ohmidog!

Officials in the otherwise affluent Minnesota town of Edina say free dog poop bags will no longer be placed in dispensers at city parks.

The reason? Folks were emptying the dispensers only hours after they were being filled, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

“People walk up and take them until they’re gone,” he said. “And it’s not just one isolated incident. It’s everywhere and often.”

John Keprios, director of parks and recreation for the city of Edina, said the $12,000-per-year poop bag program was halted at eight parks that formerly stocked the bags.

“I would have loved to have kept providing them,” Keprios said. “Financially, it’s not just feasible if they treat it that way.”

One wonders how much it cost to put up the signs notifying people of that at the eight parks.

(Photo: Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

A 68-year-old Danish man was sentenced Monday for rubbing dog feces into the hair of a canine owner who neglected to clean up after her pet.

A 41-year-old woman in Silkeborg told police she was walking home with her dog and a load of groceries when the man confronted her for letting her dog defecate in his garden.

The woman offered to go home, get a bag and clean up the mess, but the man was apparently intent on exacting revenge.

“He was really aggressive. He grabbed the woman by the hair, held on tight to her and rubbed the dog poop all over her head,” a witness told the Copenhagen Post.

The man received 30 days suspended jail time.

“Hey That’s My Dog,” my photo exhibit featuring more than 150 South Baltimore dogs, will remain at Captain Larry’s for an extra week — through next weekend.

The exhibit benefits Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS).

In its first week, about 70 of the exhibit’s 200 photos sold, raising nearly $1,000 for BARCS.

To see if your dog, or one you know, is in the mix, check out the video, or drop by Captain Larry’s, 601 E. Fort Ave.

An email campaign, aimed at ensuring dachshund killer Dudley Ramsay receive a full two-year sentence for fatally bashing his dog against a bathtub, failed to produce the intended result.

Ramsay was sentenced to just four months in prison on Friday by New York Judge Michael Gary.

Ramsay, of Fort Greene, was convicted of aggravated animal cruelty in March for disciplining the 5-month-old dog, named Junior, by smashing him against a bathtub, causing six fractured ribs and damage to the pup’s lungs and liver, according to The Brooklyn Paper. Then he waited several hours before taking the dog to a veterinary hospital, where he died.

Syzmanski

An email campaign was launched after Ramsay’s conviction by Mike Szymanski, of Greenwood Heights, who owns three dachshunds and writes the Dachshund Examiner for Examiner.com.

“This is a tragedy,” said Szymanski, who noted Ramsay had freely admitted by then to killing another dachshund earlier. The sentence, he said, “is a fraction of what Ramsay certainly deserves. It was a slap on the wrist and showed that the judge didn’t care.”

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said it received over 100 emails from pet owners across the country, demanding that Ramsay gets the maximum sentence. Deputy District Attorney Carol Moran pushed for the maximum sentence, the spokesman said, but the sentencing decision rested with the judge.

“People have to realize that Dachshund lovers can be way more radical than the Tea Party if we find out than an injustice has been done,” Szymanski said. “This is something that could cost this judge his office.”

A Canadian couple fell in love on their vacation in Mexico — with a stray dog.

Josiah Allen and Erin Docking were sitting on the beach in Puerto Vallarta when the small white dog came up, sat down next to them and stayed all day long.

By the time their 10-day vacation ended, the couple had determined to take the dog, who they’d named Paco, back to Canada.

They filled out paperwork, took him to a veterinarian for treatment of an eye infection and tick infestation, and paid to get him the necessary shots.

But on their flight home, Delta Airlines somehow lost the dog, the Detroit News reported.

On May 3, the couple placed Paco in a pet carrier and flew from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City. At the airport there, they ran into trouble getting approval for Paco to fly to Detroit. Airline officials questioned whether the carrier was large enough for Paco but approved him for the flight once Allen signed a waiver protecting Delta from any claims if the dog was injured.

When Allen and Docking arrived in Detroit,  Paco was nowhere to be found.

“After waiting around for two hours, they told us (Paco) was in Mexico City and would be flown in on the next flight,” said Allen, 19, a kinesiology student at the University of Waterloo.

But Paco –  described as a mix between a “wiener dog and a Jack Russell terrier” — didn’t arrive the next day, and hasn’t since.

After Allen went public with the story, Delta officials called and offered to cover the expenses he’d incurred with Paco and throw in some extra cash, Allen said.

“Our staff has conducted exhaustive searches to locate the dog,” Delta officials said in a statement. “We have been in contact with the dog’s owner to inform them of the situation and to offer our sincere apologies that we have been unable to recover the dog…”

Some reports say Paco broke out of his cage at the airport and ran away — meaning he may once again be a stray, only this time in Mexico City rather than Puerto Vallarta.

Today is the last day of “Hey That’s MY Dog!” — a photo exhibit featuring more than 150 South Baltimore canines.

The exhibit, at Captain Larry’s, 601 E. Fort Avenue, will be open through tonight.

Sales of the prints ($25 each) benefit Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS).

The photos were taken over the last year and a half by ohmidog’s vice president of visual communications (aka me).

To see if your dog is in the mix, watch the following video presentation of the exhibit — but don’t blink or you might miss him.

A mystery mutt has become an unofficial mascot of the riots in Greece by turning up at every major demonstration in Athens for the past two years.

As this video shows, when there’s violence and unrest — and in Greece, that means almost daily – the dog has a habit of appearing amid the crowds.

Fans have even created a Facebook page for him.

“He doesn’t seem to get scared of tear gas, explosions, petrol bombs and people screaming all over,” wrote one blogger. “He actually seems to enjoy himself a lot!”

The dog wears a blue collar, indicating he’s a stray who has been vaccinated.

Some Athens-based bloggers claim his name is Kanellos, which is Greek for “cinnamon.” But others say that dog died in 2008, and the one pictured is Louk. Still others say his name is Theodorus and he lives in Syntagma Square, which has become ground zero for violent protests.

As for why he keeps turning up at the riots, nobody knows.

Some suspect he belongs to either a photographer or police officer. But in most recent photos, the New York Post says, he seems to be “showing solidarity with hooded rock-throwers and barking at cops in riot gear.”

More likely, being a dog, he’s neutral.

A beagle named Sparky is suspected of starting a fire that damaged the home of a Virginia firefighter.

Glenn Ross was about to sit down to dinner at Alexandria Fire Department Station 206 Tuesday evening when he heard a familiar address come across the radio — that of his home in Franconia.

Arriving at his house, Ross learned his wife had not been home, and his two dogs — Sparky and Brownie — had been rescued, though both were unconscious on a neighbor’s lawn. Firefighters had found the dogs under a table in the kitchen, where both spend the day.

Investigators said the fire started when a box of dog treats left on the stove top ignited, WUSA reported.

Ross believes that one of the dogs, most likely Sparky, jumped up trying to get the treats and accidentally turned on a burner.

Ross said a five-year-old neighbor saw smoke coming from the home and ran in to get his grandparents who called 911.

Both dogs were recovering at Alexandria Animal Hospital and Veterinary Emergency Service, where they were being treated for smoke inhalation and corneal burns.

The fatal shooting of a dog during a February SWAT team raid in Columbia, Missouri, has prompted the police department to change its policies, Chief Ken Burton said at a news conference Thursday.

You might guess he was talking about the department’s dog-shooting policy, which, judging from this video, seems to be shoot first, shoot some more, and ask questions later.

But no. After killing a family’s pit bull, wounding their Welsh corgi, and terrorizing the suspect’s wife and child — in a bust that netted a mere palmful of marijuana — the police department has revamped department policy so that there won’t be lags between the time they obtain a search warrant and the time they, stormtrooper style, bust into homes.

Burton said the department moved slowly in Whitworth’s case because the SWAT team is made up of part-time members who hold other jobs within the department.

The fact that officer killed one of the suspect’s dogs, intentionally, and wounded another, accidentally — while the incident is still being investigated internally — seems, to him, of little import.

Burton said the pit bull was acting aggressively, and he defended the actions of the officers involved, according to The Missourian.

The suspect, Jonathan Whitworth, pleaded guilty on April 20 to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and was fined $300.

Subsequently, the police video was released and found its way onto YouTube, prompting a surge of protests from animal activists.

“We’re getting death threats from literally all over the world,” Burton said.

Looking at the photos Kim Wolf has been posting on her Facebook page of late, you might think her beloved pit bull is on a mission to gobble up the athletically-inclined on the streets of Philadelphia.

Actually, the closest Wolf’s 8-year-old pit bull, Martha Washington — a therapy dog in training —  has come to harming anyone is drowning them with “her sloppy kisses.”

“I took this picture as she was sailing out the car window on her way to “charm school” at Opportunity Barks,” Wolf said. “The background is the Schuylkill River along Boathouse Row in Philly.”

(No animals or humans — not the bicyclist or or the jogger — were harmed in the making of these photos.)

Martha, aka “The Donkey,” was adopted from the Philadelphia Animal Control Shelter, and is one of six adopted dogs who share a home with Wolf, a geriatric social worker who formerly worked with the Pennsylvania SPCA.

“My two passions in life are: advocating for elders (humans!) and advocating for dogs. So naturally, I was drawn to my two “elderbulls” (i.e., elderly pit bulls), Sarge  and Martha Washington.”

Sarge, 15, is a certified therapy dog, working with Pals for Life. He visits nursing homes, rehab centers, and libraries throughout the Delaware Valley. He and Wolf also volunteer with Citizens for a No-Kill Philadelphia  as “humane educators.”

“We visit Philly schools teaching students about responsible pet ownership, kindness towards animals, and the human/canine bond. Sarge and I also do “freelance” visits at schools, libraries, churches/synagogues, and any other place that’s interested in learning about animals…..especially pit bulls!”

Wolf also authors a a blog called “Elderbulls,” for which Sarge and Martha Washington are columnists. Wolf says the blog was inspired by a Betty Friedan quote — one she says guides her as both a geriatric social worker and an advocate for older dogs:

“Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”

(Photos by Kim Wolf)