ohmidog!

A movie animator charged with bludgeoning his neighbor’s German shepherd to death with a hammer changed his not guilty plea in the middle of his trial last week.

After jurors were shown home security video showing him shooting and beating the muzzled German shepherd, Young Song, 42, switched his plea to no contest, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Young was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation. He was also banned from owning any animals for 10 years.

The change of pleas was made over the objection of prosecutors, who were seeking the maximum four-year sentence.

In the video, the 14-month-old shepherd being is shot and beaten by Song, who then is believed to have hidden the dog’s body, prosecutors said. The body of the dog, who belonged to Song’s next door neighbor, was never found.

Prosecutors say Song climbed a fence and entered his neighbor’s yard, shot the dog with a pellet gun, then returned a few minutes later and started hitting dog with a hammer.

Song is an animator who has worked for DreamWorks. His credits include ”Kung Fu Panda,” “Shark Tale,” “Bee Movie” and “Madagascar 2.”

Officials said Song’s reasons for attacking the dog weren’t entirely clear, but they suspected the dog could have been getting on his property through a hole in the fence.

A sheriff’s deputy in Ohio County, Kentucky, was fired yesterday after allegedly beating an injured dog with a garden hoe — apparently in an attempt to put her out of her misery.

The dog, thought dead, was then buried, only to resurface a few days later — alive.

Ohio County Sheriff David Thompson informed Deputy Randy Taylor of his termination shortly before a news conference Tuesday morning, according to this report from WEHT

Thompson — despite reports that quote Taylor as saying he beat the dog because it “wasn’t worth the bullet” — said he didn’t think Taylor’s intention were cruel.

“Obviously Mr. Taylor is very disappointed,” said Thompson. “He’s very sorry about the situation. His intent, which I believe, probably was never to punish the animal or be cruel to the animal as such.”

Deputy Taylor had been suspended with pay over the June 28th incident, in which sources say a state transportation worker noticed an injured dog, apparently struck by a car, and called for a deputy.

When Taylor arrived, he allegedly began beating the dog with a garden hoe. The dog was then reportedly taken back to the garage and buried under a mound of dirt.

Several days later, the dog was discovered to still be alive. A transportation worker has also been fired in connection with the incident.

Sheriff Thompson said that Muhlenberg County Attorney Darris Russell is being brought in as a special prosecutor to review the case due to a conflict of interest in Ohio County.

While most news reports don’t mention whether the dog is still alive, a Facebook post indicates she is, and that she has been named Chance.

“I was fortunate to see ‘Chance’ today and I was truly shocked. Although they said she looked a hundred percent better, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I bent down to be close to her and she took a minute to find me. I believe her sight is gone in one eye and it looks like she might have trouble getting in focus. As soon as I got close, she gave me a kiss.

“Her little body is beaten, but her spirit not broken. She is very underweight and has multiple large dents on the top of her head where she was hit. They got her up for me to see and she cried very badly for a few seconds. She is really sore after all this (as to be expected).

“As I was there, the vet showed me something that I could not believe. She has a bullet lodged in her hip where she has been shot in the past. This is not made up and if I hadn’t seen it, well, let’s just say she gets more beautiful by the moment. As soon as she is out of danger of being exploited, I will post a picture for all to see. I for one, appreciate the overwhelming care that you all have shown for this helpless, wonderful dog.”

The ASPCA has made its first felony arrest of the year — a 265-pound Queens man accused of punching his 8-pound Chihuahua, the New York Post reported.

ASPCA officials say Jerry Melendez, 33, struck his dog, Spotty, hard enough to fracture his skull and cause a hemmorhage to his left eye.

Melendez took the dog to a veterinary clinic, but, being unemployed, was unable to pay for the medical care vets said would be necessary to save him. So Spotty, 5, was euthanized.

Veterinarians notified the ASPCA about the case, and a necropsy determined Spotty died of blunt-force impact.

“It appears he was just frustrated and became angry at his family dog,” ASPCA Assistant Director Joe Pentangelo said of Melendez, who recently lost his job at a pharmacy.

Melendez’ wife, Lillian Vargas, said her husband only yelled at the dog after discovering the couch had been soiled. The dog, she said, jumped off the couch and ran into the leg of the dining-room table. Authorities didn’t buy that account.

Melendez was charged with animal cruelty and faces a maximum two-year sentence and a fine.

Baltimore police are searching for three boys — believed to be ages 10 to 12 — who were seen beating a young pit bull to death at Carroll Park golf course Saturday.

And if that’s not a disturbing enough new chapter in Baltimore’s continuing saga of animal abuse, consider this: According to a Baltimore Sun report, Animal Control officers didn’t arrive at the golf course until more than five hours after the incident was reported to police.

A golf course maintenance worker, Rob Whiderman, saw the youths beating the puppy with a tree branch at the municipal golf course in Southwest Baltimore.

Screaming at them to stop, he drove his golf court to where they were, chased them to the railroad tracks and lost them.

He said he called police, who notified animal control, but they didn’t arrive until about 5:30 p.m., five hours after he called.

“It looked like every bone was broken in its body,” Whiderman told WJZ. ”It looks like it broke its back, legs.  We tried to pick it up and nothing was attached.  It was like he didn’t have bones.  Like jelly.”

Whiderman said the youths were between 10 and 12 years old.  Police later found a red-and-white-striped polo shirt, a tree branch and a cell phone that might have been dropped by one of the youths.

But between the two agencies, the police department and animal control, there seemed to be little urgency in responding to the call of an animal being tortured, and even less once the dog had died.

Whiderman said he returned to the golf course Sunday morning and found the dead dog still lying in the woods. He called police again, who responded and wrote a report.

The police report confirms that animal control did not remove the dead puppy when they arrived Saturday afternoon, the Sun reported.

The boyfriend of Broadway actress Ashley Yeater has been charged with whipping and kicking her Yorkshire terrier after the 6-pound dog bit him.

Joseph Graves, 30, admitted to investigators he beat the dog, named Emmit, in January, the New York Daily News reports.

“I flew into a rage. Emmit bit me, so I hit him with a belt buckle and kicked him,” prosecutors quote Graves as saying.

Graves took Emmit to a veterinary hospital two days later, after the 4-year-old terrier was vomiting and had stopped eating. Hospital staff, after determining the dog suffered six broken ribs and bruised kidneys, contacted the ASPCA. The dog also lost his left eye as a result of the Jan. 16 attack in Graves’ midtown apartment.

“The pet was nearly killed because a person couldn’t control his temper,” ASCPA spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said. “It’s inexcusable.”

Graves was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony, and criminal mischief.

Emmit was treated at the West Chelsea Veterinary Hospital and is staying with relatives of Yeater, who was appearing in a Florida performance of a “A Chorus Line” when the dog was beaten.

Glynn Johnson, a retired Los Angeles County assistant fire chief, was found guilty of animal cruelty Tuesday in connection with the death of Karley, a neighbor’s puppy that he punched and beat with a rock.

“Karley, this one’s for you!” a tearful Shelley Toole shouted outside Riverside County Superior Court after the verdict was read. “This is for you, girl!”

Johnson, 55, faces up to four years in prison for killing the 6-month-old, 42-pound German shepherd mix.

Johnson told investigators that the dog attacked first and he was defending himself. The former firefighter said the dog grabbed him and nearly ripped off the top of his thumb, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Prosecutors, while noting there was a long-running feud between Johnson and the Tooles, said they didn’t believe Johnson acted in self defense.

“I don’t think this was a self-defense case at all,” Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. William Robinson said. “It was done out of rage and anger at the Toole family and his actions were wildly inappropriate.”

Johnson remains free on bail. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 8.

Testimony is underway in the trial of a former Los Angeles County assistant fire chief accused of beating a neighbor’s dog in Riverside so badly it had to be euthanized.

Glynn Johnson, 55, is charged with felony animal cruelty and use of a deadly weapon in the beating death of Karley, a six-month-old female shepherd mix.

Prosecutors say the dog’s brutal beating was the culmination of a long-standing feud between neighbors, KTLA in Los Angeles reported.

During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors said Johnson put dog feces in his neighbors’ mailbox with a letter warning them to keep their dogs off his property. The defense argued that the dog’s owners, Jeff and Shelley Toole, are the “neighbors from hell” who routinely take in stray animals and then don’t take care of them. Johnson’s attorneys say the fire chief was defending himself from the puppy.

Neighbor Travis Staggs took the stand Tuesday, testifying that he watched as Johnson punched the dog 10 to 15 times in the head with his fist before using a large rock to bash Karley’s head another 10 to 15 times.

Staggs says he kept shouting for the fire chief to stop, and tried to pull him off the dog, but that Johnson pushed him away.

A man who beat his girlfriend’s dog to death last year was sentenced in California to six months in county jail Tuesday.

Ryan Reeser, 27, of Burlingame, repeatedly punched Godiva, a 7-pound miniature pinscher, dislodged an eye from its socket and then let the dog bleed to death, prosecutors said.

He pleaded no contest to one count of felony animal cruelty in San Mateo County Superior Court after striking a plea bargain with prosecutors, according to the Oakland Tribune.

Reeser’s girlfriend’s father found Godiva dead in a plastic storage container a few blocks from Reeser’s apartment. 

Reeser had been mad at his girlfriend and annoyed with the dog, which nipped him, spurring the fatal attack, prosecutors said.

Reeser faced a maximum of three years in jail. Under the plea agreement, he will be on probation for three years after serving his six-month sentence.

In addition to all their other highly-exposed character flaws, Jon and Kate may not be the world’s greatest dog parents, either.

Jon Gosselin, the embattled father of TLC’s reality show “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” is now responding to allegations that he and his family have been mistreating their German shepherd puppies, Shoka and Nala, ABC News reports.

The allegations stem not so much from anything actually witnessed, but from a June 4 interview published on People.com in which Gosselin said that his kids often “beat” their dogs.

“Those kids beat them up, climb on them, pull their tails, bite at them, drag them around and everything you can imagine not to do to an animal, they’ve done,” said Gosselin, who described the dogs as “loyal creatures.”

Karel Minor, the executive director of the Humane Society of Berks County, Pa., told ABCNews.com that about a dozen community  members have complained about how the Gosselins treat their dogs — all apparently based on the interview remarks.

Minor confirmed that the two dogs have licenses in the area where the Gosselins live and that they are up-to-date on their vaccinations. “We have no credible reason to believe in any way that there is cruelty going on,” Minor said.

Gosselin, in a statement released to ABCNews.com, sought to “set the record straight” regarding the mishandling of his family pets, stating that his previous remarks about his kids were taken out of context.

“We understand the responsibilities of being good dog owners,” Gosselin said. “Whenever my kids are with Shoka and Nala, everyone is carefully supervised to ensure that no one — dog or child — is injured.”

“Shoka and Nala are loyal companions who we consider members of our family,” he said. “We would never do anything to hurt them, and treat them with the respect and love that they deserve.”

A former Los Angeles County assistant fire chief accused of beating a dog with a rock has sued the animal’s owners, his attorney said Thursday.

Glynn Johnson, 54, says the dog bit him, scarring and damaging his thumb, as he tried to return it to its house, according to an Associated Press report.

Johnson pleaded not guilty to the animal cruelty charge, a felony, filed by prosecutors after his Nov. 3 clash with Karley, a 6-month-old German shepherd mix that was euthanized due to its injuries.

His lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Riverside County Superior Court, claims negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress and seeks unspecified damages from the owners.

According to Johnson’s attorney, John E. Sweeney, the dog had gotten loose and was on Johnson’s property when the fire official took it by the collar and started walking it back to the home of its owners, Jeff and Shelley Toole.

“When the dog saw he was being led back to his own house, he started thrashing about,” Sweeney said. “He got Glynn Johnson’s thumb in his mouth and nearly tore the tip off.”

Sweeney said Johnson picked up a rock and hit the dog.

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