ohmidog!

Something to make your Monday a little less, well … Monday.

Just moments after letting her German shepherd, Otto, out in the backyard, Suzan Merritt heard him wailing.

Merritt, 38, who lives in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, ran out the back door of her home to find her 90-pound dog being attacked by a black bear.

“My legs kept going, but my head didn’t realize there was a very large black bear in my backyard with a cub,” she told the Allentown Morning Call. “I went to grab my dog, and the bear knocked me down. The bear sliced my head.

“I just got back up and screamed, and the bear backed off and climbed over the fence, so I was able to get the dog back in the house.”

About then, she said, her husband came downstairs with a shotgun, but the bears were gone.

Merritt was treated with stitches and staples at Pocono Medical Center for cuts in her scalp, neck and wrist and for a partially severed little finger.

Otto had surgery Friday to repair skin ripped from his right leg.

“Both of us are going to need two weeks to heal,” Merritt said.

When a Lab mix ate $1,000 of his owners’ money — intended for a car payment — the Florida couple was able to make him cough up $900 worth.

Christy Lawrenson says she left ten $100 dollar bills stuffed in an envelope at her home in St. Augustine one day a couple of weeks ago.

When her husband Joe came home during a lunch break to get the money and pay the bill, the envelope was gone, according to the St. Augustine Record.

“I saw one $100 dollar bill almost ripped in half on the floor,” Joe Lawrenson said. “I found like three or four pieces around the house. I thought somebody broke in originally.”

But there was only one explanation: Tuity, a four-year-old mutt they’ve had since she was a puppy.

“She ate the bills, the envelope … everything,” Christy Lawrenson said.

Joe Lawrenson fed Tuity a hydrogen peroxide mixture to induce vomiting, waited, then the family began putting the pieces together. Only one of the $100 bills remained intact, and the Lawrensons, with tape, were able to reassemble another $800 worth.

The bank refused to accept what remained of the last one, because it was missing serial numbers.

Instead, the Lawrensons sent it to the U.S. Treasury along with details about what happened in hopes of getting a new one.

Appalled at the images of abused and helpless puppies in Australia, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu vowed last month to crack down on puppy mills.

Baillieu outlined his tough new proposals at the Lost Dogs’ Home in North Melbourne last month, calling them “some of the strongest laws ever introduced to protect animals from abuse and neglect.”

They were submitted to the Victorian parliament the next week, and passed last week, according to a press release sent to ohmidog! from his office.

(If only American government entities could move so fast.)

“We are not going to tolerate cruelty to animals,” Baillieu said in October, according to an AAP report in the Sydney Morning Herald. “As a dog owner, I am appalled by images I have seen of abused and helpless animals.”

The new legislation creates far heavier fines for illegally operating puppy farms — up to $20,000, $30,000 in some cases — and it allows the government to seize the assets of puppy mill operators. Money raised from the sale of confiscated assets would go towards an Animal Welfare Fund.

The law establishes a $1.6 million Animal Welfare Fund that will be used to care for animals, assist animal shelters and educate the community on responsible pet ownership.

Under the new legislation, 10-year bans on pet ownership can be imposed on anyone found guilty of animal cruelty.

The new law — proposed in response to grisly  scenes discovered in some Victorian puppy farms where dogs were kept in cages and carcasses left to rot — also make it mandatory for dogs and cats sold in the state to be fitted with a microchip.

“The community has rallied for these changes to the law which will protect animals from abuse and neglect, while ensuring operators of illegal puppy farms are held accountable for the treatment and welfare of animals in their care.”

(Photo: Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu with puppies from the Lost Dogs’ Home. Courtesy of Baillieu’s office.)

In these two ads — the one above for Hyundai, the one below for a breath-freshening dog treat — artists took some liberties to make their points.

In the case above, the point being that the Hyundai Coupe can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 8.4 seconds — during which time you might want to keep your head inside the window.

In the case below, the point being that a dog’s front end can often smell as bad as his back end.

The Hyundai ad was created by Shalmor Avnon Amichay, an advertising firm in Tel Aviv; the one below, for 8 in 1 Dental Biscuits, by Publicis in  Frankfurt, Germany.

(To see all our archived “Woof in Advertising” selections, click here.)

Apparently, Joseph Panzarella, a founding member of the motorcycle-riding bunch of tough guys known as Rescue Ink, was only trying to protect his turf.

And that, he explained, is why he made sure to let people know that a fundraiser by the nonprofit rescue group Four Paws Sake — scheduled to be held in his neighborhood, Howard Beach — had neither his group’s support or blessing.

The Four Paws Sake event was to include a charity motorcycle ride, which Panzarella seemingly sees as solely Rescue Ink’s domain.

“We’re the guys on motorcycles rescuing animals around here,” he’s quoted as saying in the New York Daily News

As a result of Panzarella’s meddling, the event’s primary sponsor pulled out and the fundraiser was almost canceled.

“An eye-opening look into the dog-eat-dog world of animal rescue” is how the Daily News characterized the chain of events.

Phyllis Taiano, a Middle Village, N.Y.-based rescuer, planned the Four Paws Sake event to raise money to provide medical help, training and boarding to dogs in need of homes.

She lined up Crossbay Honda as a sponsor, and finagled donations of food from several local restaurants. Taiano, a member of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, also talked her childhood friend, Frank Buglione from the TV show “Jerseylicious,” into making an appearance with other cast members.

Dozens of riders registered to take part in the event’s charity motorcycle ride from Yonkers

All was going smoothly until, a few days before it was to take place, Taiano got a phone call, the Daily News reported:

“Turns out someone had walked into Crossbay Honda and other shops in Howard Beach raising questions about Taiano’s fund-raiser. That someone was Joseph Panzarella, a local resident and one of the founding members of “Rescue Ink,” a group of motorcycle-riding animal rescuers profiled in a National Geographic television series. Panzarella also gained some notoriety after being shot in a mob-related conflict in 1995.

“He contacted several businesses to discuss the Taiano’s fund-raiser and to remind them he was not affiliated with it.

“Suddenly, support for her event evaporated. Crossbay Honda was no longer able to host the fund-raiser and every eatery except Ragtime pulled their promised donations.”

“I got a tremendous amount of phone calls from people who thought this was our event,” Panzarella, aka Joseph Panz, explained. “I never told anyone not to participate … All I said is ‘I don’t know who’s running this but we’re the guys on motorcycles rescuing animals around here,’” he said.

Bound to have been feeling a bit bullied by then, Taiano turned to City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley for help. Crowley contacted the owners of Atlas Park in Glendale who agreed to host the fund-raiser.

A scaled-down fundraiser took place on Oct. 16. Taiano ended up losing more money than she made.

(Photos: Joseph Panzarella, from ABC News; Phyllis Taiano from the New York Daily News, by Bryan Pace)

How do you abandon a pet and come out looking OK?

If you’re Justin Bieber, you auction it off for charity — thereby avoiding the venom of animal lovers and Internet commenters who might raise questions like:

Aren’t you the same guy who talked, all sweet and sensitive like, about the importance of adopting, loving and never leaving your pets in that PETA public service announcement a little while back?

Where did you get your snake? A pet store? An exotic animal dealer? And did you feed live mice to your boa constrictor, and what might PETA think of that?

Bieber’s baby boa constrictor, which he procured a few months ago and named Johnson, is being auctioned off by charitybuzz. Proceeds will go to Pencils of Promise, an organization that builds schools in developing nations.

Fine a cause as that may be, this strikes us as some slithery behavior on the part of the self-professed animal lover.

Bieber introduced his new snake to the world at the MTV Video Music Awards back in August. Now, months later, he’s parting with it. The sale is expected to bring in more than $1,000.

The charitybuzz page where the snake is featured is loaded with disclaimers.

The winning bidder, for instance, will be screened carefully before receiving the snake, it notes. (Too bad the first owner wasn’t.)

The website further acknowledges, ”Keeping a pet snake is a long term responsibility. Before making any decision about keeping one please ensure you have the money, space, knowledge, time, resources and enthusiasm required to properly care for the species you intend to keep, for the duration of it’s life.” (Again, unlike the first owner.)

“The welfare of this snake is the sole responsibility of the adopter. The adopter agrees to give the snake good care which includes quality premium food, fresh water, sanitation and grooming, clean and secure indoor housing, clean and secure outdoor housing and overall safety. Winner must sign a Personal Injury and Limited Liability release, and must guarantee necessary vet care will be provided.”

In the two PSA’s he made for PETA, Bieber goes on and on about his love for animals, and our obligations to them.

Last month, he was the news — or at least in what passes for news when it comes to celebrities – for adopting a dog in Canada with his girlfriend Selena Gomez. He later said he had no role in that: “I didn’t adopt a dog, no. A friend of mine did. I don’t take credit for the dog. I don’t have anything to do with that dog.”

There’s a snake in this story, alright. I’m just not sure who it is.

(Photo from CharityBuzz)

Hershey, a 15-year-old German shepherd mix, is back home after spending 17 days in and around a neighboring nature preserve — at least some of that time with an arrow sticking out of his chest.

Shot either by a hunter or sick thrill seeker, Hershey was found this week with an arrow protruding from both sides of his chest. He has since had it removed and is recovering.

The dog ran out of his house Oct. 20 to chase a squirrel and disappeared into the Princess Ledges Nature Preserve, a 46-acre site in Brunswick Hills, Ohio.

The family had searched for the dog for 17 days. On Sunday though, Hershey wandered into a back yard in Valley City, 15 miles away. The homeowner cut off the ends of the arrow that protruded from both sides of the dog’s body to make him more comfortable, and called the Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Akron Beacon-Journal reports.

SPCA officials took Hershey to the Akron Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in Copley Township, where the rest of the arrow was removed.

When an animal control officer in Brunswick heard about the dog, he determined it was Hershey, whose family had called him repeatedly during their search. He relayed that information to the SPCA, which contacted Hershey’s owners, Deanne Pennell and her daughter, Mindy Daugherty.

SPCA Director Stephanie Moore said the arrow was probably lodged in the dog’s body at least two days.

The Pennells picked up Hershey on Tuesday afternoon and took him home.

Donations are helping to cover the cost of Hershey’s medical care, including $1,000 from an Olmsted Falls family. Donations can be made through the Medina County SPCA.

(Photo by Karen Schiely / Akron Beacon Journal)

When Denver Mayor Michael Hancock insisted that “Occupy Denver” choose a leader to deal with city and state officials, members of the movement picked a 3-year-old border collie.

“Shelby is closer to a person than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion,” Occupy Denver quotes a Shelby supporter saying at the time of her election.

A press release from the group stated they reserved the right to elect a different leader in the future …

” … but for now, Shelby exhibits heart, warmth, and an appreciation for the group over personal ambition that Occupy Denver members feel are sorely lacking in the leaders some of them have voted for on national, state, and local levels.”

Shelby is expected to lead this Saturday’s Occupy Denver march, according to ABC 7. Occupy Denver said other “civic-minded dogs” (and their leash-holders) are invited to join the march.

The Occupy Denver group is occupying Civic Center Park, in front of the Capitol building on Broadway between Colfax and 14th avenues.

A Pennsylvania man accused of slipping drugs to a competing Siberian Husky in hopes of helping his girlfriend’s dog win a dog show was found not guilty of all charges Wednesday.

Prosecutors had said 68-year-old Ralph Ullum gave Protonix and a second human drug, possibly Benadryl, to Pixie, a prize-winning husky, during an American Kennel Club-sanctioned dog show in Wheaton, a suburb of Chicago, in December.

Ullum faced misdemeanor charges in DuPage County that included animal cruelty and attempted criminal damage to property.

DuPage County Judge Ronald Sutter found Ullum innocent of the charges Wednesday, saying prosecutors hadn’t proved their case against him, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Pixie wasn’t harmed by the drugs.

Jessica Plourde, Pixie’s owner, testified Monday she found pill fragments in and around Pixie’s cage during the show, and that an undigested pill was discovered after a veterinarian induced the white-and-brown female show dog to vomit.

Two witnesses testified they saw Ullum walk up to Pixie’s cage while Plourde was absent and slip something inside.

Defense attorney Ed Maloney contended the allegations against his client were unfounded, and a result of a long-running rivalry between dog trainers.

Neither Pixie nor the dog trained by Ullum’s girlfriend won the best in show award.