ohmidog!

Reports out of the Philippines indicate most of the remaining dogs seized from a Korean-run dogfighting operation are getting a second chance.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that at least two agencies are trying to rehabilitate some of the 223 pit bulls rescued in police raids on March 30.

Members of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), who were first on the scene after the raid, put down 33 dogs they said were sick, badly injured, and dangerously aggressive.

Since then, the newspaper reports, Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA) and the Island Rescue Organization (IRO) have taken over the care of the Laguna pit bulls and have decided to try to save as many of the dogs as possible.

The raid and arrests in San Pablo City and Calauan, Laguna, angered many Philippine animal advocates — especially upon learning some of the suspects were on bail after being arrested on charges of running an online dog fighting operation in December.

“Aside from not wanting to see dogs fight,” Parsons says, “I think what enraged a lot more Filipinos was that this was done by people who had already been arrested, and are still operating with impunity here.”

Island Rescue Organization, already rehabilitating the 61 surviving pit bulls seized in the earlier raid, has taken over the care of the Laguna pit bulls.

“We will try and do what we can in the best way we can,” Nancy Cu-unjieng of Compassion and Responsibility for Animals told the Inquirer, ““and we’ve decided that we must give the dogs a chance to survive.”

Others are are stepping foward to assist.

Henry Monzones, who belongs to the group, Laguna Search and Rescue, has been visiting the site daily to help with head counts and to help design new shelters for the dogs.

In the meantime, the animals are still confined in the steel drums they were found in, but donated tarpaulins and nets are being pitched to shield them from the sun. Some of the dogs had died from heatstroke.

The large tarps were donated by Jay Lim, a businessman and dog trainer with the Philippine Mondioring Association, and his friend, Frenchman Julien Bourraux.

“What I love about pit bulls is, no matter what they’ve been through, if you show them love and respect, they’re willing to forgive anything … There’s definitely hope for these guys — we just have to convince people they’re not killers.”

Accused dog killer Andrew David Thompson — charged with choking, throwing, beating, kicking and killing 13 Italian greyhounds — was released from the Ingham County Jail yesterday after his bail was lowered to $50,000.

He was released after $5,000 was posted on his behalf.

As a condition of his release, Thompson will wear a monitor that will track his location and will have to adhere to a curfew, staying home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

He plans to live with friends in an apartment in Okemos, the State News reported.

Thompson, who was suspended from Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine after he was charged, had been detained for more than three months.

Thompson is from Arizona, where his family resides.

After Thompson’s bail was reduced last month, the director of Ingham County Animal Control expressed concerns about his release. Jamie McAloon Lampman said he could be a danger both to animals and witnesses who testified against him, as well as a flight risk.

“This guy has more than one red flag,” she said.

(For previous coverage of this case, go here.)

(Photo: State News)

A judge yesterday reduced the bail of an osteopathic medicine student charged with killing a dozen Italian greyhounds, from $1 million to $50,000.

At a hearing in Ingham County Circuit Court, Judge Paula Manderfield granted a motion by Michigan State University student Andrew David Thompson’s attorney.

That means Thompson, 24, who has been suspended from Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, can get of jail by posting $5,000 bond.

Thompson has arranged to live with a friend at an Okemos apartment, his attorney Stacia Buchanan said.

Manderfield ordered Thompson to wear a monitor that can track his exact location, not own pets and remain in his residence from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Thompson is charged in two separate cases in two jurisdictions with killing the dogs between September 2010 and June 2011. All the dogs were purchased from breeder websites. He told investigators he killed them out of anger by throwing them to the ground or against a wall, grabbing them by the neck or beating them.

The felony charges of animal killing and torture are punishable by up to four years in prison each, according to the Lansing State Journal.

Thompson, who is from Arizona, has no adult or juvenile criminal record, Buchanan said. He was seeing a psychiatrist when he was arrested and suffers from bipolar disorder, authorities have said.

For our archived coverage of this case, click here.

In today’s world people are quick to pick a side, but, as this story seems to show, it’s sometimes best to avoid that — especially when both sides are stupid, and/or heartless, and/or negligent.

Stu Grimes got drunk Sunday night and, while his dog was in his car, fell asleep inside an International House of Pancakes in Sterling, Va.

Loudoun County Sheriff’s deputies showed up to roust him, and arrested him on charges of being drunk in public and resisting arrest, according to WJLA.

Grimes said he told officers his dog, Rex, was in the car and that they ignored him.

Grimes bailed himself out Monday, but by then Rex, a four-year old Labrador-boxer mix, had died, after spending at least 15 hours inside the car.

Grimes alleges he repeatedly asked the deputies to get Rex out of his SUV, and that deputies at one point removed his keys from his pocket and hit the panic button to determine which vehicle was his. Grimes says he continued to ask about his dog after being jailed.

But the sheriff’s office said in a statement, “…our records show no indication that Mr. Grimes mentioned a vehicle or a dog to the arresting deputies or the corrections staff at the Adult Detention Center.”

Later, after ABC7′s inquiries, the sheriff’s office changed its position, saying they did know about the car but maintained Grimes didn’t say a word about Rex.

Search the Internet comments on this one and you’ll find people saying the sheriff’s office is responsible for Rex’s death, that Grimes is, and even that IHOP is.

It’s like an all you can eat special on blame.

A not guilty plea was entered Friday on behalf of Kisha Curtis, the Newark woman accused of animal cruelty charges stemming from the discovery of a dog who’d been tossed down a trash chute and left to die in a garbage bin.

The 1-year-old pit bull, whose rescuers named him Patrick, continues to recover at an area animal hospital.

Public defender Regina Lynch entered the plea in Superior Court in Newark on behalf of Curtis, 27, the Newark Star-Ledger reported. She appeared at the hearing via a video hookup from the Essex County Jail.

Curtis faces two counts of tormenting and torturing a living creature by failing to provide sustenance and two counts of abandonment, said Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Cheryl Cucinello.

After the hearing, Kisha’s mother, Tammie Curtis, said her daughter didn’t discard the dog, but only left him tethered at the high-rise Garden Spires apartments in Newark — while she went on a trip to Albany. She implied that the dog was stolen.

“Anybody would take that dog,” the mother said. “If she tied the dog, she didn’t leave the dog to die.”

A security guard at the 520-unit complex told the Star-Ledger that the dog had been seen tied to a railing with a leather leash, and had been the subject of resident complaints for more than a month.

“It would whimper, and it would yelp when you would come up to it,” Ortman said.

A custodian found Patrick on March 16, inside a trash bag at the bottom of a 22-story garbage chute.

Judge Amilkar Velez-Lopez kept Curtis’ bail at $10,000 bond or $1,000 cash and forbid her to have contact with pets. If convicted, she faces 18 months in prison, a $3,000 fine and community service.

Patrick has been recovering at Garden State Veterinary Specialists in Tinton Falls, where he has gained two pounds since being found.