ohmidog!

A 6-foot, 10-inch tall police officer chased a tiny dog down a Phoenix area highway — first on his motorcycle, then on foot — and managed to snag the frightened pooch and return it to safety.

Department of Public Safety Officer Martin Bennett captured one of the two dogs that had escaped from a car that overturned on the highway.

After attempting to herd it off the road on his motorcycle, Bennett hopped off, gave chase, and cornered the dog against a concrete median strip. Though it snapped at him, he picked it up, cradled it in its arms and returned it to its owner, who wasnt’ seriously injured in the accident.

A helicopter captured the chase from above.

The second dog was reported to have been recovered safely, as well.

The San Francisco Arts Commission has terminated one of its two contracts with New York artist Tom Otterness after a public outcry from animal lovers enraged that the city would cut a deal with a man who, nearly 35 years ago,  killed a dog and called it art.

The commission yesterday voted to void its $750,000 contract with Otterness to create and install 59 bronze sculptures at Moscone station, part of the Central Subway project.

Otterness will still receive $700,000 for his sculpture, “Mother with Children,” at the new San Francisco General Hospital.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, the city has already paid the artist $365,750 for that unfinished sculpture and would lose the money if it terminated that contract.

“I think a prudent decision … is to penalize him pretty severely for the loss of this major, major creative as well as financial opportunity, but not penalize the San Francisco Department of Health and its hospital and not cost the city an extraordinary amount of money …” said Arts Commission chairman PJ Johnston.

One commissioner said she felt both contracts should have been terminated. ”It’s not about forgiveness. I respect his license to make such a piece, but I can’t stand behind it,” said Jessica Silverman, a local artist and gallery owner. “By approving such a thing you make it OK. And it’s not OK.”

Otterness procured a dog from an animal shelter  in 1977, tied it to a fence and shot it, turning the film footage into a work of “art” he called “Shot Dog Film.”

“I am disappointed they didn’t cancel both,” said Sally Stephens, chair of San Francisco’s Animal Control and Welfare Commission. “But at least we got the one.”

Stephens said the city should have terminated the hospital contract, even if it meant taking a loss.

“It’s the cost of (the Arts Commission) not doing their homework,” she said.

(Photo: “Large Sad Sphere,” a sculpture by Otterness that has been displayed in New York City parks)

The city of Baltimore has released the fourth ad in its continuing campaign urging young people to “Show Your Soft Side,” and treat animals with kindness.

It features Dizzy Grant, one of the world famous Harlem Globetrotters, and his dog, Saber.

Aimed at combating animal abuse, the “Show Your Soft Side” campaign began earlier this year and has also featured Baltimore Raven Jarret Johnson, Baltimore Oriole Adam Jones, and MMA fighter John Rallo, all posing with their pets.

Grant’s dog, Saber, is a two-and-a-half year old purebred boxer. He’ll be showing up, along with Grant, on billboards, print ads, and posters that make the point, “Only a punk would hurt a cat or a dog.”

The “Show Your Soft Side” campaign grew out of the work of the Mayor’s Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Commission, which was originally created as a task force to study the issue after a pit bull named Phoenix was discovered to have been set on fire. She later died.

Given the alarming incidence of animal abuse in Baltimore, and given that many of the more horrific cases have been perpetrated by teens, the commission looked for ways to change the mindset of young people who often view the maiming and torturing of defenseless dogs and cats as a sign of “toughness” or “manhood.”

The campaign puts forth a very different message – that “being a man” includes having a “soft side” when it comes to animals.

The goal of the campaign is to influence children early — for the sake of animals, and humans. Research shows that kids who abuse animals often graduate to even more violent crimes. 

The campaign is made possible by support from Eddie’s of Roland Park, Fullmoon Marketing & Events, Kirk Designs, Inc. and Media Works, Ltd.

For more information about the campaign, you can visit its Facebook page.

Last week’s report about the Ohio dog found with an arrow poking out of both sides of his body got me to wondering about whatever happened to the Georgia dog who, in September, was found in a similar situation.

And, just as I started wondering, the answer came.

In the Ohio case, a 15-year-old German shepherd mix named Hershey disappeared from his home, ran off into the woods and was found 17 days later with an arrow going in one side of his chest and coming out the other.

A veterinarian removed it and he was last reported to be back home with his family and recovering.

In the Georgia case, a police officer discovered a one-year old pit bull mix wandering the streets of Atlanta with an arrow through his head. It had gone in near his left eye and came out behind his right ear, but veterinarians at a VCA Pets Are People Too Veterinary Hospital were able to remove it and treat the dog’s other injuries.

Interest in adopting the dog, dubbed Arrow, was high after news reports about him were aired, according to the Fulton County animal shelter.

After six weeks of recuperation, we’re happy to report, Arrow ended up getting adopted by Kevin Bryant, executive director of Pets Are Loving Support (PALS).

Bryant, whose organization provides pet food and money for veterinary care to people with terminal illnesses and disabilities, emailed me last week to share the news.

He reports that Arrow is doing well, and that both dog and human are helping each other heal: Five months ago, Bryant lost Murphy, his dog of 12 years, to cancer.

Bryant explains his decision to adopt Arrow in this video, produced by the website Fashionado:

San Francisco is considering terminating its $1.4 million in art contracts with Brooklyn sculptor Tom Otterness, who once shot and killed a dog on film and called it art.

San Francisco’s Arts Commission, which is in charge of publicly funded art projects, will hold a meeting today to vote on whether to rescind the contracts, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

The commission awarded Otterness earlier this year with a $750,000 contract for 59 bronze sculptures in the Moscone station of the proposed Central Subway project. That was in addition to a $700,000 contract he received last year for a sculpture at San Francisco General Hospital.

The commission said it was unaware of the incident in his past when they approved the contracts, the second of which was signed in September.

Apparently they missed out on the hubbub on the east coast when, in May, Otterness was awarded $750,000 to sculpt a set of lions to sit outside the Battery Park City branch of the New York Public Library.

Otterness, when he was 25, shot and killed a small black and white dog he adopted from a shelter for an art project — basically a repeated loop of film showing the execution. He called it ”Shot Dog Film.”

The incident has repeatedly surfaced during the career of Otterness, who is famous for his whimsical sculptures of people and animals, and it did again after he received the second San Francisco contract. After media reports and amid public complaints, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee placed a hold on both contracts, pending review.

Arts Commission Chairman PJ Johnston said that review is completed, and discussions have been held, but he declined to discuss them and said he was unsure how he would vote. He said he was concerned with the commission “getting into the position of judging the artist rather than the art.”

If I may boldy opine: I don’t understand that statement, or piece of one, but I’m not a real artist. I see nothing wrong with judging both the artist and the art, or, for that matter, the actor and his acting, the football player and the football play, the author and the book, or the arts commissioner and the art he commissions. Doing something well should not relieve one of  the responsibility of being a decent human being, or following the rules everyone else lives by.

End of bold opining.

It’s unclear whether the city, if it terminates the contract, will be able to redeem the $365,750 in payments it has already made to Otterness, the Examiner reported.

The San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission, called for the termination of the contracts in an Oct. 14 letter sent to the mayor and the Arts Commission.

“The city of St. Francis cannot display, with public funding, art from someone who has committed such an unconscionable act of animal cruelty,” the letter said.

St. Francis, after whom the city is named, is the patron saint of animals.

I’m not entirely sure Bowser Beer is, as claimed, the first beer for dogs.

And at $20 a six-pack, it’s out of my league — and therefore Ace’s.

But other than that, it seems harmless enough – a non-alcoholic, non-carbonated brew (made without hops, which can make dogs ill) that combines malt barley and homemade chicken or beef broth.

It comes in two varieties: Beefy Brown Ale and Cock-a-Doodle Brew.

Made by an Arizona company called 3 Busy Dogs, Bowser Beer, has been around for at least four years, but it’s being hailed on many websites this week as something new, and as a first, thanks to the World Records Academy, an outfit that pretends to be like Guinness (the world record book not the beer), but is actually more about marketing than measuring.

The WRA proclaimed Bowser Beer the official first beer for dogs earlier this month.

Bowser Beer got its start in 2007 in Washington, D.C., when a company that was already making pretzels for dogs,  decided dog beer would be a nice accompaniment.

That same year a Dutch company started marketing a beer for dogs.

Who came first? Who cares.

When Rubert “Lee” and Elizabeth Littler adopted a 135-pound Saint Bernard from the Highland County Dog Pound in Ohio, they had no idea his first bark would be such a big one.

The Hillsboro family’s new dog — named Hercules, aptly enough — scared a burglar away the same day they took him home, the Wilmington News Journal in Ohio reported.

In his new home for only six hours, Hercules chased down a burglar that had cut telephone and cable lines and was attempting to enter a basement door on the back side of the home.

Up to that point, Lee said, Hercules had not made a sound.

“I was taking Hercules out the back door to go to the bathroom and just had ahold of him by the collar … when he started growling. The next thing I know he’s pulled out of my hand and is going through the screen door,” Lee said.

“Hercules jumped off the back porch, over the stairwell, and I see this guy running toward the fence …(Hercules) ran up and grabbed the guy by his ankle as he was going over the fence.”

Lee said the suspected burglar was able to get away, but probably only because Hercules is still recovering from what a vet says was likely a coyote attack.

Hercules was found last month, bleeding and dehydrated, by a doctor and an attorney who were hiking.

They took him to a veterinarian, who speculated he had been attacked by coyotes. One of the hikers took him home, and after a few days, Hercules felt good enough to jump the 6-foot-high fence.

He was found wandering the streets and taken to the shelter.

Lee said he adopted the dog mainly to save him from being euthanized, and had planned to find him a new home. “But now we don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said. “I think he’s more or less earned his right to stay.”

The Littlers reported the attempted burglary and police responded and searched, but the suspect wasn’t located. Police patrols have been stepped up in the area.

Then again, after his confrontation with Hercules, maybe the burglar has moved on to a new town.

Nick Cannon thought it would be a hoot to make his radio co-host think he had sent her dog aloft by tying the tiny pooch to a bunch of helium balloons.

So, using a stuffed animal as a substitute, he pretended to launch Sarah Lee Owensby’s dog, Charlie Roo, into the air

In a video posted on the 92.3NOW website, Cannon explains, “I won a bet with Sarah Lee, and I’m about to play the meanest joke on her ever. This whole time I’ve been acting like I don’t like dogs, but I really love dogs. I’m a dog person… But I’m pretending that I want to float Charlie Roo with balloons!”

“I’m not really gonna float a dog,” he stressed. “I’m gonna float a stuffed animal that looks just like Charlie Roo.”

Despite all the disclaimers, Cannon received scoldings and threats via Twitter, Facebook and on his voice mail — some from people who didn’t understand it was pretend, some from people who did and didn’t like it, anyway.

Among those finding little humor in the prank was PETA President Ingrid Newkirk: “If bad taste were a crime, we’d be going to jail with Nick, but joking about killing a dog, a kid, an old person — anyone — isn’t cool when there’s always the danger that some numbskull will do it for real.”

“I think I might be getting fired,” Cannon tweeted in reaction to the uproar. ” … boss just told me PETA is on the phone … Radio bit gone seriously wrong … People are acting like I’m Mike Vick. I apologize. Now get over it …”

A state senator, 200 citizens and lots of dogs came together in Malvern on Sunday for a rally to bring an end to the use of gas chambers to euthanize animals in Pennsylvania.

Senator Andy Dinniman hosted the rally at Thorncroft Equestrian Center in support Daniel’s Law, a bill he sponsored.

“The dogs know gassing is wrong, and they’re barking it out! Now it’s time for us to give words to those barks,” Dinniman said.

Senate Bill 1329, would outlaw carbon monoxide gassing of animals in Pennsylvania and require licensing for “euthanasia technicians,” according to Patch.com. Dinniman’s bill would mandate the use of an injection of sodium pentobarbital or a derivative.

The bill is named after a five-year-old beagle who survived gassing at an Alabama animal shelter on Oct. 3.

Daniel has gone on to become the unofficial mascot for the movement across the nation aimed at ending the use of gas chambers.

Daniel was present at the rally on Sunday, along with Linda Schiller, one of Daniel’s rescuers and the president of Eleventh Hour Rescue, the New Jersey-based organization that’s now caring for him.

Dinniman encouraged community members to write, email and call their representatives to support the bill.

(Photo by Amanda Mahnke / Patch.com)

The American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation announced it is committing more than $1.5 million in 2012 on research grants to help dogs live longer, healthier lives.

Twenty-one grants to 14 research institutions and universities have been approved, according to a foundation press release.

This year’s grants cover research of diseases affecting all dogs and specific breeds, including Australian shepherds, bassett hounds, greyhounds, Havanese, Irish wolfhounds, Scottish terriers, Shetland sheepdogs and West Highland white terriers.

Among the specific diseases pinpointed by the research are cataracts, carcinoma, dermatitis, epilepsy, liver disease, lymphoma, melanoma and osteosarcoma.

“The selection of these grants represents great potential in advancing the health of all dogs and their owners,” said CHF Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel Terry Warren. “The Foundation is dedicated to funding sound scientific research and disseminating health information that can prevent, treat and cure canine disease.”

Warren added, ”There are a number of research projects this year that have the potential to be translational from dogs to humans. As a result, we are not only helping our beloved companions, but we are helping ourselves.”

In addition to the annual grants, the Canine Health Foundation also funds short-term research throughout the year.

CHF has invested more than $26 million in canine health research since its inception in 1995. Funding for the grants comes from the American Kennel Club, Nestle Purina PetCare and Pfizer Animal Health and many breed and specialty dog clubs.

For more details on the 2012 research grants, go here.