ohmidog!

About

Who we are:

    Ohmidog.com is the web domain of John Woestendiek, a former newspaper reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner who, after blogging about dogs and animals for the Baltimore Sun, decided to unleash himself from the newspaper and go out on his own.

    The result was ohmidog! – a website that covers dog-related news and happenings in Baltimore and around the world.  In the narrowest sense, this website is about the mutt — the kind of dog that has no pedigree and will win no beauty contest; the kind of dog that, more often than its purebred counterparts, ends up abandoned, neglected or in shelters; the dog that, while it doesn’t fit under neat “breed” labels, is clearly one of a kind.

     In the broadest sense, ohmidog! is about animals, humans included, and the precept that they, as living things, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity — from the homeless man on the street corner to the purebred poodle getting a pedicure, from the goldfish in the aquarium to the horseshoe crab on the shore. We are here not just for the underdog, but the undercat, underferret, and undergerbil as well.

    We’re not real big on dog beauty contests and kennel club etiquette. We believe all dogs are equal, and no breed, or mix thereof, should be singled out for special laws and rules. If our articles read as if they have an animal welfare slant, that’s because they do, and we feel no need to apologize for that.

    Our intent is to provide interesting and important information to dog owners, dog lovers and animal welfare activists everywhere. We see ourselves as an alternative to the mainstream news media, which, in our opinion, has never taken dogs, and the dog-human relationship, seriously enough. We strive to be a dog website that presents more than a steady diet of feel-good, fluffy, cutesy pet and animal stories. When horrid things happen to dogs, we will write about it because those stories, too, need to be told.

   In addition to producing ohmidog!, Woestendiek is the author of  “Dog, Inc.: The Uncanny Inside Story of Cloning Man’s Best Friend,” published this year.  The book recounts the efforts, on two continents, to clone the world’s first dog, the animal welfare concerns the practice raises, the attempts to market pet cloning — in some cases before the science was even achieved — and the people involved, from those seeking to turn dog cloning into a profit-making business to those who would become the first customers.

   For Woestendiek, “Dog, Inc.” is the latest in a long line of dog stories — dog stories, he believes, actually being people stories, kind of in disguise.

    Woestendiek told the story of Ace — a shelter dog of undetermined origins that he adopted from Baltimore’s city animal shelter — in the Baltimore Sun in 2007  in a seven-part series and documentary. That series, which explored Ace’s heritage, can be found here.

  A the ages of 57 and 6, respectively, John and Ace moved out of their home in Baltimore and hit the road for a year-long trip criss-crossing the country, part of which included a retracing of the route John Steinbeck took with his dog Charley 50 years ago. Those adventures are reported in the website Travels With Ace, and also appear on ohmidog!

    Woestendiek also takes most of the photos that appear on ohmidog! In the spring of 2010, he assembled an exhibit of his photography — all pictures of south Baltimore dogs – that raised $1,000 for Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS).

    Woestendiek spent 35 years in the newspaper business — in Tucson, Arizona; Lexington, Kentucky; Charlotte, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Baltimore.

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 Supporting ohmidog!

   While ohmidog! is free, and always will be, readers of our website are welcome to  help us remain afloat so that we may continue to bring you news of dogs — important,  inspiring and, yes, sometimes enraging — from around the world.

    We accept donations, grants, handouts, kibble and any other form of no-strings-attached renumeration.

    We also welcome advertisers, with the understanding that we reserve the right to reject any companies or products that we feel are not in the best interest of dogs.

    Advertisers may pay their bills, and supporters may show their support by clicking the button below:

    To be crystal clear, ohmidog! is not a rescue organization, or an animal welfare organization, or a non-profit (at least not legally) organization, or even an organization at all. We don’t pull dogs from shelters (other than our own). We don’t spay or neuter or lobby or protest. We merely report the news as it relates to dogs and (mostly) limit our advocacy to the written word and visual image.

    You can email us at muttsblog@verizon.net.

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   ohmidog! staff:

Editor: John Woestendiek

Web designer – Gil Jawetz. Gil is a web designer, dog lover and artist who lives in Baltimore.

Promotional designer – Carrie Ziek. Carrie is a graphic design and creative services professional who lives in Austin.

Webhost: Anne Madison. Anne is our webhost, an ohmidog! contributor, a stringer of beads, and the person we turn to when the Internet seems intent on driving us crazy. She lives in Baltimore with her beagle, Spencer. More information on her rosaries and prayer beads can be found at her website, atelier-beads.com.

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