ohmidog!

A citizens’ initiative in Denver would, if voters approved, allow dogs to be off leash in sections of almost all of the city’s parks from 5 to 9 a.m.

Proposed by Ronald “Byron” Williams, and still requiring the city’s approval, the initiative would go on the ballot in November if Williams is able to collect 4,000 signatures on petitions.

“We’re considered to be an extremely dog-friendly city, and we need to live up to that and do something about it,” Williams told the Denver Daily News.

Williams began work on the initiative after becoming frustrated with the lack of dog parks in Denver. He believes designated leash free hours would be a good compromise, allowing dogs some time romp off leash while not significantly impacting those using the parks for other reasons.

The city considered and scrapped a similar plan earlier after complaints from nearby neighborhood groups.

Denver is now working on a “dog park master plan,” a final version of which is expected to be approved this month.

“ The plan would implement a fee for existing dog parks, use that money to pay for additional park rangers who could write tickets for people who illegally have their dogs off-leash, and identify possible new areas that could be used for off-leash dog parks,” the Daily News reported.

At first glance, that seems more like plan to build revenue than to provide some running room for dogs.

Williams initiative, if approved, would likely lead to more immediate, and less expensive, results and make Denver — except for that nasty pit bull ban — a dog-friendlier city.

Subaru of America, Inc. has donated a custom-designed Outback to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), to help them collect and process evidence at animal crime scenes.

The modified 2010 Outback has specialized lighting, a radio, computer, exam table, roof rack and refrigerator in which to store evidence.

“We created the Subaru Outback CSI vehicle to transport the ASPCA’s Veterinary Forensics team to hard-to-access crime scenes,” said Todd Lawrence, promotions and sponsorship manager for Subaru of America, Inc.

“We needed a vehicle that allows us to reach some of the crime scenes where our larger unit cannot,” said Dr. Melinda Merck, senior director for Veterinary Forensics at the ASPCA.

Dr. Merck said the older unit was primarily used to examine animals, but the new response vehicle focuses more on examining evidence from animal crime scenes. The new unit will be based out of Gainesville, Florida, home of the ASPCA’s veterinary forensics program.

Washington broke ground for its newest canine playground this week — the 11,000 square foot Newark Dog Park.

“Everywhere I go in the city, there are more people who want dog parks,” said Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was packing dog treats for the occasion.

The park, to open in August, will be located off Wisconsin Avenue at 39th and Newark Streets.

The District is spending more than $400,000 on the park. Residents raised another $25,000 to pay for the park’s benches and other amenities, according to WTOP.

The District now has three official dog parks: S Street Dog Park, at 17th Street NW and New Hampshire Avenue. NW.; Shaw Dog Park, at 11th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW; and Walter Pierce Park Dog Park at 20th Street and Calvert Street NW.

(Photo: WTOP / Michelle Basch)

Ohio executed an innocent dog.

Carolyn Baker, 63, of Cleveland Heights, died of a heart attack in Feburary — not from being mauled by the family Rottweiler, the News-Messenger reported today.

Baker was found dead at her back steps, wearing only a thin polyester nightgown and boots, with bite marks on her arms and shoulder. That, apparently, was enough for the police, and subsequently the press, to indict Zeus, the family’s 9-year-old, 140-pound Rottweiler.

“Cleveland Heights Woman Dies Afer Being Attacked by Rottweiler,” one headline read. “POLICE: Woman Mauled to Death by Dog,” shouted another. “Woman Found Mauled to Death by Pet Rottweiler,” concluded a third.

As ohmidog! reported in February,  police and, in turn, the news media, may have jumped the gun — perhaps a little too eager to place blame on a dog because of his breed, which is, of course, nothing new.

Zeus was seized by authorities and impounded, despite the family’s contention that the dog was actually trying to rescue the woman, and that any bite marks were a result of him trying to drag her back to the house.

It took almost six months, but now Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller says there were few dog bites on Baker, that she died of a heart attack and hypothermia, and that her injuries indicated “the dog was trying to help her.”

Had the results come in sooner, Zeus might still be around.

The Cleveland Municipal Court ordered him destroyed in April.

In a episode nearly as ludicrous as the case of the soiled condominium, an English great-grandmother was threatened with a £50 fine for picking up the wrong dog’s poop.

Pam Robson was accused by Sunderland Council wardens of failing to clean up after Derik, her Labrador, in a field in Houghton-le-Spring in January.

The council said the 60-year-old had picked up droppings that emanated from a different dog, according to the BBC.

How they knew that, I’m not sure, for Sunderland is not one of those jurisdictions that are performing DNA analysis on dog poop — a step that has been proposed at a condominium right here in Baltimore.

The board of the Scarlett Place Condominiums on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is considering a proposal to create a DNA database of its canine residents, then sending offending feces to a lab in an effort to find out exactly who, among their residents, is allowing their dog to poop in its ritzy hallways, and not picking it up.

Yes, everyone should pick up their dog’s waste — but going to such forensic lengths, and fining people for not picking up the right pile, are the actions of obsessive, power hungry control freaks who need to find better causes.

In Robson’s case, she refused to pay the fine and was threatened with court action.

Robson said she had been talking to her daughter on her cell phone when her dog ran off and did it’s doody. Robson walked over, scooped up a pile, and then was approached by two men (because policing poopers is apparently too dangerous a job to do alone).

“He said it was the wrong mess and that he was going to issue me with a fine for £50,” Robson recalled. “I picked up the other mess too and put it in the bag but he said I’d still be fined.”

“It felt like the worst kind of bullying,” she said.

Sunderland City Council, after she complained and asked for a review, later wrote to Robson, saying: “Officers at the time were satisfied that an offence had been committed. However it appears you may have collected faeces belonging to another dog.” In light of that, the note said, the council would not be pursuing the fine.

Preservationists are complaining that a series of signs installed by New York University, urging dog owners to “clean up after your pet” and “curb your dog,” are soiling the area’s historical character.

Greenwich Village preservationists, already battling NYU officials over the school’s expansion plans, say the signs installed by the university are both unsightly and illegal — and those “Dogipot” clean-up stations, even worse.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission this month ordered NYU to remove three of the signs at its Silver Towers complex, off Houston Street, because they were installed on landmarked property without a permit.

According to the preservationists, the Dogipot stations, which dispense poop bags, can’t legally be placed on properties with landmark status.

“This seems like special treatment being given to a powerful and well-connected institution,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told the website DNAInfo.

He said the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation notified the city of more than a dozen of NYU’s alleged illegal signs and clean-up stations in June last year.

Only three were ordered to be pulled down.

Elizabeth de Bourbon, a spokesperson for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said the other signs were not ordered pulled down because they did not detract from the “historic fabric” of the area.

(Photo: DNAinfo / Nicole Breskin)

Almost Heaven Kennel owner Derbe Eckhart will spend six months to nearly two years in prison for animal cruelty.

According to an Associated Press report, Eckhart wept as he was sentenced Tuesday in Lehigh County Court in Pennsylvania.

Eckhart was charged with cruelty after a 2008 raid of his kennel by animal welfare workers and the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement.

Prosecutors said animals found at the kennel suffered from severe, painful matting and a variety of skin, eye and upper respiratory ailments.

Eckart was convicted in March on two animal cruelty charges but the jury acquitted him on four other counts.

Baltimore police are searching for three boys — believed to be ages 10 to 12 — who were seen beating a young pit bull to death at Carroll Park golf course Saturday.

And if that’s not a disturbing enough new chapter in Baltimore’s continuing saga of animal abuse, consider this: According to a Baltimore Sun report, Animal Control officers didn’t arrive at the golf course until more than five hours after the incident was reported to police.

A golf course maintenance worker, Rob Whiderman, saw the youths beating the puppy with a tree branch at the municipal golf course in Southwest Baltimore.

Screaming at them to stop, he drove his golf court to where they were, chased them to the railroad tracks and lost them.

He said he called police, who notified animal control, but they didn’t arrive until about 5:30 p.m., five hours after he called.

“It looked like every bone was broken in its body,” Whiderman told WJZ. ”It looks like it broke its back, legs.  We tried to pick it up and nothing was attached.  It was like he didn’t have bones.  Like jelly.”

Whiderman said the youths were between 10 and 12 years old.  Police later found a red-and-white-striped polo shirt, a tree branch and a cell phone that might have been dropped by one of the youths.

But between the two agencies, the police department and animal control, there seemed to be little urgency in responding to the call of an animal being tortured, and even less once the dog had died.

Whiderman said he returned to the golf course Sunday morning and found the dead dog still lying in the woods. He called police again, who responded and wrote a report.

The police report confirms that animal control did not remove the dead puppy when they arrived Saturday afternoon, the Sun reported.

John Travolta’s two family dogs were killed after being struck by an airport service vehicle at Maine’s Bangor International Airport.

Both dogs were being walked on leashes while Travolta’s jet was parked on an airport tarmac for refueling.

In a statement released to the Bangor Daily News, city officials said, “An airport service pickup truck was approaching the airplane to service the airplane and did not see the dogs. Unfortunately, the dogs were struck and killed. The airport is investigating the accident. Out of respect for the family’s privacy the city will make no further comment.”

The death of the two dogs comes a little more than a year after Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, lost their son, Jett, who died after suffering from a seizure while vacationing with them in the Bahamas.

Travolta is a licensed pilot and owns a home in Islesboro, a small coastal town in Maine. It was unclear who was on the plane or if Travolta was in the cockpit, CBS News reported.

Police in Alameda have put down Max, the pit bull mix who on the day of his scheduled euthanization was allegedly stolen from the city’s animal shelter by his owners and driven to Reno.

The 70-pound animal was put down Saturday, the San Jose Mercury-News reported.

The dog had been picked up earlier that day, after being tracked down in Reno and brought back to California.

The dog’s owner Richard Cochran, 57, is expected to appear in Alameda County Superior Court today, where he will face felony burglary and conspiracy charges.

His girlfriend, Melissa Perry, 38, was arrested Thursday at the same motel in Reno where police located Max.

Police say the couple broke into the Alameda shelter and stole the dog, who had been declared dangerous after biting two people.