ohmidog!

Does merging make a company meaner, stupider, or just more of a bully?

United, which recently joined forces with Continental Airlines, has opted to adopt the defunct airline’s backwards pet policy. The new policy is stated on this page of United’s website.

What it all means is that the “friendly skies” of United will no longer transport any of these breeds:

• Pit Bull Terriers
• American Staffordshire Terriers
• Presa Canario
• Perro de Presa Canario
• Dogo Argentino
• Cane Corso
• Fila Brasileiro
• Tosa (or Tosa Ken)
• Ca de Bou

United will not accept members of those breeds, or mixes containing those breeds, once they have reached either 6 months of age or 20 pounds.

Additionally, United reserves the right to refuse any animal that displays aggression or viciousness.

The restrictions have nothing to do with the airline’s separate policy on short-snouted breeds for whom air travel, specifically in a cargo hold, can cause breathing problems. This is separate category for “dangerous” breeds.

“These kinds of breed discriminatory policies fuel the misconceptions about dogs like pit bulls that lead to breed bans and the deaths of thousands of innocent dogs,” reads a petition at Change.org, urging United to reconsider the policy.

The petition was started by Jessie Huart after she learned of the ban while trying to book a ticket to travel with her 10-year-old pit bull, Slaw.

“These types of policies are opposed by every major dog-related organization. The American Veterinary Medical Association and the National Animal Control Association argue that physical appearance isn’t an effective way to predict or address aggression,” the petition site says:

“United Airlines adopted the discriminatory policy … when it merged with Continental Airlines, making it the world’s largest air carrier and the only US-based airline that labels some dog breeds as “dangerous.”

“But while United is still adjusting to its merger with Continental, the company is listening closely to customer feedback. If thousands of dog-loving United customers sign Jessie’s petition, the airline will have to listen …”

(Photo: Slaw, a pit bull who won’t be flying United; courtesy of Change.org)

They’re called the “Pit 6,” the scarred survivors of a group of nine pit bulls seized two years ago in an animal cruelty case that appeared to have some ties to dogfighting.

This week, as the man they were taken from heads to court for sentencing, the dogs, who might otherwise have been put down, are getting close to being put up — for adoption.

Their long road to rehabilitation is documented in an excellent story that appeared in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun — one that looks at the plight of pit bulls nationwide and the surge of compassion for them, and avoids the common news media errors of identifying them as a single, stereotypical breed.

The Pit 6 — four of whom are now staying at the Baltimore Humane Society in Reisterstown — were seized in two separate visits by county animal control officials to Larry Alston’s home in the Woodlawn area.

Alston had been living in Beaufort, N.C., when animal welfare officials there seized 17 of his dogs. He managed to get some of them back, and moved them to Baltimore. Based on a tip to Baltimore County Animal Control from officials in North Carolina, county police and animal control officers paid him a visit.

They found scarred, malnourished and whimpering dogs in metal cages, filled with urine and feces and covered with tarps. They seized seven dogs, then returned in February and seized two more.

In early November 2010, Alston was arrested and booked on charges of mutilating an animal, as well as drug and weapons charges — 22 counts in all.

In August of 2011, he entered Alford pleas to the seven animal mutilation charges, and the other charges were dropped. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgement that there is enough evidence to convict.

He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison on each count.

During the much-delayed court case, the dogs were held at the county animal control shelter in Baldwin, where, upon their arrival, they were examined and found to have been ”severely underfed.” They ”had lots of scars of undetermined nature,” and one dog’s teeth had been painted silver.

But this spring, when local animal advocates learned about the case, they began organizing to try to save the dogs from euthanasia, the fate they feared would be ordered once Alston was convicted.

Three had died by then. Two broke through a fence at animal control and killed each other. A third was euthanized on the recommendation of a behaviorist who determined that the dog would not be able to adapt to life as a pet, according to animal control. Humane Society staff thinks the dogs were used for breeding, and as bait dogs.

In late September — with Alston’s case resolved — a group of  20 animal welfare advocates, including Marty Sitnick, associate executive director of the Humane Society, went to the county shelter to remove the dogs and take them to a private kennel in Baltimore County.

As the Sun story reports …

“That left six: five females and one male, the “Pit 6,” as they have come to be known: Michelle, Tippy, Bridget, Shelley, Meme and Meris.

“On the morning of Sept. 24, a caravan of some 20 animal welfare advocates rolled into the county shelter on Manor Road. Not knowing what to expect of the dogs, Sitnick said, they came equipped with muzzles and spray shield to ‘keep everybody safe.’

“The first dog was ‘all wiggly’ with excitement, he said, and was ‘licking faces, my face. By the time we took the third one out, it was kind of like Woodstock for pit bulls … These six dogs love people.’

Since then, four of dogs have been moved to the Baltimore Humane Society and two remain at the kennel.

Michelle will likely be the first to become available for adoption — probably in another four to six weeks, according to Sitnick.

When they do become available for adoption, it will likely be with conditions. In Michele’s case, for example, she won’t be permitted to go to a home with another dog, and will require a fenced yard.

Members of the “Pit 6″ won’t be rushed into adoptive homes, Sitnick said.

“We need to be extremely conservative in our evaluation of them,” he said. “We are going to take our time … We want to be able to point to these dogs as an example.”