown streets, but a third dog park is soon to open in Baltimore — a joint effort of The Downtown Partnership and the city.

It’s only a tenth of an acre — bounded by Fayette Street, Park Avenue, Baltimore and Liberty streets, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Once opened, possibly in a matter of weeks, it will be the third area in Baltimore where dogs are legally permitted to be off leash. The other two are Canton Dog Park and Locust Point Dog Park, which opened last month.

“We saw the need,” Bob Dengler, the Downtown Partnership’s vice president of capital projects, told the Sun. “Even before this area was fenced in, people were already walking their dogs there.”

Between dog friendly apartments, and a pet-friendly hotel — the Hotel Monaco, which recently opened two blocks away — the downtown area has seen a surge in residents, both human and canine.

The city is also working on creating off-leash areas at four parks — Patterson, Riverside. Wyman and Herring Run — most of which will  be in designated parts of the parks during designated morning and evening hours.

The city’s transportation department built the fence and installed a ramp to make the park accessible to the handicapped, while the Downtown Partnership paid for the fence and will maintain the park.

Holy Formaldehyde! Times are changing. As of this fall, thousands of Catholic school students in the Philadelphia area can opt out of that once mandatory, highly stinky rite of passage — dissecting a frog in biology class.

The  Archdiocese of Philadelphia has established a policy under which students in its 20 high schools who have concerns about traditional animal dissection are allowed to use alternatives to frogs, cats and other actual animals.

As an increasing number of high schools and universities are realizing, there are plenty of options to cutting up an animal, and students can learn just as much about biology through models and computer graphics.

“As the 21st century evolves, greater use of virtual dissection experiences will be encouraged and eventually replace the use of scientifically preserved animals,” said Mary E. Rochford, Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “With the availability of virtual lab experiences and other Internet instructional tools, students can arrive at the same learning.”

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s policy is modeled after the Pennsylvania Students Rights Option, a law established in 1992, which enables public and non-public students from grades K-12 who do not want to harm animals as part of their coursework to use an alternative instead.

You can learn more about the Pennsylvania law here.

“The Archdiocese’s student choice policy can serve as a model for other schools in the state of Pennsylvania, in addition to other dioceses across the U.S,” said Laura Ducceschi, Director of Animalearn, a project of the American Anti-Vivisection Society.

Tens of thousands of cats, frogs, and other animals are killed annually, specifically for dissection and other educational purposes, despite available alternatives and studies showing that students learn as well or better by using virtual dissection and other humane alternatives, according to Animalearn.

Animalearn’s website offers a searchable database of over 450 alternatives to dissection, downloadable software, and other humane science tools. A free resource to students and teachers nationwide, The Science Bank offers interactive models, videos, and virtual dissection CD-ROMs and DVDs.

Bucking global fashion, the Australian suburb of Mosman, outside Sydney, is working to make restaurants with outdoor dining less dog friendly.

The town’s council has drafted a new policy, requiring cafe owners to set aside areas where dogs can be chained up like bicycles while their owners eat — in effect ruining the dining with dog experience, not to mention raising new questions about the safety and humaneness of leaving dogs tied.

Tying them up, the council reasons, will keep dogs far enough away from food to comply with law — and keep dog-loving restaurant patrons from taking their business elsewhere.

”It could be on the street, it might be at a bus seat or it might be a street pole,” said Anthony Fitzpatrick, the council’s manager of governance.

At The Avenue Cafe, Barbara Standen told the Sydney Morning Herald she could not understand why well-behaved dogs should not be allowed to sit at her feet while she has a coffee. ”In Europe they go into food shops and dress shops.”

(Photo: Barbara Standen outside The Avenue Cafe with her dog Molly and her friend’s labrador, Annie. By SAHLAN HAYES/Sydney Morning Herald)

Remember those fiberglass dogs displayed around Lafayette, Indiana as part of an outdoor art exhibit — the ones that, between vandals and thieves, weren’t always treated too kindly?

They’ve gone on to raise $24,000 for the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine and the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, co-sponsors of the “Dog Days of Summer” exhibit.

More than 150 people bid on 25 of the the life-sized artworks over the weekend, Channel 6 in Indianapolis reported.

Forty-one painted and decorated dog statues were placed in outdoor sites around Lafayette and West Lafayette in the exhibit, though many were later moved indoors after theft and vandalism.

Only one dog, Alfie the Alpha Dog, was too damaged to be preserved.

Organizers and art lovers, though dismayed that the statues weren’t safe in the community, said they are pleased with the auction results.